Posts Tagged ‘measurement’
European PR measurement summit - really?
June 28th, 2010
As you may have seen in PR Week last week, the so-called ‘Barcelona declaration of research principles’ was created at the second European summit on measurement, in partnership with AMEC (the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication), and incorporating the CIPR’s Measurement Group, the Global Alliance for Public Relations, the IPR’s Commission on Measurement and Evaluation, the PRSA and the ICCO to agree a set of measurement and evaluation principles.
On reading the story, my initial reaction was full of hope, finally we can put the ghost of measurement to rest in the PR sector by agreeing relevant industry-wide standards, and hopefully kill off the AVE scores once and for all.
In fact the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) system, and its relevance as a PR measurement, was highlighted in the third principle, which reads: ‘AVEs do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space.‘ Spot on!
The full list of seven principles are below:
SEVEN KEY PRINCIPLES
1. Measurement and goal setting are fundamental for any PR programmes
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality - clip cuts are generally meaningless
3. AVEs do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space
4. Social media can and should be measured
5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results
6. Business results can and should be measured where possible
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement
I’m sorry, there must be some mistake, surely this is the agenda for discussion, not the outcome of an ‘expert’ summit that involved 200 delegates from 33 nationalities, supported by 5 global bodies?
Far be it from me to call into question exactly what they did for the rest of the time at this summit, but isn’t this a starting point? And if this is the second event, what exactly took part at the first event?
The mind boggles at how this feedback is supposed to be relevant at a time when PR in general is already being left behind in terms of how it measures and justifies spend, let alone how PR understands and utilises social media, and surely point 4, (above) only goes to prove PR is still very far from doing this.
As for the quotes from various ‘industry figures’ and bodies represented in the PR Week article, i agree, it is important, and it is a positive platform to grow from, which we should support. However, it’s really not a huge step, in terms of steps, it’s pretty tiny. Where is the urgency? Where is the delivery? We all know what the PR industry should be doing, but surely the issue is ‘how’.
Perhaps that comes out of the next event? Is it unfair of me to expect more? If this was the outcome of a client-facing event would the client be patting us on the back and saying well done, you’ve stated the obvious, and it’s taken you years to do it, but at least you’re on the right path now.
Yes, i understand the event was developed to set ‘principles’ and in fairness that was achieved, but come on, can we really afford to continue moving at such a slow pace?
It’s great that the PR industry is going to leave AVEs behind, but the truth is, the fact that AVEs are still being discussed underlines how far behind we are.
Oh, and apparently the Barcelona Principles will be refined based on detailed participant feedback, and will be built on by AMEC and its partners over the coming months and years.
I think it’s best that i don’t comment on that little gem.
Social media ROI - sharing our experiences
November 19th, 2008
Three months ago I wrote a post about the importance of standing fast and explaining the reasons that we cannot always provide traditional measurements, such as ROI, as part of a social media campaign when questioned by our clients and peers. I still stand by this.
On Monday, Todd Defren wrote an excellent post, titled: ROI for social media marketing: it’s complicated, which summed up many theories and quotes from around the community, and has since received comments from even more influencers - great job Todd!
Reading Todd’s post, and looking back at Liberate Media’s own experiences, I thought it would be useful to share our thinking and progress, which has informed our position on the subject.
First of all, in reference to the big question of ROI for social media - Todd hit the nail on the head, it is complicated! In a traditional sense of: a rate of return used to evaluate the efficiency of a financial investment, ROI is specifically complicated by trying to apply numeric quantities to human interactions and conversations - as highlighted by Jason Falls.
So we fight the good fight and educate our clients - right? Right. But when speaking to metrics-dominated sectors such as retail and travel, as we have been recently, education is one thing, but in a harsh economic climate clients are far more likely to be swayed when they are told what they want to hear; that they can spend X on social media marketing and get X back.
Now don’t get me wrong, i’m not advocating that we just tell clients what they want to hear because the economy is tough, or in fact that we lost out on those clients as they went for alternative providers, neither are true. But, what I am saying is that while there are so many differing opinions on the subject, and therefore options, educating our clients on the issue is made even tougher.
This was a point of frustration, but over the same time period we’ve been busy continuing to develop our own metrics and frameworks to help clients to measure the tangible elements, while also communicating and evidencing that social media contains many points of human interaction that require a different approach.
As we developed our frameworks, and looked at the options of how social media relates to search marketing and other elements of the digital marketing mix, it became clear that as social media influences the function of digital marketing as a whole, the metrics that we use don’t need to be reflected through a single metric or score, so why make it so?
Furthermore, as has been mentioned previously on this blog and on many others, each campaign is unique, so a static metric framework, while undoubtedly useful, does not tell the whole story. In reality, the measurement points need to relate to core business objectives which will change from campaign to campaign.
This leaves us with an assortment of measurement points, including traditional metrics, all of which are useful, but need to be presented with a large dose of translation from the consultants involved, not by a single metric. So why try to distill the information down to a score when the power is in the detail?
I hope this brief overview has been a useful exercise, and helped in some way to move the conversation on, if not for many of the afore mentioned bloggers as they’ve undoubtedly considered this already, but from an education point of view.
The development of our own framework continues on an almost daily basis, different campaigns add new angles and considerations, and we will share more thinking as we continue to build.
Let me know your thoughts.