The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Measurement During Tough Economic Times

The Measurement Industry

 

What is next for public relations measurement? The best and brightest minds in measurement (including yours!) predict the future of your job, your business, and your profession.

Featuring the views of Nicholas Grant, Angela Jeffrey, Gary Getto, Fraser Likely, Jim Macnamara, Katie Delahaye Paine and Mark Weiner.

Times are tough. As of this morning, the U.S. jobless rate has hit a 14-year high, and General Motors says it will go bankrupt without another tankful of cash from the government. The news is jammed with predictions of even worse economic turmoil and years of tight money ahead. What does this mean for public relations measurement?

We asked an elite corps of measurement professionals to weight in on the problem, and their responses are given below. First, you will want to read Jenny Schade's article (also in this issue of The Measurement Standard):"Captain Measurement to the Rescue! It's time to put on your cape and be a superhero." Then...

What do the blogs say?

The blogs have been buzzing about what tight money is going to mean for public relations measurement, and most seem to agree that:

1. Measurement can and will help protect PR budgets,
2. But, it needs to speak directly to business objectives.

If you haven't already, you can read them here:

• Shonali Burke at Communications Overtones: "...this chilly state of affairs does bring, it seems to me, some golden opportunities for communicators who are willing to put their money where their mouth is. The goose that's going to lay your FDIC-insured egg is measurement."
• Metrica's Kristin Wadge at Measurement Matters: "...use decent measurement to make sure every single penny is working its socks off for you. PR works well in these times, as long as it's working hard."
• Metrica's Claire at Measurement Matters: "If PRs want to protect their budgets they should make sure relevant measurement is planned and built in from the start, adhered to during execution of campaigns... and show contextual ROI on completion."
• Don Bartholomew at Proving the Value of Public Relations: "...2009 will be the year when the pendulum swings from experimentation to accountability. Buckle your seat belts."
• Kari at First Person PR: "2008 needs to be the year of PR measurement... I mean substantive analysis that measures PR programs against business objectives. Then, perhaps, we can recession proof our industry (a bit)!"

What do you think?

Before we hear from the experts, this is your chance, dear reader, to weigh in on the subject. What do you think the future of measurement holds? How do you plan to deal with these tight money times? Feel free to add your thoughts and predictions as comments to this article. To start your thinking off, here's a six-point stimulus package of options:

1. Hard times won't affect measurement:
Companies will still need to get their messages out, and the practice of proper measurement design and analysis is the same, good times or bad.

2. Hard times will mean greatly reduced demand for measurement as budgets are slashed:
Batten down the hatches, 'cause a hard rain is gonna fall.

3. Hard times will mean increased demand for measurement:
Companies will work to tend their brands and will need to know, more than ever, what works and what doesn't.

4. Hard times will mean great opportunities, but only for certain kinds of measurement:
Managers will be desperately seeking ROI to justify their existence, and so measurement practitioners will find a ready market for both innovative techniques and snake-oil.

5. Hard times will be an unpleasant but eventually beneficial dose of tough love for the measurement industry:
Practitioners will be forced to really listen to what their clients need, and respond with clear, focused, and effective products.

6. Hard times will accelerate the transition from old media to new:
Measurement will prosper to the extent that it can not just adapt, but stake it's claim to indispensability in the new media landscape.

And Now, The Experts Speak

From Nicholas Grant,
Chairman, Mediatrack Research Ltd

If you asked me to choose between your six statements (above), I'd go with #5. Where measured comms programs are in place, measurement is unlikely to be affected unless the comms program itself is reduced. The big, huge, gaping, gob-smacking, mouth-watering opportunity however is to get in hard and help PR practitioners encourage the switch into below the line!

...in a world recession, high advertising budgets are often the first to go to the wall, leaving the way open for less costly but arguably more effective methods of connecting messages to markets. The main barrier to switching to PR is the same reason those budgets were not bigger in the first place – low recognition and awareness of the availability and value of reliable, effective measurement. "Where is the proof this will work, where's the evidence, how can we be confident in such testing times?"

From Angela Jeffrey, APR
Vice President Editorial Research, VMS, and
Gary Getto
Vice President Integrated Media Intelligence, VMS

We have already seen a major client accelerate its measurement efforts in the face of challenges to its budgets. Programs that were accepted on faith and commonsense are now candidates for elimination and will be cut if measurement can't demonstrate their value.

So, in this case, hard times have increased demand for measurement. Knowing if a communications program is a cost or a high yielding investment is more important than ever.

And while it is never good to have clients under financial pressure, tough times may just be the catalyst we've needed to accelerate measurement and analysis. For several years, we've been showing the correlation between news coverage and business outcomes. And new research on integrated communications is showing that positive news coverage significantly enhances the effectiveness of paid advertising, in addition to its direct impact on outcomes. So PR measurement is more important, more far reaching, and more relevant than ever.

But despite all this good news, tight budgets put downward pressure on spending and business-as-usual won't get it done. We need to communicate more than ever that PR works, that earned media improves overall communication effectiveness, and that our measurement programs are as good and as sophisticated as that of other marketing disciplines.

From Fraser Likely
President and Managing Partner
Likely Communication Strategies Ltd.

Let's assume that 'hard times' will bring on more issues and possibly crises in the organization. Historically, PR's contribution to the successful management of issues and crises has increased the perception of its value to the organization. Traditionally though, PR does little hard measurement of its role in issue and crises management.

At the same time, let's assume that 'hard times' will limit the dollars the organization spends on bringing new product into production and thus the marketing of new - and probably existing - product. Therefore, there will be less marketing PR - and thus less marketing PR (promotion; publicity) measurement. On the whole, there will be less measurement.

From Jim Macnamara
Professor of Public Communication
University of Technology Sydney

Hard times will not hit the budgets for advertising, public relations or measurement immediately. Around the world there are few reports of major cut-backs yet. However, as budget cycles roll around, some belt tightening is likely. This means that come 1 January for calendar year budgeters, and 1 July for July-June fiscals, there may be some pain.

However, there is a flip side for measurement. Hard times mean scrutiny and accountability are increased. Therefore, measurement showing effectiveness, meeting of KPIs and ROI can help maintain programs and campaigns (Do you hear that PR people?) Measurement can grow your business; it's a gainer not a drainer.

Hard times will also increase attention being given to online media. Direct methods with less wastage and more accountability are likely to receive an increased share of marketing communication budgets. A downer in this regard is that the online measurement world is not doing a good job yet. Despite work by comScore and Nielsen, many marketers are unhappy with the metrics they are receiving and efforts are underway to establish standards for online measurement.

A postscript of that is that lack of standards in PR measurement are likely to be a dampener on growth, as clients struggle to get their heads around ad values, hocus pocus PR values, impressions, OTS, CPIs, favourability ratings, etc. Standards don't mean that vendors have to forsake competitive advantages and develop generic products. Standards could be used productively to set down the basic metrics that should be measured for PR - and what should not be measured such as PR values based on multipliers - as a minimum. Then vendors can add their proprietary 'cream' on top.

From Katie Delahaye Paine
CEO, KDPaine & Partners

This is the third major economic downturn that I've seen since starting my first company in 1987. My father was around for the first one, (and for the Crash of 1929) and he was the first to assure me that it wasn't the end of the world. And he was right. As budgets got threatened, the smarter Comms people -- my clients -- turned to research to determine what was working and not working in their programs and adjusted budgets accordingly.

This economic downturn is no different, except that with social media in the mix, the budget decisions are very different. Increasingly, we're using the benchmarking research we've done in social media to help organizations determine where they should be putting their resources. What we're seeing is that people are looking at metrics like cost per message communicated or cost per engagement to sort out the expensive programs from the cheaper ones. So traditional activities like advertising, direct mail, and sponsorships are under fire, while new media activities like twitter, blogs, etc., are increasingly attracting attention and $$.

Five ideas that might help:

1. Use existing research. SNCR and KDPP both have a ton of benchmarking research that might help you decide which types of social media are best for you.

2. Talk to your web analytics folks. They're sitting on a ton of data and I've found them more than happy to share. They also know statistical analysis, so tap into their knowledge and expertise and you could have a measurement program established in a matter of minutes.

3. If you don't have a web analytics guy in house, tap in to the Web Analytics Association (WAA) and see if they can put you in touch with someone that can help.

4. Talk to your nearest university. They're always looking for real-life case studies and increasingly are using sophisticated content analysis techniques. USC, BYU, Univ. of MD, Michigan State, Univ. of Miami and Univ. of Florida all have excellent comms research programs, for starters.

5. The simplest way to measure the effectiveness of a program is to cut it out of the budget all together and see what happens. If no one complains and no one misses it, then it probably wasn't adding value.

From Mark Weiner
CEO, PRIME Research North America

Since the dawn of marketing, it's been argued that increased spending is exactly what's needed during a difficult economy. The argument, of course, always seems to be made by the marketers whose interests are at greatest risk. Certainly, research and evaluation lead to greater efficiencies during a time when doing more for less is imperative. Similarly, research and evaluation help to prove the value of public relations when everyone is looking for validation.

Equivocations aside, here are my predictions:

- Those PR people who are devoted to measurement and have proven their abilities to apply it properly will continue to invest, although they may take a more demanding position when negotiating terms. Some will be forced to switch to lower-priced alternatives while some will be forced to go without.

- Those with an interest in beginning research and evaluation programs may postpone.

- Some research and evaluation providers will be stressed to continue operating. Those providers with the most diversified foundation will succeed because their business is spread (and their risk is mitigated) across different geographies, client industry categories and service offerings. Those services with a small number of particularly large clients will be most vulnerable as the loss of one such client can be catastrophic. What's more, emerging research and evaluation companies who are now funded by venture capital may see their backers exerting extra pressure or they may see funds dry up entirely.

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