Measurement: Impact, trends and developments

Penny Rose attended the panel discussion and kindly offered her input to the evening

After the ASR debate on the 22 of July hosted by Media Monitors, I was kindly invited to contribute to the Media Monitors blog. If you weren’t there, then, I think you missed out. The evening was enlightening. Fundamental to the discussion was demonstrating value to the client. Everyone, of course, agreed that PR is not advertising. Comparing media coverage to space equivalent in paid advertising does not truly reflect what that presence in the media is worth to the client. The evening touched on what the alternative should be, with the pervasive feeling that we all need to take responsibility to educate our clients on the importance of that alternative.

So where do we go from here? My feeling is that the answer lies in a consistent measurement across the industry. A consistent approach will serve to support each of us in our efforts to educate our clients. A consistent approach would bolster our credibility as an industry and as individual practitioners in the boardroom. As for the realities of dealing with lack of time and lack of budget to invest in educating our clients who are used to seeing that dollar value on our reports, that may just be something we’ll have to accept. By retraining ourselves to fully understand and embrace the benefits of qualitative measurement, I’ve no doubt that each of us can persuade our clients to do the same.

With regard to consistent industry measurement, I acknowledge that PR strategies have different intensions. It’s not always about securing editorial endorsement for a new product on the market. Handling a media crisis can be as much about keeping a business out of the media. Alternatively, building brand awareness includes encouraging debate, which would invite competitor involvement in a story. There is no easy checklist that each and every campaign can use to indicate success. But perhaps there can be guidelines divided into categories of PR intent that we can all agree on?

Matt Gain of Edelman spoke of focusing on outcomes in terms of customer behaviour. He saw it important to measure changing consumer sentiment and purchase behaviour. Where your aim is to drive sales, I see this as the crucial place to start. In the first instance we can utilise simple tools such google analytics to see how customers interact with our clients' websites. We can make a point of understanding our clients' sales data and track changes as major news hits the media. With bigger, longer running campaigns, there are more rigorous measurement alternatives. I am left wondering though how ‘changing consumer sentiment’ can be clearly framed and usefully detailed in a template for the industry. Further discussion is, of course, required.

This is an example of how one particular PR intention can be measured. For each intention I’d like to see industry recommendations on effective measures to use. While this may sound seemingly impossible, due to the high number of reasons we engage in PR, I see it would help us all move forward, rather than speaking in circles without any solution. One blogger on Mumbrella regretfully said she was talking about this in 1993. Gosh, why are we still having this conversation?

I understand that the RCG of the PRIA are conducting an investigation of this issue and working to create a consistent industry solution. This investigation is scheduled to be completed this year. As members of the industry we should learn from the debate on the 22nd and take an interest in the decisions made by the PRIA. I am proud of what I do and see this as a chance to take my clients further than I have before when all I knew to give them was an AVE for my time. I am confident with consistent industry measurement we will be in a better place to secure long term business with our clients, by being able to demonstrate value, impact, influence, engagement and particularly return on investment. 

Soundbytes from the Panel Discussion

If you missed the event, we have broken down the panel discussion into easy bite-sized listening pieces.

Panelists included:
Brendan Swale - Executive Director, Product and Innovation, Media Monitors
Matthew Gain - Head of Digital Communications, Edelman Australia
Hope Clutterham - ANZ Analysis Director, Media Monitors
Nat Bradford - Director, Enterprise Technology, Hill and Knowlton
Annabelle Warren - Chair of the PRIA Registered Consultancies Group
and moderated by Euan Fisher, Executive Director Production, Media Monitors.

1. Welcome and Introductions (3:30)  wma  mp3
    
2. Panel Question: Are there any circumstances where AVE/ASRs are a valid media measurement? (5:56) wma  mp3
    
3. Definitions of ASR and discussion around ASR never being the only measure (3:44) wma  mp3
    
4. Nat Bradford and Matt Gain comment on client experiences and the cutoff point where ASRs are no longer valid (4:30) wma     mp3
     
5. Audience question: This debate has been going on for 20 years, what makes it so different now? Discussion goes into when ASRs are relevant, what the alternatives are.(8:29) wma  mp3
    
6. Reasons for analysis and education (2:39) wma  mp3
    
7. Question from audience: Frustrated at alternatives to AVEs when clients are strapped for time and strapped for cash. (4:02) wma  mp3
    
8. Brendan talks about analysing the outputs. (6:53) wma    mp3
    
9. Hope talks about the reporting available (1:27) wma    mp3
    
10. Audience question to Matt, Annabelle and Hope asking if there is any situation that you would be comfortable putting a quantitative measure of success to a client?  (5:07) wma  mp3
     
11. Nat Bradford moves the discussion to digital measurement (3:41) wma  mp3
     
12. Discussion centres around whether we understand enough about media behavior and media consumption. (0:45) wma  mp3
     
13. Discussion around current election and its campaign management (2:36) wma    mp3
     
14. Panelists talk about Media Monitors and its ability to provide tools and educating clients. Matt and Brendan also discuss the finer details of ASRs v AVEs where Matt wmas devil’s advocate (9:30) wma mp3
     
15. Matt gain poses to the panel what would happen if tonight we decided to agree to stop ASRS? (8:08) wma  mp3
     
16. Questions: If consistency across the industry is important for to move forward, where will we find these consistencies? (2:16) wma  mp3
     
17. Brendan talks about importance of AMEC in Australia (1:23) wma  mp3
     
18. Thank yous and comments (1:24) wma  mp3

If you would like the full version of the debate please contact Deb Wiseman.