For many years agencies and in-house teams rolled out highly successful PR campaigns and then, almost as a tick box, scrambled to show just how much of a triumph the campaign had been. With no up-front thought as to what might constitute ‘success’, agencies and their clients cobbled together whatever metrics were available after the event; for example, volumes of coverage to which would be applied the crudest and now most reviled of all metrics – advertising value equivalents (AVEs).
Even today, with the notion of the AVE widely discredited, measurement and evaluation are often muttered in the same breath, making no distinction between the metrics themselves and their interpretation.
According to Michael Ziviani, CEO of Precise Value, the process of measuring and evaluation is more like a journey in clear stages.
“It starts with simple measurement of clip volumes and tone. This delivers findings which trend over time as a baseline of output. The next stage is evaluation which involves more thorough content analysis, perhaps with independent ratings of various article elements,” he said.
While thorough evaluation helps us to justify campaign spend – and build our trophy cabinet of industry awards – evaluation has an even larger role to play in the long term by delivering insights on how the communications strategy connects to business results.
Michael expands on this concept: “The final capstone is business value analysis which links the communications outputs to business results. This delivers valuable understanding of which effort delivers what concrete results. What I like about the journey is that it presents a build. The last step typically elevates the role of communications to a whole new level in an organisation. Most activity in Australia is around measurement and evaluation but has not yet moved on to business value.”
Taking this next step to address business value is absolutely essential to build credibility and show the power of the right communications strategy at executive level – and to earn a (rightful) place at the boardroom table.
The work of international organisation, Association for Measurement and Evaluation Communication (AMEC), is helping communications professionals to move measurement and evaluation further up the corporate agenda. Our interview with Barry Leggetter is a must read for those unfamiliar with the work undertaken by AMEC since the adoption of the ground-breaking Barcelona Principles.
So if the case for evaluation is so watertight, why aren’t we doing it better?
Michael suggests the barriers to be overcome.
“Setting up best practice takes discipline, time and connection with international learning, like that from AMEC. Many PRs are caught up in tactical doing. The problem is, that doing needs direction and feedback to refine. Without that refinement the effort spirals out of control into exhaustion for those involved,” he explains.
While some organisations may be at the beginning of the journey, the industry moves quickly. So where to from here?
Michael suggests that the rise of analytics will continue across all businesses as the focus is drawn on how to “do more of what counts”. And this means aligning communications analysis to your business outcomes to help build the bridge from communications to business value.
“Analysis of results highlights where to direct efforts for better outcomes, regardless of platform. As an example, we have worked on projects using Market Mix Modelling, which showed the ROI of PR can be more than double that of advertising. Other international cases I have seen support that and more, with PR typically returning in the range of $6-$10 for every dollar spent. Once quantified and understood at senior levels, resources are no longer in question and the art of PR grows at the speed it should,” he said.
Ideally, PR professionals should be able to show a perception change within an audience after being exposed to communications. Achieving this typically involves a survey, such as brand health trackers (BHT), but there are challenges with using such a tool.
“Brand Health Trackers were generally set up in marketing to track and improve expensive advertising activity,” Michael explains. “Seldom, if ever, do they even ask about consumption of PR and other comms. Therefore attribution of any upside outcome is given to advertising, not PR. This is an anathema and needs changing for PR to achieve the recognition it deserves.”
So what can we learn from the wisdom of people like Michael Ziviani and Barry Leggetter?
First, evaluation should be at the heart and the start of any campaign. And to resonate with the senior management, evaluation should speak the language of business by corresponding with business objectives. Good evaluation should give us the insights to refine and improve our communication strategy.
Measurement and evaluation is not a threat but rather an opportunity to show the value of a good communications strategy. Communications professionals have long known the value of the work we undertake. Now, through organisations like AMEC and Precise Value, we are being equipped with the intelligence and the tools we need to clearly demonstrate this value to our clients.
Precise Value is a marketing performance consultancy that specialises in premium quality communications analysis services for blue chip clients. It applies best-practice techniques to profile opportunities and quantify results in concrete business outcomes.
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