Signal AI reveals 2022’s leaders in corporate reputation

Signal AI announces the latest results from The Signal AI 500, a global reputation ranking of some of the world’s largest organizations.

• Google retains the number one spot as the company with the strongest corporate reputation, with perfect scores on Culture and Technology.
• Tech firms saw more scrutiny for their Governance practices, while Finance came under fire for its record on sustainable investing.
• Businesses increased their focus on Purpose, with an emphasis on Sustainability and Corporate Culture.

oday, Signal AI shares 2022 results of The Signal AI 500, a global reputation ranking of the world’s 500 most talked-about organizations – revealing which companies are renowned, which are under fire, and which elicit a shoulder shrug.

Spanning 2022, the global corporate reputation ranking makes sense of millions of data points to assess how organisations perform across the three key pillars of reputation: Innovation, Performance and Purpose. Key insights from the updated ranking include:

• Amid mass layoffs and market volatility, businesses leaned into messaging around talent, philanthropy, climate and other Purpose topics: Coverage growth in the Purpose pillar outpaced Innovation and Performance, driven by a focus on Culture, CSR and Sustainability.
• But brass tacks still spoke loudest: Performance topics such as Stewardship and Financials still held onto the lion’s share of the conversation, accounting for over 40% of all coverage, with coverage volume growing by 12% QoQ.
• Tech dominated coverage, but at its own peril: Media coverage is obsessed with tech companies, but while the tech industry enjoyed the largest volume of coverage, it also ranked highest in negative mentions per company. Tech firms came under scrutiny for Governance but excelled in Culture despite some of the layoffs announced recently, and made up three of the top five in the rankings.
• Sustainable investing triggered a backlash: Greenwashing fines and CEO missteps generated a 150% increase in negative CSR chatter for finance companies – above the 18% index average. Purpose remains one of the more difficult areas to navigate for corporations as they battle to stay not only visible, but more importantly credible.

Google tops the ranking, again

Google has retained its place as the company with the strongest corporate reputation according to the latest results from the ranking, which provides an unprecedented view into the corporate reputation landscape.

For the Alphabet-owned tech giant, there was a clear focus on Innovation within its narrative, with 45% of its coverage focused on collaborations, products & services and technology. Google also maintained its top score on Culture over the full year, while an increase in Purpose-driven narratives was seen across all companies and industries. Its recent layoffs announcements have however changed that dynamic, and has started to erode the company’s leadership on culture related topics, indicating its position could be challenged in 2023.

Shann Biglione, Co-founder and Head of Product, Signal AI x Kelp says: “These latest insights from the Signal AI 500 show the power of our AI to spot and analyze trends among billions of data points. We can see how companies have altered their messaging to adapt to an evolving landscape. We’re excited to be continuing this demonstration of our data and insights to help businesses better understand corporate reputation.”

The cutting-edge technology behind the Signal AI 500

The Signal AI 500 is powered by a reputation framework and scoring algorithm which digests two billion data points annually to dive deep into what drives positive reputation across 500 companies, spanning more than 20 industries. This methodology powers the company’s latest offering, Signal AI x Kelp, which fuses a variety of metrics to craft actionable reputation insights – quantifying the aggregate impact of all company actions and communications. Learn more about our methodology here.