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Friday 1 February 2013

What’s PR for and how can we tell if it’s working?



This question is more pertinent than ever when organisations of almost every kind are under pressure to perform at their highest despite the economic climate.

Here’s how I see it.
PR strategy must contribute to organisational success.

Except it’s not all that simple. Measuring the value of PR has been a bugbear for our industry, well, forever really.

In the past, the weight of the cuttings book seemed a fair indicator of a campaign that had done well, and this ‘volume’ metric evolved into the pseudo-science of AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalent) in which we argued that the value of each piece of ‘free’ editorial was worth one/three/name-your-figure times the price of the media space if it had been purchased for an advert.

More sophisticated ways of measuring the quality of coverage, however, are a step forward. By tracking our success in reaching specific audiences with key messages designed to influence the way we view the organisation, we can begin to assess the success of a campaign. Balancing qualitative and quantitative measures is important. But these are still ‘outputs’ – what we need to try and do is measure ‘outcomes’. Are we having the intended affect? Are we contributing to a change in opinion or behavior?

The great and the good of the international PR community, including the CIPR, got their heads together in 2010 and came up with seven key factors which should shape best practice. These are known as the Barcelona Principles:

1. Importance of goal setting and measurement
2. Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs
3. Effect on business results can and should be measured where possible
4. Media measurement requires quantity and quality
5. AVEs are not the value of public relations
6. Social media can and should be measured
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement

Success starts with excellent planning and strategy. A wise and successful businessman I know, Stewart Barnes, explained that “Strategy is doing the right things. Tactics are doing things right.” True of business planning, true of PR planning too. There’s little point in delivering an amazing PR campaign (doing tactics really well) if it doesn’t meet the objectives of the client.

So here’s my top seven, the Bryars’ Principles of PR planning and measurement:

1. Understand as much as you can about what success means for each client
2. Create a strategy that will support the journey to success
3. Be specific
4. Execute your plans and tactics brilliantly
5. Stay focused on outcomes
6. Don’t get lost in tools – measurement is a discipline, not a single metric
7. PR rarely functions in isolation – own your part, share the success

What’s your version?

Sarah Bryars
Chief Executive

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