Presentation by Libby Howard of Intelligent Conversation, Rick Guttridge of Smoking Gun PR independent measurement and evaluation consultant Steph Bridgeman on PR Measurement
2. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
What we will cover
• How to keep measurement front of mind
when pitching for, briefing with and
retaining clients
• Incorporating measurement into award
winning case studies
• Embedding measurement techniques
across the organisation, both agency and
client side
• Measurement on a limited budget
4. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
Measurement: why bother?
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The good news
• 88% always or sometimes measure/evaluate comms work
• Only 12% do no form of measurement
The challenges
• 46% still use AVEs
• 75% think the PR industry is not good at measurement – but 100% agree it
is important for our future (and 76% say it’s crucial)
Sample size: 16 respondents. 50% work in a PR agency, 31% in-house, remainder student/other
Results of audience poll
6. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
#1: It can will bring you more income
“We will move more money from paid
for the right ideas.
We want a newsroom.”
80%
20%
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#2 It gives you influence at the top
“You cut through in a business when you use the language of business, not the
language of communications and marketing.”
8. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
#3 It is essential for our survival
“In the future there
will be two kinds of
agencies, those that
measure and those
that don’t.”
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Still not convinced?
10. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
Industry context
• 2010: launch of Barcelona principles (AMEC)
• 2011: PR Week bans AVEs from award entries
• 2012: CIPR bans AVEs from award entries
• 2014: launch of social media metrics (AMEC)
• 2015: launch of Barcelona principles 2.0
11. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
Our story
• Proud of PR as a complex and professional discipline – NOT ‘fluffy’!
• How could we demonstrate that?
• Project with independent expert
• Basic measures, dashboard
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• Clearer thinking (what does success look like?)
• Celebrating success (targets reached)
• A clear end to a piece of work
• Scary at times but also exciting
What difference did it make? Team
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What difference did it make? Clients
• Agency is seen as confident,
professional, transparent
• Success is clearly evidenced
• Dashboards make the client look
good internally
• Impact at CEO/board level
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What difference did it make? Agency
• Supports a distinctive positioning – strategic, professional, high
standards
• Awards success
• We have won more work from existing clients
• Has moved us into digital and built skills and income here
15. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
Practical advice
16. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
measurement + innovation = transformation
(Cannes lions)
17. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
What clients say
“We need more Likes
than our competitors!”
“What difference will
these followers make to
our bottom line?” “Success will include a
DPS in the Daily Express
because our CEO’s
parents read it.”
18. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
What we've done
• Banished AVEs at launch
• Won CIPR award for Best Evaluation - metrics
inc. Eyeballs per £ spent
• challenged clients for more information - sales
updates, brand tracking etc.
• require google analytics access as standard
• Tried (and ditched) many tools to help us -
there’s no silver bullet, I promise you
19. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• IPA effectiveness awards
• Big Chip Digital Awards
• PPC - invest £ and expect £ back
• Media buying - what coverage by target audience
- frequency etc.
• DM - “Dave who lives within 2 miles of a derelict
pub is most likely to need our loan”
Learning from other disciplines
20. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
5 barriers to great evaluation
• Client apathy (they don’t know what they don’t know)
• Lack of clarity on the really important data
• Paralysis by fear
• Ostrich syndrome from the PR leaders (in-house or agency)
• YOY comparisons (the stick to beat you with)
21. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
10 things to measure & analyse when pitching
• Link volume / authority
• Share of media voice
• Influencer audits
• Social media account comparisons
• Content analysis
• Net promoter scores
• Brand tracking
• Audience behaviours inc. media consumption
• SERPS around brand and key product
22. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• A phrase of unknown origin describing the use of
statistics to bolster a weak argument
• Could very well be describing PR measurement
during my career!
• The Pritt Stick and scissors days!
“Lies, damned lies and statistics!”
24. Website ranked
c 104 in the world!
5m+ unique visitors
a day (avg newspaper
circulation 1.6m weekdays,
212k on Sundays
Average reader
age 28 (newspaper
62)
Story voting has been a
roaring success (inspired
new Facebook feature?!)
26. • What to measure?
• 1 x national hit?
• Reach - 5m+ uniques a day?
• Number of comments?
• social shares?
• messaging?
• Photo galleries
26
27. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
5 top tool tips
• Markettiers - test audience sentiment to coverage
(online)
• NLA Article Impact Checker - how many people
ACTUALLY went to that page, shared via social,
reproduced article elsewhere etc
• Youtube videos - look at how many people actually
watch ALL the film
• Facebook video views beware NAPOLEON Syndrome
re your figures
• coveragebook.com
28. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• Persil Washing Up Liquid- Cook With
The Kids:
o Net Promoter score
o Propensity to buy post campaign
• Silentnight - Sleep Expert:
o Share of voice, 8 x more media
coverage than key competitor
o Agreement with statement that SN
is the UK’s Sleep Expert - compared
to last period
• Red Bull Harbour Reach
o Red Bull Gives You Wiiiiings
29. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• There’s a lot of good PR work going on, use
measurement to establish yourselves as GREAT
• Always being focused on the right results is imperative
• An award is not the most important thing!
Winning awards
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A view from the measurement
industry
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How many content metrics can you spot in the article from the handouts?
Practical facilitated by Steph Bridgeman
36. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• Even major corporations still at quite early stages
• Start small – doing something is better than doing nothing
• eBAY: “done is better than perfect”
• Fail fast – if it doesn’t work, try again
Don’t be daunted
38. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
Barcelona Principles 2.0
39. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• One size will never fit all, but there are lots of
resources to help you
• Keep it simple: outputs, outcomes, impact
• Think about what you can measure (and don’t forget
social media)
• Ask your client for data
#1 Find or create a basic framework
43. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• A small project is the perfect starting point – beginning, middle and end
• If you’re worried try it ‘blind’
• Learn, refine
• Then train your team and roll it out
#2 Try it out
44. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• Make your evaluation look good
• Invest in professional support if you can
• Push your client to consider e.g. tracking
research for major projects
#3 Invest
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• Less is more, C-suite want information on a page
• Focus on insights
• A useful technique: summarise the campaign aim
in a sentence
• “We believe that by doing X we will achieve Y”
And finally… keep it simple
46. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• www.hypestat.com
• http://amecorg.com/barcelona-principles-2-0/
• #measurepr Tweet chat Oct 6th 5pm (12-1 ET)
• https://prstack.co/#/
• moz.com
• http://www.google.com/analytics/
• https://monitorbacklinks.com/
Helpful resources
47. The Measure of Success30 September 2015
• AMEC’s Evaluation https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WVHY3FF
• (Bottle of champagne up for grabs)
• CIPR evaluation – see handout
• Questionnaire from us – see handout
48. Libby Howard – MD at Intelligent Conversation
@LibbyHoward
@weare_ic
libby@weareic.com
Rick Guttridge – MD at Smoking Gun PR
@rickguttridge
@smokinggunpr
rick@smokinggunpr.co.uk
Steph Bridgeman - Independent evaluation specialist and provider of
agile freelance teams specialising in monitoring and measurement
@stephbridgeman
stephbridgeman@googlemail.com
49. Next event from Lancs Group:
Facing the Future – where are
PR and journalism going?
Edge Hill, 3rd November
