Media analysis is becoming one of the best-leveraged tools for showing whether your messages are being looked at, understood and effectively conveyed by the media.
Yet it is a tool gathering dust in the corporate closet.
According to a "Corporate Communications Benchmark 1997" study released by Edelman, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism's Integrated Marketing Communications Department and the Opinion Research Corp., only three out of 10 execs queried at 100 major companies indicated that their programs emphasize research and measurement.
Media analysis companies can provide corporations and organizations objective reports about a slew of PR undertakings, such as one-time events or ongoing campaigns - or even an dissection of issues or trends based on key-word or phrase searches.
Companies can spend several thousand dollars or several hundred thousand dollars depending on how often and to what depth they use media analysis. And it is money well spent.
In recent years, the practice of media analysis has triggered some controversy in the media because of reporters fearing that they are being tracked and watched by monolith corporations like Microsoft. However, it's a tool corporations are certain to become less tight-lipped about when PR professionals begin to rely on it more.
In fact, it's media analysis that allows you as a PR professional to effectively handle three of the most important tasks you face on a regular basis:
- Finding out if your company's PR messages need to be refined;
- Knowing which reporters or editors you need to work with more closely; and
- Knowing when you need to pick up the phone and call someone in the press to clarify an issue.
You would think that a third-party evaluation of your work would have, by now, become automatic in the industry and something that's openly discussed. But it appears its step-sister status alongside typical PR tactics (such as costly campaigns surrounding product launches or satellite media tours) might be due to a misunderstanding of its benefits.
"Although corporate communicators have a general sense that they are aligned with and are affecting the achievement of corporate objectives, most do not have evidence to support that claim," according to the study.
That's something worth mulling over when you consider that 39 percent of corporate communications budgets are greater than $1 million and its a logical guess that those in upper management want proof that PR works.
"With media relations, there has to be a quantifiable return on investment and this helps provide that," said Pamela Whitney, founder and CEO of ADI PressTRAC Inc., a Fort Myers, Fla.-based company which has provided in-depth analysis for companies such as Wal-Mart.
Media Analysis: Justifying Your Job
Media analysis is being used by communicators for more than one reason - the least of which may end up being as a way to gain a sense of PR's influence and more as a corporate benchmark to prove the value of your staffers' efforts.
Not only does media analysis show where companies need to spend their time and devote their resources, it also covers two additional PR bases, said Whitney.
It helps prove in the corporate culture the worth of PR by giving those in upper management some tangibles to attach to a campaign or undertaking (to justify PR budgets) as well as provide some kind of information continuum to evaluate the new PR engine of integrated marketing.
"Part of what this [media analysis] has done is show that PR is a valuable tool," agreed Colleen Rodgers, VP of the News Analysis Institute, a 40-year-old business with eight full-time staffers. The business analyzes coverage for clients, looking for neutral and negative messages as much as for positive PR, and provides third-party reports with synopses.
The Pittsburgh-based institute's clients include such heavyweights as Procter & Gamble and American Express. Companies can spend between $300 to $3,000 to track a particular PR campaign, event or issue, according to Rodgers. The company has also worked with PR agencies such as Fleishman-Hillard and Manning, Salvege & Lee on a project basis. Generally media analysis is based on a cost-per-thousand model.
Stemming The Tide
Media analysis can provide a unique kind of foreshadowing. Take for example, how ADI helped Wal-Mart thwart a potential crisis several years ago. Several regional stories about Wal-Mart stores being evacuated because of unidentified fumes had surfaced in the local press.
ADI, which was tracking Wal-Mart's media coverage, turned to senior-level corporate communicators to give them a heads-up.
"We were fearful that 'Prime Time Live' would recognize these stories coming across Lexis-Nexis and have a heyday," recalled Whitney. "Eventually operations learned that people were playing with the pepper spray" and a potential crisis was squashed.
Another media analysis firm, CARMA International in D.C., works with many clients who seek its service even when it's not facing a crisis. In fact, CARMA estimates that 80 percent of its 100 clients just want to know whether they're getting favorable or unfavorable coverage in the press, according to Albert Barr, president of CARMA.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association in D.C., has used CARMA for two years to monitor its efforts.
For under $25,000 for the quarterly reports it receives, the organization has been able to refine its messages; learn who in the press it should be working with; and what messages need clarification, according to Mark Grayson, communications director.
"[Media analysis] has been a little confusing for people to understand but it's not this deep dark secret," Grayson said. "In public affairs and media relations, everyone know that reporters want information they can use and not just information we think they should have.How can you manage a PR program if you don't understand what your audience is getting?" (ADI, 941/466-6166; CARMA, 202/842-1818; News Analysis Institute, 412/471-9411; PRMA,202/835-340)
About Media AnalysisThe News Analysis Institute looks at anywhere from 50 to 1,000 articles for its clients over a range of 1 week to 6 weeks;
Source: PR NEWS |