Following on in quick succession from the purchase of Metrica by Durrants at the end of October last year, we are delighted to welcome Gorkana to the group today.  The story has been well covered in the national, trade and social media and has stimulated plenty of discussion.

 

We're very excited to be working with Gorkana.  When Metrica came together with Durrants in October, the plan was to build the industry's leading media intelligence organisation covering all of the key stages in the PR life cycle.  Durrants' media monitoring, Gorkana's PR planning and Metrica's PR measurement consultancy means that for the first time it is possible to work with the market leaders as part of one group.

 

In the short term it will be business as usual for all three firms.  As Durrants' Managing Director Jeremy Thompson explains over on Speed MD Wadds' blog:

 

"How soon can we get an enterprise deal for Durrants, Gorkana and Metrica products and services?

 

We’re not going to rush to integrate. The key is stability, and to build something really special for the long term. We are very happy to do enterprise deals from day one though, and have already done a number for Durrants and Metrica combined services." 

 

In the near future, we will create a fully integrated offering in response to the demands and needs of our clients.  We have already conducted significant research amongst the PR industry to help us understand the specific needs of today's PR pros.  But we're always keen to hear more so do please feel free to contact us with your views and ideas.

 

The final thoughts go again to Jeremy:

 

"This move is transformational as it completes the coming together of three market leaders, all with strong reputations for delivering exceptional services and customer support...  Durrants acquired Metrica, the award winning media evaluation specialist in October 2009. Combining Gorkana with Durrants media monitoring and Metrica analysis will give our customers unrivalled access to the ‘best of breed’ solution for every stage of the PR workflow.” 

 

Watch this space!

 

 

Has it really been a whole year since we launched our re-vamped charity benchmarking report, the Metrica Charity Radar? We have seen so many events shape the charity sector over the last twelve months, whether they are global crises, such as the Haiti Earthquake, or UK fundraising events which have captured the imagination, such as Eddie Izzard running an obscene amount in aid of Sport Relief.   

Here at Metrica, we’ve put together an annual version of our Radar report, to be able to see what has driven the news agenda across all the different charity sectors this financial year, and it makes for very interesting reading! 

To begin with, the Haiti earthquake was by far the biggest single event driving coverage, affecting over 20 charities, including Oxfam, the Red Cross and the DEC. This generated sustained coverage throughout January and February, as various organisations offered to help.  

Some stories were slightly smaller, but came back into the public eye throughout the year, such as the case of a policeman who left two police dogs to die in a hot car. The RSPCA were involved in this case when it was first reported, when the trial began and when sentencing occurred, proving that some stories can keep running over a long period of time.  

Political issues often made an appearance in our Radar report, illustrated by the fact that Gordon Brown is far and away the most prolific public figure to feature in charity coverage, being mentioned in over 15,000 articles this year, followed by the ever charitable Gary Barlow with almost 5,000! 

So who emerged top in the annual report? Get in touch to find out! Email the team on charity@metrica.net or give us a call on 020 7922 1670. The Radar report could be a great planning tool for next year’s PR activities, or just a great way to get an overview of all that has happened in your sector over the past 12 months.

The video below is a great (and short) interview from the excellent MyRagan (an online PR community generated by Ragan Communications, a US based PR consultancy). It features Adam Brown, Coca-Cola's Group Director of Digital Communications, discussing the PR strategy and benefits of 'Expedition 206' - Coke sending three of their brand advocates to all 206 countries in the world where their product is for sale. Watch it in the video clip below, or if you are reading this update via email, then head over to MyRagan's website directly to view.

It doesn't discuss the PR measurement side of the activity in much detail however. That's where maybe the PR community and I can help tomorrow (Tuesday). I will be the guest of Shonali Burke answering questions on all things relevant to PR measurement in both the traditional and new media. Fittingly I will be doing this via a Twitter chat. Shonali's #measurepr has grown to be a tremendous success with regular chats on alternate Tuesdays. Previous guests have included the excellent Sean Williams of CommAmmo and the indomitable Katie Paine of KDPaine and Partners.  

Shonali's 'Measure PR' twitter chats are always entertaining and well attended. The event should attract many leading lights from social media PR from across the globe so if you're looking for an international perspective on the latest PR measurement issues and trends, why not join us on Twitter at 5-6pm GMT (12-1pm Eastern Time, 9-10am Pacific Time).  Be sure to follow along in realtime either in MyMetrica, Tweetdeck or Tweetgrid and don't be shy, join the conversation  

Finally, if you would like to direct message me, please be sure to follow me first - find me on twitter at @richardbagnall.

I hope to see you there.

It’s that time of the year that we all look forward to.  Snow is falling and festivities flowing as we prepare to say goodbye to 2009.  It’s been quite a year.  Not least remembered for a heavy downward pressure on budgets; in turn fanning the flames of the eternal debate about how much should be spent on PR measurement.

Back in 1998, the CIPR, PRCA, Public Relations Standards Forum (PRSF) and AMEC put their heads together and produced best practice guidelines on the use of planning, research and evaluation within the industry.  The aim of the campaign, known as PR Week’s Proof campaign, was to encourage companies to allocate 10% of PR budget to measurement.  Over ten years on and, although the 10% figure is often cited, the reality is rather different.  Metrica Insights found that over half (52%) of respondents spend between 1-5% on measurement.  The respondents do, however, believe they should be spending more on evaluation: almost half the participants currently spending between 1-5% recognise that they should be spending between 6-10%.

So, herein lies the conundrum. When budgets are being squished and results are under close scrutiny does it pay to hold fast and continue dedicating 10% to measurement?  Here at Metrica (heavily vested interest aside!) we would argue that the answer is yes.  As long as it’s done properly.  There’s little point spending swathes of money on measurement if it doesn’t demonstrate PR’s contribution to the success of the business.  Counting clips and presenting AVEs won’t make the money spent worthwhile; generating ROI metrics that help prove and improve the effectiveness of PR will.  If you can use your measurement for well-informed planning, tweaking and improving then the budget really starts to sing hard for its supper. 

Interestingly, while more respondents’ 2009 PR budgets decreased (30%) than increased (20%), the majority (46%) stayed the same.  This was a very encouraging result during a global recession.  The widening remit of PR in the social media realm may well have had something to do with this.  Even more reassurance came as 28% of respondents were confident of an increase in overall PR budgets coming into 2010.  Is this result a reality?  Have your budgets been decided yet? And, most importantly, have you put aside a set amount for measurement? 

Next time we’re looking at opinions around ROI – the catch of the day, the phrase du jour, the Holy Grail. At long last there’s been increased demand for PR ROI.  How are our respondents satisfying this demand?  We’ll be back in the New Year to find out. Happy Christmas everyone!

The great and the good of the PR measurement industry gathered last night for the annual AMEC Awards, and it was a "scorcher" of an evening, as a tabloid-inspired Nick Grant put it. With winners from as far afield as Australia, Germany, Dubai and right here at Metrica towers, our industry seems in rude health. 

Trevor Morris, Visiting Professor of Public Relations at the University of Westminster and chair of AMEC's judging panel, noted the high quality of entries put before the judging panel. His opening remarks served as a great reminder of the attributes that make good PR measurement programmes great, and in turn provide maximum value to the clients we work with:

- Wrap every aspect of your measurement around your client's objectives. And don't stop at PR objectives either- clients need our help to show the contribution PR has made to the wider organisation, as well as keeping its own house in order. The language in which they communicate performance is also key.

- Think about what isn't published, as well as what is. In tricky times our clients spend a lot of time minimising the impact of negative coverage and / or killing the story before it draws breath. Consider negative message tracking (with upside down "maximum of" KPI's) and look for ways to correlate media relations activity with journalist output.

- Focus on the Outcome. Too many organisations stop their measurement at the output stage, when that's only half the story. Our clients conduct newshook research all the time - just one additional question could help them to demonstrate a change in behaviour/ attitude as a result of their PR activity. Find out how data is correlated on your client's organisational performance and aim to feed measurement data into it. 

 The number of companies winning awards last night (I lost count at ten - and I don't mean glasses of wine!) shows that we're getting the message as an industry, and our clients are getting greater insight from our measurement as a result.

One final thought from last night  - Geordie Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard, spoke of the reasons behind the decision to adopt a free distribution model, and insisted that, had the paper not gone free, it would not have been in circulation today. Greig also mentioned that certain UK national papers are losing in excess of £100,000 a day. With closure the only other apparent outcome, I'm fascinated by the concept that newspapers may have to become free outlets to survive, just as news outlets and the NLA begin to charge people for accessing online content.

The death of the newspaper has been announced time and time again, but perhaps we are approaching the point where the only "scorcher" left is print itself going up in flames.

After Metrica's exciting news last week regarding our acquisition by Durrants, it’s back to business as usual on the blog.  So, on with our introductory post from Metrica Insights...  

With solid PR objectives sorted, the next thing to think about is how they will be measured.  Do you need to do pre and post research?  Do you need to feed into a marketing mix model that the advertisers are running?  Do you need to measure your media output? A wise man once said, “not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”  One of the biggest barriers to doing the right measurement is often cited as money.  Gravitating towards the quick ROI win helps.  Piggy back on the advertising department’s econometric model.  Add an evaluation question to your newshook research.

A worrying 12% of respondents don’t measure the results of PR.  It brings to mind a couple of business maxims that still ring true: what gets measured is what gets done; you can’t manage what you don’t measure.  Clichéd, yes, but oh so true.

So how are people using measurement? Overall, the trend shows the growing importance of media evaluation.  Which is great.   

What looks worrying however is the decreased use of PR measurement for planning since we last asked in 2006.  Only when measurement is used for tactical readjustments as well as strategic planning and refinement does it truly show its value.

For the first time we also asked if measurement is used to track and respond to social media.  68% said yes.  Now, I don’t know about you but I can only imagine this increasing overtime.  Tracking effectively is the first step.  Chris Brogan, an internet sensation known for his sagely advice says, “grow bigger ears”.  Listen first and listen hard (or get your media measurement agency to do it for you).  Then you can decide what action to take.

PR measurement can wear many hats.  It can be a benchmarking or campaign measurement tool, it can be used for audience targeting and media planning, it can justify additional PR budget and resources and it can be used for agency or staff performance.  Ideally measurement should serve all these purposes, and more; the list’s by no means exhaustive.  By increasing the uses you put your measurement to, you increase the value you get from it.

Before we say goodbye, here are some practical tips to take away right this minute:

• Check your objectives match those of the organisation, are measurable and have timeframes
• Ask around your organisation about existing marketing mix modelling / econometrics and market research.  If it's happening, get involved.
• Have a good think about how measurement is currently being used.  Have you got an actionable tool that helps you tweak tactics, set strategies and communicate your success to the business?  Or do you just flick through your lengthy report and contemplate its usefulness as a doorstop? Make your measurement work hard for its money.

Speaking of money, our next instalment is all about money.  Everybody loves a £ / $ / € sign.  We’ll be looking at how much people spend on measurement.  Is there a right amount?  How have other PRO’s budgets been affected this year?  What’s the outlook for 2010?  Until then…