Measurement has always been somewhat of a needle in a haystack - the most elusive of PR chores to standardize and prove. But media analysis today is increasingly being based on management perspective and establishing uniform analysis, including the surfacing trend to compare PR and advertising on a 1-to-1 ratio.
Ad value is now just one of many components - the others include PR baseline studies, charting publicity over time, tracking surveys and long-range media plans - being used to determine the success of PR.
Measurement that's based on archiving clips and handing mounds of articles over to clients is quickly becoming antiquated. If that's the sole tack you're taking, your measurement standards are more perfunctory than they are strategic.
"There's always been that prevalent myth that PR can't be measured and it's a myth that's been perpetuated by those in PR," says Mark Weiner, VP of MediaLink, a PR research firm based in New York that has devised countless proprietary analysis and measurement mechanisms to answer corporate America's questions about PR's value.
Measurement's Metamorphosis
Part of the perplexity of managing PR has been the difficulty in directing and streamlining measurement tactics. Years ago, Procter & Gamble came up with a formula that concluded - based on a study P&G conducted - a story is worth three times what an ad is worth in a particular publication. Since then, many PR execs have been content with basing their measurement analysis on that standard.
But measurement is evolving today as something far more complex and far less capricious than it was less than a decade ago.
No longer about inches and ad value, it hinges on a mix of many things, including the power of headlines; the tone of a story or broadcast; employee, customer, stockholder, media and analyst audits; positioning among competitors; tracking publicity over time; and examining the breadth and depth of corporate messages.
In fact, MediaLink has come up with terms such as PR gross rating point (GRP takes into account fluctuating details like ad buys), and it has also implemented a wide scope of analysis systems to make measurement more precise and less subjective for clients as diverse as Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., and The Rotary Club, Chicago.
Weiner says clients can spend between $2,000 and $20,000 per project or between $10,000 and $200,000 yearly for this kind of measurement analysis. It's become an invaluable tool in providing upper management with the tangibles they need to understand PR's influence.
Most analyses run an average of $30,000-$40,000 annually.
Non-Profits in the Measurement Maze, Too
Measurement, too, has become one of the issues driving the non-profit sector whose players must gingerly balance the dual, and difficult, roles of staying financially afloat and appearing altruistic.
In fact, the 102-year-old National Association of Credit Management, Columbia, Md., just hired a PR agency for the first time. Getting a handle on measurement was part of the reason for hiring The Reeves Agency, a Baltimore-based marcom firm that has done work for nonprofits such as Special Olympics International and the Preakness Celebration, according to Katherine Jeschke, VP of communications for NACM.
"Last year we spent about $250,000 on marketing and PR (both for the umbrella organization and for member associations) and it's of paramount importance that we justify those dollars because there are a lot of people, including our board of directors, that we're answering to," she says.
As part of NACM's agreement with TRG, regular measurement reports will be forwarded to the association, which has 32,000 members and an annual operating budget of about $5 million, to see how effective its PR is and where membership improvements can be made.
But part of TRG's work will also include increasing by 10 percent NACM's paid attendance of 1,700 at the exposition that's held as part of NACM's annual convention every year.
And Weiner points out that it's that kind of goal that illustrates how measurement should be factored in today: Proving how much should be earmarked for PR can't be determined without doing your homework long before you hit the "send fax" button to send a press release.
(MediaLink, 212/682-8300; The Reeves Group, 410/385-9100; NACM, 410/740-5560)