The past year has brought growing attention to the field of PR measurement - everything from technologies for analyzing your media clips to techniques for tying your campaigns
to the bottom line. Measurement has come to be considered a panacea for problems ranging from slashed budgets to interdepartmental barriers.
But the most successful corporate communications execs have for years understood the importance of researching and evaluating their efforts. They have built measurement systems
that provide a history of performance. And they consistently find new and unique ways to implement measurement and leverage the results - not just to prove the value of PR, but to
make PR more valuable.
In this year's PR NEWS special issue on measurement, we set out to uncover what these thought leaders at corporations worldwide are doing: how they plan and implement their
measurement programs, what portions of their PR budgets they allocate for research and measurement, and how they make use of the data to evaluate strategy and improve future
campaigns.
You'll read about how the PR team at Business Objects has made use of a long-term measurement program to consistently assess the effectiveness of its efforts with journalists.
Find out how Checkfree has used measurement not just to appraise its own promotional efforts, but to gain a better understanding of consumer behavior in an emerging market. A
Hewlett-Packard exec talks about how he has measured PR efforts in more than 20 countries as HP consolidates smaller, diverse product lines under the Hewlett Packard name. And
read about how 3Com has relied on measurement as it works to reverse tough times.