The Achilles Heel of Public Relations

Our industry group, the Public Relations Society of America, has formed a committee of high level thinkers

to solve one nagging pain point that continues to hurt our industry: develop a true industry-wide measurement standard. (PRSA Seeks To Establish Industry Wide Measurement Standards)

This is no easy task. In fact, many professionals in our industry have tackled this very challenge before with little to no consensus resulting from their efforts. More to the point, it’s safe to say that no two firms today conduct measurement that leverages the same verifiable and consistent standard.

I applaud the PRSA and especially this committee for its efforts. From what I see, their key strategy is right on target. Everything they will develop revolves around shifting the conversation away from the volume of media clips, social media activity and advertising equivalency value to outcomes that measure and show how PR drives business performance. I also love the fact that they are offering up specific economic models to do this (i.e. regression analysis and also isolating the effects of PR campaigns by isolating statistics, are two examples). No doubt, this will teach many PR practitioners that a true quantitative ROI on their campaigns can be measured and understood. This isn’t rocket science, after all.

Yes. I have a good feeling that this group (comprised of some very talented measurement professionals like Katie Paine) will provide us with a standard that the industry can be proud of.

What still concerns me (though) is that our industry is ill prepared for real metrics because of two realities that have nothing to do with creating a respectable industry standard:

1) Almost always (in my experience,) prospects talk big about wanting the agency they hire to measure a soon to be created/implemented campaign. But, once that business is actually won, it’s rare that a true metrics program is ever crafted at the onset of the relationship. Measurement isn’t that hard. But, it takes a number of meetings and some work to tailor a system/formula/process that should fit each individual client. Both client and agency have responsibility to make sure that this happens. In my experience, it’s typically the client who is so rushed (or excited) to begin the program, that measurement often just gets pushed aside.

2) Measuring true business outcomes can never actually happen unless the right mechanisms are in put in place to track and collect data and then conduct the precise type of analysis that is needed, (i.e. what sales leads data actually resulted from this campaign?). It’s not that difficult to arrange for this to transpire. But, if nothing materializes, then the end metrics result can only be the analysis of outputs (such as PR clips, and social media activity.) I simply don’t see too many companies spending time to create these valuable mechanisms. And, that’s a shame.

Kudos to this committee. But in my estimation, we’ve still got a lot of education that needs to take place.

Comments

[Matt S]

I look forward to seeing what they come up with, mostly because I've always leaned towards believing that a successful PR campaign is something that you know when you see it. Totally agree that the volume of media clips is not the way to go and business performance is. But here's one problem I hope they address: Clients often want a quick report soon after launching a campaign, a week for instance. True business benefits may not be realized for some time after an event or campaign. I've heard of business deals that landed six months after a great performance at a trade show, for instance. How do you create a metrics system that accurately measures business performance but satisfies the immediate needs of clients?

[Marketing Sociologist]

Just hope they don't misuse ROI. It is a business term meaning return on investment, not media coverage.

An example; if a dentist spend $5,000 s/he can expect an ROI of $25,000 the first year s/he uses the drill.

Getting mentioned in the media does not bring money in the door. It builds awareness. So using ROI is as dumb as using the word chauvanism - which means excessive loyalty to your country - when you mean sexism or misogyny.

[Flackman]

Establishing success metrics is crucial, but also getting the client to effectively set strategy is also a big issue in the rush to get a program off the ground. The "fun" stuff tends to supersede the "what to do" and the "what you got".

[Sean Williams]

Ed, thanks for a thoughtful post. You are spot-on that there are people who have been working on guidelines (rather than standards) for some time. Katie is one, David Rockland another, and really, most of the people on the Institute for PR Measurement Commission (I'm fairly new, in my 4th year).

Your commenters are also correct with both their concerns and suggestions. The client needs to 1) be willing to pay for a measurement program and, 2) be willing to be educated about the lag between tactical execution and "final" results.

Part of the solution regarding the ROI calculation is to use it only as "marketing sociologist" suggests -- a financial metric revealing the bottom line impact after cost. There certainly IS value apart from ROI, and we need to measure that as well.

The concept of value separate from financial impact is an important distinction, and one I hope the star chamber will explore.

Sean Williams
@commammo