Part One of a Two-Part Series on Media Analytics
No one questions that perception matters. No one doubts that good press has a positive impact on the corporate bottom-line. Problem is, no one agrees on how much.
A growing number of media analysis firms are developing tools and consulting practices that help communications executives to both measure and manage the desired impact of
their campaign messages and validate their contribution to the company's market position.
In this exclusive two-part series on media analysis, Marc Solomon, principal with attentionSpin, a training and consulting group focused on media analysis, examines the "new
realities" and higher expectations for media analytics. He talks with third-party providers about the limits of traditional approaches to measuring media and the potential for new
solutions to change the perception of PR.
Measurement is the key for communications professionals to connect the effectiveness of their investor, analyst and media relations with their company's overall position.
Manual tracking of media coverage is slow, difficult, suspect and does not connect PR dollars to the market presence PR programs are designed to build and sustain.
Contracting the process out to one of the many third-party providers in the business of offering media analysis takes the burden off in-house staff, but it can also expose your
PR department to new risks. Customization is intense, and costs can balloon.
Plus, current search and so-called "know-ledge discovery" technologies require human intervention to connect keyword hits like brand mentions or CEO names to the branding goals
and PR campaigns they're supposed to support.
The Client Perspective
But budgetary pressures are persuading PR professionals to seek more consistent and actionable data.
For example, the need to become more strategically aligned with the core business is prompting communications pros to see their efforts in the context of corporate reputation
and brand identity. Media survey data that doesn't address those broader corporate metrics is less and less useful. "The more constrained a media survey is in terms of products,
messages, and media sources, the less valid the findings," says Chet Friedman, VP of marketing at Monetaire, a Manhattan-based wealth management and analytics software provider.
"If senior management can't match survey results to their own market experiences," says Friedman, "media analysts cannot fulfill on their promise - to show 'buy-in' for the
company's market positioning."
The Provider Perspective
"Most people report to management to reassure them they're doing a good job," says Albert Barr, president and CEO for media analytics provider CARMA. "Unfortunately a media
report card does not address 'the why' behind the coverage or instruct the client on how to best manage the message."
In Barr's estimation, it is incumbent on both the client and the consulting group to increase those expectations, not just in terms of what can be measured but also the long-
term value that media program dollars buy their clients. As long as the client picks one program and sticks with it, it becomes easier and easier to measure media relations
against survey findings.
Bruce Jeffries-Fox, formerly EVP with InsightFarm (a Burrelle's subsidiary) and now president of Jeffries-Fox Associates, shares Barr's rejection of measurement for its own
sake. Jeffries-Fox, who was introduced to the business on the client side as PR research chief at AT&T, questions "report cards," tabular summaries of media activity. This
traditional approach emphasizes past performance over the richer detail required in a more forward-thinking strategy.
Without a more iterative approach, media research groups can't advise their clients on what follow-up actions to take. "Why go to third base and not go all the way?" he
says.
InsightFarm's attention to finer details is required not just to determine which journalists to court but what messages to release.
To Jeffries-Fox, top-level data tables are just one step up from the analytic value of a clip book. "The whole point," he says, is "[to] tell clients what the coverage meant
and what needs to be done next, not to hand out a new round of report card grades each quarter."
Keith Goldberg, VP of marketing for Biz360, a three-year-old, venture-backed external intelligence provider, also touts the strategic merits of media analytics.
Goldberg used the recent round of layoffs in the high-tech sector - Biz360's core market segment - to demonstrate how his corporate PR clients delivered 'the bad news' in the
best way possible. Biz360 customers modeled their approach after their rivals' outcomes in terms of targeted journalists and what messages prevailed. Layoff messages typically
include number of employees let go and impact on financial reporting. Such message testing takes a proactive view, supplying positions more likely to calm nervous customers.
Real Time Realities
This modeling of recurrent messages is tied closely with real-time reporting, another emerging content analysis requirement.
Real time reporting capabilities enable PR professionals not only to determine what's hot and what's cooling off, but more importantly to determine media response to a range of
campaign initiatives and market responses - and make changes on the fly.
It sounds straightforward to test public presence by running database queries on major media sources. It gets stickier in sorting out what values to assign specific sources,
journalists and experts. "It is nearly impossible," attests Monetaire's Friedman, "to connect media presence to sales forecasts." Yet that's the direction the industry is
heading.
Insight Farm and New Hampshire-based Delahaye Medialink are both importing analytical approaches from other market survey methods. The idea is to supplement the core media
measurement service with direct field surveys of desired buyers. More than choice mentions in prestigious publications, clients want to know what is causing the attitudes and
perceptions that form around their companies. "Only then can they move upstream and better influence future outcomes," says Jeffries-Fox.
Marc Solomon is a principal with attention-Spin, a training and consulting group that gives analysts a perspective for reporting and analyzing the properties of media
attraction.
Editor's Note: In his second installment, which will appear March 11, Solomon takes a close look at a variety of solutions, ranging from automated to more hands-on approaches
for evaluating the volume and quality of media hits and tying them to the bottom line for senior management. You'll get a graphic comparison of providers' services, including
areas of expertise, major customers, fee structures and capabilities. (Contacts: Friedman, 212/625-4900; Jeffries-Fox, 908/766-1414; Goldberg, 650/373-3310; Barr, [email protected])