JP060. Public Relations. Journalism. PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation. Simon Goldsworthy. Open School of Journalism

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1 JP060 Public Relations Journalism PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation Simon Goldsworthy

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3 Public Relations PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation Simon Goldsworthy

4 Public Relations Contents Introduction What is measured and evaluated PR planning Measuring output Measuring outtake and the use of market research techniques Measuring outcome Summary Media measurement and evaluation techniques Issues about who does it and how it is done Methodology Measuring the financial value of PR work Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) Summary Measuring and evaluating social and other online media.. 35 Summary Outcomes and obstacles to PR performance measurement and evaluation Cost Confusion Containment Speed Everyone s an expert Beyond the media Summary Conclusion Solutions for exercises Bibliography About the author... 56

5 6 Public Relations General Learning Outcomes After you have worked through this course, you will be able to: Consider what public relations measurement and evaluation are, and what is meant by measuring output, outtake and outcome. Review measurement and evaluation techniques and the issues they raise. Consider how far and in what ways the financial value of PR can be measured. Understand the special features of measuring and evaluating PR activity involving social and other online media. Review the difficulties with which PR measurement and evaluation has to contend. Consider the current state of PR measurement and evaluation and possible future issues.

6 PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation 7 Introduction it s very important for us to evaluate our work because otherwise why should anyone have any confidence in the relationship Lord Tim Bell, Chairman of Bell Pottinger 1 While the public relations industry s history can be traced back for over a hundred years from its origins in the USA at the turn of the twentieth century, PR has grown particularly rapidly over the last generation. PR growth rates in terms of expenditure and the number of people employed have exceeded those of the overall economy in most societies, and the industry has weathered the major financial problems which afflicted many countries in recent years. PR has become something that almost all businesses of any size expect to pay for and not just businesses: governments and political parties, international organisations, charities and campaigning groups, religious bodies, educational organisations, cultural bodies, the military and emergency services and even some wealthy and/or powerful individuals all routinely make use of public relations, even if they often seek to avoid using the terms public relations or PR, preferring to refer to what they do as communications or campaigning. PR measurement and evaluation is about establishing what PR practitioners are achieving and have achieved their performance. The combination of the terms measurement and evaluation is significant. Although they are often used interchangeably, measurement suggests the almost scientific measurement of results in figures, while evaluation conveys the idea that interpretation is required in drawing conclusions. As we shall see these issues take us close the heart of debates about measuring and evaluating PR. One major reason for undertaking PR measurement and evaluation is that it helps all the organisations which hire PR people to determine whether they are getting value for money, in the same way that they would expect for other items of expenditure. Although PR has become an almost inescapable part of modern organisational life it remains an area of discretionary expenditure: no-one is obliged to hire PR people in contrast to the requirement in certain circumstances to seek professional advice from, for example, lawyers or accountants. As the PR industry has grown, companies and others in almost all countries are spending ever greater sums on its services for the most part by employing PR people who work in-house as directly employed staff, but also by paying for consultancy services from the sizeable PR agency sector. Those responsible for running organisations are naturally concerned about demonstrating the effectiveness of their PR efforts and of- 1

7 PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation 11 Chapter 1: What is measured and evaluated Learning outcomes To understand: What PR is and how measurement and evaluation relates to PR s own unique selling proposition: third party endorsement. The importance of PR planning and clear objectives to proper measurement and evaluation. What is meant by measuring 1) output; 2) outtake; and 3) outcome. PR is a purposeful activity: those paying for it expect it to serve their interests and to achieve real results. Some professional and academic definitions of PR can be a little vague on this point, emphasising instead that PR is about mutual understanding: Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their public (The Public Relations Society of America) It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. (Chartered Institute of Public Relations, UK) The following definition is designed to be more concrete, and hence more relevant to considering PR measurement and evaluation: Public relations is the planned persuasion of people to behave in ways which further its sponsor s objectives. It works primarily through the use of media relations and other forms of third-party endorsement. (Morris, T and Goldsworthy, S, PR Today: The Authoritative Guide to Public Relations (Palgrave, 2012), p. 6. Let us take this stage by stage. The fact that PR is planned is important. We all communicate with others all the time what singles out PR is that it is a specialised discipline employing people who have developed expertise

8 PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation 23 X Exercise 2 A financial services company has launched a new kind of private flexible pension plan. Its research shows that the new plan is not well known and few people understand the advantages it offers. The company is using PR to raise awareness, get across the advantages that the flexibility offers and drive sales. Using the Results Evaluation Grid (p.20) list likely targets and results, considering outputs, outtakes and outcomes. (You can adapt this to consider what would be realistic measurements for a PR campaign undertaken by any organisation you know, as expressed in a results evaluation grid.) Results evaluation grid Objective Target Actual results OUTPUT: what PR has produced coverage, readership, inclusion of key messages, equivalent advertising cost OUTTAKE: researched changes in attitude and awareness, acceptance/agreement with key messages OUTCOME: changes in behaviour sales, enquiries, online activity, votes etc

9 24 Public Relations Chapter 2: Media measurement and evaluation techniques Learning outcomes: To understand: How media coverage can be analysed and evaluated. Issues affecting media analysis and evaluation. Attempts to measure the financial value of PR work and the pros and cons of using Advertising Value Equivalents. Media monitoring services long predate the existence of the PR industry. Since the nineteenth century commercial clippings services have existed, providing newspaper cuttings for people who wanted to check on what press coverage they or their organisations received, and expanding to cover all media as radio, television and online media emerged. For a fee, the companies concerned will review any media and provide copies of any relevant coverage any namecheck for a company or brand (which can include competitor tracking), or material about relevant personalities or issues. Most organisations of any size which are concerned about their media coverage will make use of such a service although clearly the costs can be considerable, which means that they limit the coverage that they expect to be monitored. The range of media that can be reviewed is almost infinite, ranging from international and national broadcasters and newspapers in different countries to magazines, regional, local and specialist media and social media such as Twitter. Major organisations in the public eye would be swamped if they tried to look at everything especially enormous volumes of online coverage, much of which may be of little significance perhaps simply individual mentions, often innocuous, which may be seen by very few people. Therefore organisations have to prioritise and focus on what is most relevant, and this is of necessity a subjective process which inevitably distorts what is measured and evaluated.

10 PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation 35 Chapter 3: Measuring and evaluating social and other online media Learning outcome To understand the special challenges of measuring and evaluating social and other online media. Barcelona Principle No 6: Social media can and should be measured. It is obvious that today social media and indeed all digital media play a massive and growing part in what almost all organisations say or have said about them, and so measurement and evaluation are called for. Indeed the above Barcelona Principle will probably not need to be stressed separately in the near future, any more than one needs to single out broadcast or print media. In some important senses online media lend themselves to measurement and evaluation in ways that would make those seeking to evaluate traditional media envious. In the online world it is potentially easy to establish exactly which pages people visit; when; for how long; which links they use; and whether they interact in any way with what is there. Methods for tracking the online activities of the intended audiences need to be considered and put in place at the outset of the campaign. Traditional media have never offered up such precise data and people have had to try to research how people use their products: we may know how many people buy a newspaper, but we don t know with certainty how long they spend looking at it, let alone how long they spend looking at a particular article on a particular day (although surveys of samples of newspaper readers are used to try to shed light on this). In fact insiders will admit that the use of online media offers so much data that few if any have the resources to exploit it in full.

11 42 Public Relations Chapter 4 Outcomes and obstacles to PR performance measurement and evaluation Learning outcome To understand the issues surrounding attempts to measure of the outcome of PR activity. Barcelona Principle No 2. Measuring outcomes is preferable to measuring media results. Barcelona Principle No 3. Business results can and should be measured where possible. Measuring output and even outtake are all very well, but what really matters is the outcome of a PR campaign: what behavioural change did it achieve, if any? This is outlined in the principles above. It is noteworthy that the organisation behind these principles, AMEC, was founded as the Association of Media Evaluation Companies in the 1990s but has since changed its name to the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication. This reflects a de-emphasising of media evaluation as such, in part because analysis of the media cannot of itself prove anything about actual outcomes, but also because the communication referred to was not exclusively focused on the media. As the second principle above also indicates, measurement of outcomes can and should be tied to business objectives new business leads, sales etc etc. Beyond the commercial world similar principles apply as PR s achievements are tested against the original objectives. However, while some measurement of output is relatively common in the PR world, the proper measurement of outtake and outcomes may be much talked about as an ideal but in reality is relatively rare, and in so far as it

12 PR E005 Performance / Title of Measurement this Course is Written and Evaluation in Gray 55 Bibliography amecorg.com International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication Fill, C, Marketing Communications: Brands, Experiences and Participation (Pearson, 2013) Morris, T, and Goldsworthy, S, PR Today: The Authoritative Guide to Public Relations (Palgrave, 2012; new edition forthcoming) Theaker, A (ed), The Public Relations Handbook (Routledge, 2012), Chapter 10 Watson, T, and Noble, P, Evaluating Public Relations: A Guide to Planning, Research and Measurement (PR in Practice series, Kogan Page 2014)

13 56 Title Public of Relations this Chapter here in eight words About the author Simon Goldsworthy MPRCA is Professor of Advertising and Public Relations at Richmond University in London, where he has established a master s program in Advertising and Public Relations. Since 2000 he has taught public relations and related subjects at a range of universities in the UK and abroad. He is the co-author of four books on public relations as well as numerous academic and other articles, and is currently working on a new edition of PR Today: the Authoritative Guide to Public Relations, published by Palgrave. He has a background in public relations, and has acted as a judge for the Public Relations Consultants Association s awards and for those of the Association of Measurement and Evaluation Companies.

14 Journalism JP060 Public Relations PR Performance Measurement and Evaluation Simon Goldsworthy