It was a spirited seminar on how to convince managers about the merits of PR measurement. After it was over, Alice Brink, a senior VP with Houston-based Vollmer Public
Relations, asked attendees - about three dozen or so corporate PR execs - what PR campaigns, projects, events, et al. they intended to measure this year.
The room fell radio silent. Peoples' eyes wandered, necks craned. One brave soul said she wanted to raise the visibility of her PR department so her CEO would hire a few warm
bodies to add to her team. Brink said the only sure way to do that is to get managers to buy-in to measurement - and then prove it works for them. The lack of initiative among
the crowd was a stark reminder that for all the noise surrounding measurement, rank-and-file PR execs remain clueless on how to execute such programs.
Communications execs are "still grappling with how you apply business value to relationships," said Brink, who spoke on measurement tools last week at the Media Relations 2004
Conference in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by Bulldog Reporter and PR Newswire. "We tend to think sales does [measurement] better, but nobody is really measuring and a
lot of businesses are just flying by the seat of their pants."
Asked about the apparent disconnect between all the theory on measurement and the (utter) lack of practice, Brink added: "There's a fear of looking like a failure and some fear
that the measurement will be inaccurate. It's moving very slowly, but there will be a tipping point after which everybody will be doing it."
In the last few years Vollmer, whose clients include KRATON Polymers, Harris County Flood Control District and Travelocity, has been getting an increasing amount of requests
for measurement services. Everybody wants it but nobody can agree on pay or terms - and that's the rub. It's heard time and again from corporate PR execs struggling with
measurement: Managers love the idea of measurement but put the breaks on when they're told it actually costs money. To change that mind-set, PR execs have to convince their
managers that measurement is just another term for research that moves beyond "clip counting."
"You need to look at it from the perspective that [measurement] is giving you strategic information to show what's working, what's not working, where your company is strong and
weak (via competitors) and whether your spokesperson is strong," says PR measurement guru (and PR NEWS contributing editor) Katie Paine, of KD Paine & Associates, who tag-
teamed with Brink on the measurement seminar. (See charts for measurement tips.)
She added, trying to assuage concerns about cost, "All of these things are valuable data points. It is not simply an expense. It's really an investment into understanding your
market. And you can't really say, 'I know what's happening because I see clips coming in.' That's the equivalent of the CFO saying to a board meeting, 'I know we're making money
because I see the checks coming in.' That doesn't work anymore."
Part of the problem is that not enough PR pros think about measurement in preemptive terms, which can be lethal in a boardroom setting. "If you're sitting in on the planning
process and you're in a big meeting with [senior managers] and they say, 'What's our plan for the year?' you want the data in your hand. You don't want to say, 'I'll get back to
you in six weeks after I've got my measurement system up.'"
Measurement has to be embedded in your system in order to show positive results. One of the major myths of measurement is that it will invariably show management that your PR
program is working. But that kind of attitude toward measurement is not necessarily going to win you backslaps from the boss. "The best thing you can possibly do with your [PR]
program is to measure its failures," Paine said. "If something is not working you want to identify it and stop spending money on it and spend money on something that is working."
It's a hard dose to swallow: The most successful measurement programs consistently measure what doesn't work.
Contacts: Alice Brink, 713.970.2100, [email protected]; Katie Paine, 603.431.6967, [email protected].
Mapping a Measurement Plan
How to lose a budget in 10 days
- Don't tie results to business outcomes
- Use measurement only to justify your existence
- Measure something that no one cares about
- Get lost in the minutiae, lose sight of the goal
- Fail to get consensus from everyone who needs the results
- Promise a Cadillac measurement plan on a Segway budget
- Deliver data when you no longer need the answers
Myths of Measurement
- You can't measure intangibles
- Measurement will show that my program isn't working
- Measurement should be done after the program is finished
- Measurement is expensive
Deciding what to measure
- Outputs- Did you get the coverage you wanted?
- Outtakes - Did your target audience see the messages? Did they believe the messages?
- Outcomes? - Did audience behavior change?
7 Simple Steps to the perfect measurement program
- Step 1: Know your 7Ws
- Step 2: Agree upon objectives
- Step 3: Define your criteria
- Step 4: Determine a benchmark
- Step 5: Select a measurement tool
- Step 6: Analyze the results and take action
- Step 7: Measure again
Know your 7Ws
- What are your corporate/departmental objectives?
- Who are your audiences?
- Who influences those audiences?
- What is important to them?
- Where do they go for information?
- What do they think about you now?
- What do you want them to think?