Too Many PRs Spoil Measurement

What do you get when you put the leaders of five global professional measurement and evaluation bodies and 150 delegates from the world’s top measurement companies and PR agencies together in one room? According to @Sean376, a pile of S#@t, and I completely agree.

As you may be aware, the above “experts” all met this week at the second European Summit on Measurement in Barcelona to produce the first global standard of PR measurement. This is something that has eluded the PR industry since its inception; with various initiatives looking to deliver a universal framework to no avail, but perhaps the problem is that there is not a one-size-fits all approach.

This may be seen as slightly cynical, but in my experience no client, campaign or PR agency has ever been the same and measurement is a somewhat customised tool. For example, a common task set to us as a PR agency is to support sales, but even this could be measured in a multitude of ways:

• Website traffic (for example, using vanity url’s to track inbound traffic generated)
• Brand awareness (increasing share of voice and awareness amongst customers)
• Sales increase (taking into consideration other marketing activities)
• AVE (it has its merits when speaking to the CFO)
• Attendance to launch event (public/press/celebrity)

I could go on but you get the idea. I think the main frustration of this initiative is not that they are attempting the impossible, as I feel some standardisation or best practices should be established, but that in 3-days a total of 7 common-sense principles were drafted.

I look forward to the rest of the industry’s reaction, but in the meantime you can check out the seven key principles on the PRWeek website here, or for perhaps if you are looking for a satirical view then check Sean’s post here.