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PR Measurement in India
By Editor on Jul 4, 2007 in measurement
Do you measure your PR efforts for your clients? If yes, how do you do it? Do you measure each media clip obtained by the ad value of the size of the clip and present it to the client as the amount of money they have saved? Or do you compare your PR results with the objectives you have set earlier? How do you measure PR? We have heard of a lot of books but practically what are we doing right now, here in India, by the PR agencies?
This is a comment on PR measurement in India from measure wizard, reader of India PR Blog, on one of the earlier posts. I thought it might be good to post it here as well. Maybe we can share our thoughts. Also he has provided his opinions as a user of the various PR measurement service providers in India.
Here it goes -
Does measuring clips translate into PR measurement?
PR measurement should not be confused with measuring clips per column cms - it is like comparing a MF Hussain painting with one generated by Computer Graphics. Firstly, we should understand what the published material is;and why it is being published/ aired about the company in the media domain:
- How effective it is? Whether messages intended by the company are being;highlighted or not?
- How receptive the media is about the issue or the company?
- What is a prominence of the story/ how it is placed in the media?
- Which functional area of the company is getting more attention- ultimately it forms the ‘public opinion’?
- How the company is placed against its competitors?
Once we are ready to find answers to such questions above, then only we can think about analysing our communication/PR campaigns properly.
Thoughts on some measurement service providers:
1. Cirrus - It will be foolish to call Cirrus, a PR Measurement/ Analysis setup. It’s more of just an intelligent media monitoring service. Finding keywords in articles and mapping ‘tone’ is not analysis. The manpower at Cirrus… many undergratuates/ part time workers can be a concern.
2. BIU (Business Intelligence Unit, Vaishnavi) - Better than Cirrus in terms of reach, technology, and manpower. BIU has a future here, but they need to tune their offerings a little bit….see web 2.0 is waiting to be analysed.
However, I have seen couple of reports by BIU and Cirrus but I am sorry to say that I could not get any idea what these reports suggest or where my client company stands in the media domain?
3. EIKONA PR TRACK - Promising, mainly BPO work for MML,UK. The company has a brand (TAM) behind it. Customized research are possible.
4. CARMA - Provide customized research, have good global accounts but in India it is not doing well that primarily could be because of its manpower…mostly fresh graduates. They need to understand the media, corporate sector and the industry better than PR people.
5. IMPACT (Genesis) (Update: Please see comments)- Quick, fast but only charts. Yes mostly quantitative interpretation. Their report hardly suggest any interrelation between PR/ messaging with ‘what comes out’ in the media.
(The above are the reader’s personal opinions)
On Jul 11, 2007, measured wizard said:
Here is a new kid on the block, MarketingImpact by LexisNexis. For more information, LN has launched this service in India few months back, check this link - http://www.lexisnexis.com/mark.....atures.asp.
I have’nt had a chance to look at the report, So comments on ‘How it works?’
Cheers!
- huelse
On Jul 11, 2007, -huelse said:
http://www.businessweek.com/ma....._top+story
Interesting read on How Communication / PR Measurement / Analysis / Research or whatever you call it, can help, designing right messages or key messages. JUST READ IT!
On Jul 12, 2007, Anonymous said:
Impact does provide customized research…It offers clients following options:
• A DIY kit on its site to clients enabling them to do analysis themselves.
• Impact has a team of qualified analysts to provide qualitative analysis to the clients on their request.
On Jul 12, 2007, Anonymous said:
Thanks for updating us, Anonymous.
DIY measurment kit, interesting…I have a question here, How one can evaluate your own work?
On Jul 12, 2007, measured wizard said:
http://alanchumley.wordpress.com/
A must read for all those PR agencies and their clients, who appreciate Advertisement Equivalence Reports…
On Jul 16, 2007, ashwani singla said:
Dear HobbitHob,
Just a few factual corrections. Impact does not belong to genesis. Prema Sagar and Ashwani Singla are investors in the company. Infact Impact is “agency aignostic” and works with several PR firms independently with its own management team.
Second, Impact provides both quantitative and qualitative evaluation and analysis of news ‘custom tailored’ to the requirements of its clients. It allows for both DIY ( Do-it-yourself) options as well as custom analysis.
I would like to thank you for talking about the issue of measurement however you have limited your perspective to only media measurement, which is only a way to grasp whether the message is being registered and the medium of endorsement is that which is seen, heard, read or browsed by your target group.
The real value is in measuring the shifts in “behaviour” and “perceptions” before and after the campaign aligned to the purpose of your programme. That science is well defined and available for the industry to adopt. Perhaps more discussion and focus is required in this regard and I am sure we will see that emerge in your futire blogposts.
As regard media measurement, no right minded media measurement company will seek to measure the impact of the programme through only the narrow window of media analytics, but seeks to provide an insight to communicators as regard the “quality of the message transmitted”, the “issues being discussed and debated” that have an impact on company reputation and the “share of news & views” in relevant mediums and markets. This helps course correct or augument the media relations endeavour of any company to make it more relevent.
I am delighted with this effort and compliment you for the same.
Keep up the good work.
On Jul 16, 2007, hobbithob said:
Hi Ashwani, thanks for the encouragement and the clarification on Impact. Yes, we need to get a more detailed discussion on perception measurement. That’s a good area to focus on that many in the industry will find interesting.
On Jul 16, 2007, Rajesh said:
Interesting - somewhere in the post I read about measuring efforts in the web space. It is getting very exciting that space - on the net, tracking is relatively easier but accuracy in terms of first relevant content, then in terms of figuring out the tone of voice is the interesting challenge. How much of the latter can we get technology to do… I have seen algos that, at least on paper, say it is possible to seed softwares that can do that (maybe over a period after collection of relevant keywords)etc.
Some overseas brands have made a ‘first’ sincere attempt to engage in programmes with clearly defined results and measurement parameters in place - Nikon being a case in point. Am sure you have read about it already.
Cheers
R
On Jul 17, 2007, mw said:
Wow! Thanks Hobbit. See, Mavens are taking interest and sharing their thoughts on the much awaited, I should say ignored, TOPIC in communication domain in India.
I would like to add here - Correlation can be established between the Sales and Media coverage through a Narrow window of Media Analytics if the research is design properly. Ofcourse, gauging Change of behaviour or opinion would be more real if ‘on the ground’ research goes side by side. Measuring media simply means to UNDERSTAND YOUR MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION, as Ashwani said.
Thanks Ashwani for your inputs and ‘Corrections’, impact has come a long way , it seems.
-mw
On Jul 17, 2007, hobbithob said:
Hi Rajesh and mw, thanks for taking the coversations forward.
Rajesh, yes read about Nikon’s blogger relations programmes of late. Not sure if this is the one you are mentioning.
mw, would love to hear more of the correlation between sales and media coverage.
I feel like inviting you guys for a guest write on these topics. This is pretty interesting and new to many in the industry. I have done the ad val and that was it on measurement, to tell you frankly.
On Jul 18, 2007, measured wizard said:
First thing first.
‘Ad Val’ aka AVEs, Reject it! Can not use AVEs in measuring editorial success. AVEs measure the space generated by PR editorial in a publication, and calculate how much that space would cost in advertising rates…its not the Right Measure. Here are some fundamental points to ponder over:
Editorial-
Appears only if the media feels it is ‘newsworthy’ or relevant to its audience. The original message may be changed or added to as part of the editorial process. May be used in a wide variety of media beyond the initial media the material is sent to.
Advertising-
Is paid for an carefully placed in selectively targeted media. Says exactly what the company wants to say. Is restricted to the media paid for.
AVEs has to be discouraged, first. According to my understanding, except TEXT100, all PR agencies in India bank on AVEs to justify their work.
I will touch Correlation between Sales and PR / Media coverage, soon.
- mw
On Jul 18, 2007, hobbithob said:
I think AV analysis can be helpful if done comparatively among a client company and competitors. Strange I have not found many doing it like this. Yes, awaiting your input on the other topic.
On Jul 19, 2007, measured wizard said:
It might be helpful if one’s PR objective is only to compete to ‘Capture a space in publications.’ Anyways, can we carry ffwd this Measurement discussion on a new post, its getting lengthy, readers might loose interest…
-mw
On Jul 19, 2007, hobbithob said:
i have a suggestion, mw. can you write a guest article on your cooralation between sales and media clips and we will take it from there.
On Jul 19, 2007, measured wizard said:
make sense…so you want me to email you?
On Jul 19, 2007, hobbithob said:
yes that would be great.
On Jul 23, 2007, ashwani singla said:
The most important aspect is to “measure” what you set out to achieve. Simplu put, if the goal is media space then measure it. However the long term goal should be to measure the shifts in behaviour and perception as that is the essence of the profession. I do believe that is the responsibility each one of us in the profession have to it - to be true to our profession.
An anology here is that we go to a doctor to be well and healthy over a long period of time. If a fever is measured in the short term by “temperature” the immediate impact of medicine is reduction on temperature - a good measure for that action but does temperatuire alone stand for a measure of good health. perhaps not. That is the point. Measure short term objectives - meadia, visits, page views, etc. etc. but don’t forget to measure your long term goal too!