Question: When attempting to link media coverage to business outcomes, is there a way to cut through the clutter and get effective measurement results?
ANSWER: According to the communications executives at PR News' recent Webinar "Linking Your Media Coverage to Business Outcomes," the best way to achieve this is
by tailoring past measurement techniques to current advances, and then applying that bottom line business impact.
For example, David Rockland, partner and global director of research at Ketchum, refers to the oft-quoted example of outputs versus outcomes when bridging PR to the
bottom line. While clip counting (measuring outputs) is no longer the end-all to be-all, he observes it still forms the foundation of successful measurement.
"If you're still counting clips by getting bags of them and putting them in a book, you're at least five to seven years behind," he says. "But, if you do a good job at the
basics [like clip counting], you often can do a better job at more sophisticated levels of measuring business impact."
Rockland espouses the benefits of starting with outputs, then moving on to outcomes/outtakes - measuring audience awareness/attitude through benchmarking surveys - and,
finally, the most integral step: Measuring return on impressions, earned media, media impact and target influence. This is the step that forms the bridge to business results.
At Ketchum, this step is done with an ROI "Lab Tool" that essentially uses algorithms to quantify the tones and placements of various publicity. For Angela Jeffrey, vice
president of editorial research at VMS, the process is much the same, though it hinges on "share of discussion," which she defines as "the quantity and quality of public
discussion (unpaid media) of a company compared to that of its competitors. How you measure your clips really does matter."
For Jeffrey, measurement includes:
- Capturing coverage of the firm and its competitors
- Obtaining audited media values or impressions; apply to all coverage
- Measuring tonality of each mention; subtract negative coverage from positive and neutral to get Net Favorable Value or Impressions
- Dividing each company's Net Favorable Value or Impressions by the total of all competitors to obtain share of discussion.
For General Motors, the employees play an integral role in impacting corporate reputation among target audiences. The Webinar's third guest, Kathy Collins, director of
communications research for GM, explains that one in seven adult Americans knows and regularly talks to a GM employee (not a dealer), making employees one of the most credible
sources of information. While telephone polling to measure resonance began as early as the 1980s, GM now incorporates employee survey results with consumer research to link
outputs to outcomes.
(Editor's note: Please join us for our next Webinar on crisis management on April 26. Details can be found at http://www.prnewsonline.com)
Contacts: David Rockland, 646.935.4083, [email protected]; Angela Jeffrey, 832.217.2707, [email protected]; Kathy
Collins, 313.665.3125, [email protected].