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Would PR Rather Not Be Measured?

I had the pleasure of speaking with a Cymfony client yesterday about their PR measurement program in 2005.  The reason for the conversation was to gather specific information on our partnership over the last year to write a case study.  This particular Fortune 1000 client worked in the corporate marketing department as a market researcher.  The challenge for the department was to set up the best program to quickly and accurately measure the impact of PR on the organization.  Cymfony began working with the company in April of 2005.  Being very metric focused, they were looking for data which was something we could easily provide.  We quickly determined that it wasn't just data that they needed, it was metrics with insight - actionable intelligence.   But that's not the reason for this post.

What struck me about our conversation was that the market researcher said that if the PR team had their way, they would be much happier not to be measured at all.  Now this might have been a statement made about the internal politics at one organization but I tend to believe it's a wider issue.  Look at a recent post by Shel Holtz suggesting that the reason for the lack of PR measurement is because communicators are by nature "math-challenged" (lots of chatter on this one).  Additionally, Andy Lark pointed to a Dec. article in the Holmes Report that shared a survey of more than 100 PR Agency principles - highlighting the problems that continue to make research and evaluation a major issue for the PR Industry:

"In general, their responses  suggested that an failure of commitment- rather than the absence of necessary tools and techniques—is behind the industry’s poor performance."

As a PR practitioner myself, some form of measurement has always been the key to show the value of the PR department or to help determine what messages are really sticking or to determine how the company is being perceived.  In general, measurement programs can be set up in many ways. A small company many only want to look at clip counts or impression numbers while a larger company might focus on favoribility, message adoption, depth of coverage or prominence.  There is even a debate about what defines a true PR measurement program (as opposed to a monitoring program or tracking program - fodder for another time).  The point is that some form of measurement should be part of every PR program.  I can tell you, if this math-challenged individual can do it, anyone can. Maybe 2006 is the year.

Posted by Cymfony on January 5, 2006 at 10:08 AM | Email this post Permalink

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Comments

I am of the mind that if a PR campaign doesn't have measureable objectives than you are just throwing spaghetti against a wall. How can you know what you aim is? And clips just don't cut it anymore.

Posted by: Kami Huyse | Jan 11, 2006 7:15:37 PM

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