Analyzing customer information to identify marketplace trends. Presenting a glossary of technical terms to spotlight a company as a problem-solver. Commissioning a survey to validate a company’s competitive differentiators. Using years of forgotten usage reports to take the lead in describing different types of consumers. Tapping a company’s technology experts to outline tips for users. Repositioning a white paper as a report on technology dynamics shaping a market segment.

These are all recent examples of a strategy that has emerged as a staple of PR programs in 2010 – data-driven PR. No longer are we dependent on the often too-scare new product announcement, referenceable customer or relevant editorial opportunity to provide a springboard for media outreach or placements. But data-driven PR is more than just another channel to deliver a company’s story – it’s a channel PR people can control and one into which we can have more creative input. And data-driven PR is proving to be a important element in thought-leadership initiatives, particularly when the data is repurposed beyond a media pitch — as an article abstract, a speaking submission, a blog post, a news release and/or an issues-expert alert (repurposing is another important PR trend…but that’s a subject for another post).

Data-driven PR is nothing new – it was one of the first strategies Topaz used with its early clients who had little “real news” to offer – but it is an approach to PR that has taken on a new life in 2010. And one we expect to drive in even more directions in the year ahead.

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