Skip to content
Delve Docs

Custom Themes

Custom Themes give you more control over how you analyze the narratives showing up across your coverage.

Delve already automatically categorizes tracked articles using 650+ predefined themes. With Custom Themes, you can now define the themes that matter specifically to your communications strategy — whether that’s something broad like cybersecurity or more specific like AI agents for productivity.

Once created, Custom Themes are automatically analyzed across newly tracked coverage, giving you another way to filter your Tracker, explore performance in the Dashboard, and compare your company against competitors within a specific conversation.

Creating a Custom Theme

To create a Custom Theme:

  • Open your Project Settings

  • Scroll down to Themes

  • Click New Theme

  • Give your theme a clear title

  • Add a description defining what should — and shouldn’t — qualify

  • Save your theme

You have up to 500 characters to describe what the theme means to you.

Defining Your Theme

Custom Themes are designed around the type of content or narrative you want to identify, rather than something specific to your company.

The description is where you can get precise about what counts.

For example, a theme called Copyright & Training Data could include:

Copyright, licensing, data provenance, creator compensation, or training data disputes. Exclude privacy, deepfakes, or content moderation stories that aren't about training data rights.

Including both what should and shouldn't qualify helps keep the theme focused on the narrative you actually want to measure.

Viewing Custom Themes in the Tracker

Once your Custom Themes are set up, newly tracked coverage will automatically be evaluated against them.

In the Tracker:

  • Open Filters

  • Select Themes

  • Your Custom Themes will appear at the top

  • Delve's predefined themes will remain available below them

You can then filter your coverage to see only articles associated with a particular Custom Theme.

When you open an individual tracked item, you'll also see any Custom Themes identified alongside the other themes associated with that coverage.

Analyzing Custom Themes in the Dashboard

Custom Themes become especially powerful in the Dashboard.

Select a timeframe and apply your Custom Theme as a filter to analyze performance specifically within that conversation.

For example, you could answer:

  • What's our Share of Voice within the copyright and training data conversation?

  • How does our performance compare with competitors within this theme?

  • What's the sentiment of coverage focused specifically on this issue?

  • How has this conversation changed over time?

Instead of looking at competitive performance across all coverage, you can narrow your analysis to the narratives that matter most to your team.

Important: Custom Themes Apply Going Forward

Custom Themes begin tracking after they're added to your Project Settings.

Once created, the theme will be evaluated against newly tracked articles across all trackers in the project. Previously tracked coverage will not automatically have data for a newly created Custom Theme.

FAQs

1. What's the difference between Custom Themes and Delve's predefined themes?
Delve automatically applies hundreds of predefined themes to coverage. Custom Themes allow you to define additional narratives that are specific to what your team wants to measure.

2. What makes a good Custom Theme?
A strong Custom Theme clearly describes a type of content or narrative. Use the description to explain what should qualify and, when helpful, what should be excluded.

3. Should Custom Themes be specific to my company?
No. Custom Themes are intended to define the type of content you're looking for rather than company-specific messaging.

4. Where can I use Custom Themes?
You can use them to filter coverage in your Tracker and Dashboard, including when analyzing metrics like Share of Voice and sentiment.

5. Do Custom Themes apply to old coverage?
Not currently. Custom Themes are evaluated on coverage tracked after the theme is created.

6. Do I need to create a Custom Theme if Delve already has a similar theme?
Not necessarily. Check the predefined themes first. Custom Themes are most useful when you need a more specific definition or narrative that isn't already captured the way you want.