Public relations evaluation
Public relations is a notoriously difficult activity to measure. PR is about reputation and it may be that you don’t know how much a reputation is worth until it’s gone.
About twelve years ago my boss came unstuck after claiming that media coverage, won by public relations, was worth so many times an advertisement taking up the same space. The client had queried this and I was tasked with trying to find some reputable source to back him up. There wasn’t one, because this is nonsense, a kind of PR Urban Myth.
Yet amazingly some people are still making great claims for equivalent advertising values. Editorial is worth three times the equivalent ad in a newspaper; four times if it’s in a magazine. Why? Just because…
There are times when editorial is much more valuable than an advertisement. If I find a film review with an ad for the same side-by-side in the same publication, I’m more likely to believe the review. Yet a terrible review is surely worth far less than a good or a non-committed review.
Entertainment is one of the few fields where it may be true that all publicity is good. For most businesses bad news is damaging and this over simplistic approach to media evaluation simply can’t handle that.
More worrying, the person who measures media activity in this way is unlikely to be deploying public relations strategically. The chances are that they’re engaged in public relations as puff, at best competing with advertising to raise awareness of a product.
Public relations can be evaluated, but evaluation has to be built in at the planning stage. And it’s not that difficult. If a PR understands the client’s business objectives, they should be able to identify the publics that have a stake in that business and the communications challenge each stakeholder presents. From here they can work out the key messages they need to get across – and create opportunities for the business to learn – and how best to deliver those.
When it comes to media coverage, an article is worth nothing if it doesn’t say the right thing to right people at the right time. And it doesn’t matter whether the medium is a newspaper or a magazine.
Comments (7 comments)
When I see a film review next to an ad for the same film; I am less likely to believe the review because I automatically think the publication is trying to keep their advertising dollars rolling in. Obviously not all press is good press, but the public (as I would hope the industry would be) is getting smarter than advertising.
drew / October 8th, 2007, 7:57 pm / #
Interesting. So it in that case, editorial is worth less than advertising?
Stephen Newton / October 8th, 2007, 8:01 pm / #
Why have different multipliers for mags (4x) and papers (3x) when their comparative worth is already factored into the different ad rates?
Statistician / October 9th, 2007, 2:33 pm / #
[...] Tja… und dann steht man da und macht sich Überlegungen wie jende, die sich auch Stephen stellt: “Public relations is a notoriously difficult activity to measure. PR is about [...]
Grenzpfosten : PR Evaluation - Ein ewiges Lied / November 8th, 2007, 1:11 pm / #
Stephen, you start out saying it’s difficult then say it’s easy. I think what you meant to say was that it’s only difficult if you begin with a flaky objective and without first getting answers to the right questions before setting out your PR plan. Advertising Value Equivalent as a measure of PR success was always fundamentally flawed and still is. But it will continue to be used while ever clients accept it as valid. I’ve known marketing directors use it just to give their finance colleagues a statistic that stops them asking too many searching questions. Educated clients is what we need more of, both within and without the marketing dept.
Anonymous / November 15th, 2007, 2:36 pm / #
You’re right I’m full of contradictions.
Stephen Newton / November 15th, 2007, 2:45 pm / #
Stephen,
the perennial problem
I have seen a laughable example where because a PR agency got one line about their clients stately home or something similar, an associate claimed it was worth £165,000 worth of coverage as it was in The Sun. Most of the page was taken up with a couple of Z list celebrities posing in front of doors and walls, but nothing that would give the location away.
What is the value of a particular piece of coverage? What the client would be prepared to pay for it if they had to advertise there might be a start
Rob
Rob Artisan / November 26th, 2007, 6:02 pm / #
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