First week in January 2012 – time to dust off the crystal ball. Where is the media evaluations industry heading? Is media evaluations the correct industry label at all? Should it be called PR evaluation? Communications evaluation? Or measurement? Or measurement AND evaluation? Analysis, anyone? But let’s leave the terminology discussion for another day.
PR News tells us that “business leaders talk up PR”, referring to a PRSA/MWW Group study published in December 2011. With all findings polling in the high 90s, PR is recognised to be an increasingly indispensible management function. At the same time, we are reminded that “marketers find public relations to be the toughest discipline to measure ROI”.
Proving commercial value, providing evidence of a tangible return on business investment in order to earn a chair at the management top table: by no means a new trend for the PR function, but one that will continue to grow in importance in 2012 – and with it, all the available instruments, methods and processes to measure and evaluate, plus the ones waiting to be developed and implemented.
Report International, together with its PR agency partner Ketchum and Philips as a client, in 2009 developed a world-class communications measurement programme, integrating global sourcing, multi-lingual analysis and business-focused metrics, yielding highly actionable insight and communications performance management. It is part of OneVoice, Philips’ global multi-agency communication counsel.
In December 2011, Philips/OneVoice Measurement won the Evaluation category in the prestigious Communications Director European Excellence Awards 2011. Andre Manning, VP and Global Head of Corporate Communications at Royal Philips Electronics, the leader and biggest champion of the measurement solution, won Holmes Report’s 2011 SABRE Award for Individual Achievement for his commitment to, and success with, measurement and evaluation (among other things).
As we are adhering to and promoting new, more consistent and thus better standards in measurement and evaluation to contribute to the professionalisation and C-Suite recognition of PR, not least through the AMEC-led Barcelona Principles and the Valid Metrics Framework, such accolades are highly welcome endorsements.
So this is what we see in the crystal ball for 2012: yes PR will have to continue to strive hard to prove its value. And yes it will have to find new and better ways to do so. The tools and best practices exist, and there are now case studies to prove that it can work. Best of all, it is actually really straightforward:
1) think carefully about what it is that needs to be achieved; then set objectives accordingly, measure and manage progress
2) prove success with data evidence
3) earn the credibility of other management functions by doing so
It is as true for PR as it is for any other business function: do what is required with the right sense of urgency (to borrow John Kotter’s phrase) and a relentless focus on doing only those things that move a business forward, and doing them right now. It is not rocket science. And crystal balls should not come into it, either.
