Rosanna M. Fiske, chair and CEO of the Public Relations

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Public Relations Measurement Goes Mainstream
Rosanna M. Fiske, APR
PRSA Chair and CEO
North American Summit on Public Relations Measurement
Sept. 18, 2011
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the ninth-annual North American Summit on Public Relations
Measurement. I come before you today as the chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of
America, an organization that is not only co-sponsoring this summit, but is deeply engaged in
the global discussions and initiatives concerning public relations measurement.
I want to first thank IPR President and CEO Frank Ovaiit for inviting me to provide some
opening remarks for this year’s summit. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be with all of
you today, discussing a subject near and dear to my heart and to the mission of PRSA.
Over the past nine years, this Summit has been the leading voice for discussion and revelation
in the burgeoning area of public relations measurement. When it began in 2003, measurement
was on the minds of many, but still not at the forefront of our profession’s core focus. How times
have changed!
Fast forward to 2011, and we’re a year removed from the groundbreaking Barcelona Principles
and just a few months past the Lisbon Summit. Both of which set the stage for objective global
measurement standards that I know many of you have argued for many years.
I’m here to tell you that your work did not go unnoticed. Those of us who work in public
relations, who make our living in this business, who care deeply about its role and value,
particularly to the business community, owe you a sincere debt of gratitude. For without your
important work in an area that all too often does not get as much attention as it deserves, the
public relations profession would not be realizing the significant and growing value that it has
today.
And it’s not just those of us who work in the profession that are taking notice. Case in point:
Over the summer, I was thrilled when The Wall Street Journal’s “Numbers Guy” devoted his
regular WSJ Weekend column to the subject of public relations measurement. I’m sure many of
you read the article, but I wanted to reflect on a point made by an Australian PR executive that
summed up just how far we’ve come, yet the significant work that remains.
Wall Street Journal reporter Carl Bialik relays a story of how longtime Australian publicist Max
Markson told a reporter, when asked about the monetary value of a photo he sold of the
infamous kissing couple in the Vancouver riots, he told reporters that the image was worth 10

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million Australian dollars, a number he apparently “pulled out of thin air because the reporter
was on deadline.”
So, it’s good to know we have public relations professionals who are at least offering a value
when speaking of their work. But not so good when they just “pull the figure out of thin air,” or
use an absurd exaggeration that can’t possibly be corroborated.
Clearly, we still have a ways to go to fully integrate objective measurement standards that aren’t
built upon exaggerations or deadline-infused wild guesses.
As PRSA wrote to The Wall Street Journal at the time, it is through the work of the Barcelona
Principles, which laid out a framework for global measurement standards, along with the Lisbon
Summit, both of which PRSA was a party to and played a role in advising, that leaves me
confident that the public relations profession is well on its way toward developing more stringent
global measurement standards that will meet the business community's desires for measurable
value regarding its investment in PR services. And at a time when marketers and advertisers
are equally concerned with developing more objective measurement standards, it behooves us
to continue to be keenly focused on this vital initiative.
And that’s really what this summit is all about: building a bridge between the significant and
prominent work that you and many others have already accomplished in the area of public
relations measurement with the realities and challenges that PR professionals around the world
face daily. Through the discussions you will have over the next two days, you will help set the
agenda for the profession’s focus on, and exploration of, measurement. And that is a vitally
important initiative, particularly as client budgets continue to tighten and the world becomes a
more data-driven society.
So, on behalf of the Public Relations Society of America, and the entire U.S. public relations
profession, I thank you for your important work and the insight you will provide. We simply would
not be where we are today, well on our way toward developing a global measurement standard
in public relations, if it were not for the discussions and debates that take place at the North
American Summit on Public Relations Measurement.
Now, let me introduce today’s opening keynote speaker, Anne Fenice. She is the director of
critical metrics analysis systems at Yahoo and a renowned expert on public relations
measurement and research. A former media analyst and research at Edelman, Anne now
develops research programs and designs strategic reports that drive informed business
decisions for multiple Fortune 500 companies.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to the stage Ann Fenice of Yahoo!