Measuring PR-results: The truth is right near the task

PR-measure is always out of the project field

After 15 years of journalism and public relations I don’t get any more into a debate about what is PR, whether it should sell, whether it is advertising for free, and whether it is right. Two of three pitching briefs are aimed to find an agency which will place the greatest number of publications for the lowest price. Sometimes they add "in the most high-circulation media" or the most visited Internet resources. Of course, the number of publications can be a measure, it’s a good, simple and easy-to-count way to look at PR-results. In practice, nobody has any guarantee that anybody read those publications and loved the brand after reading.

Anyway, after signing the contract winners start their fight for attracting media attention to the facts which do not pose any interest for society. It makes everybody unhappy. The company claims that PR-support does not sell, PR-managers argue that public relations is not advertising, and do not have to sell anything. "We support your reputation," they say proudly. And here the dialogue comes to a dead end, because nobody is able to measure the reputation. It’s possible to estimate the brand value or intangible assets, but reputation as it is still is out of numbers.

Intuitively, one can suppose that a company with a good reputation will attract more highly qualified specialists who will produce the best product, and consumers will buy it more likely. However, the percentage of the increase and exact date of it is impossible to be predicted during the contest for PR-support. Famous and powerful company may be the largest taxpayer in its region, it can support local initiatives and develop relations with local authorities to get tax preferences. But no one can call the exact figure of the tax rate before negotiations begin. Well-known manager, positioned as a deep expert, is popular among journalists. The company appears in newspapers, and those articles may impress the banking analyst writing the report about a loan application. However, at a particular moment, I repeat, of selecting an agency, the question about the credit is not even written in the agenda of the Board of Directors. Thereby, the universal unit of measurement of the financial ROI of good PR can not be derived. Underlined: it can’t be derived before the PR-campaign ends.

So, we have something which can be measured only after receiving the report of realization. This approach to PR-activities takes us on a field of the experiment, full of risks and surprises, and obviously disliked by managers. However, the same characteristics of connection of PR and its value and financial planning brings us to the idea that PR value can be expressed through the price of the task it has to solve. Looks like more realistic approach, does it?

One of our clients briefed us for the contest with a fairly standard parameters of measuring the result: the number of publications, media coverage, the total cost of the project, etc. No particular problem has been specified in the brief, we didn’t know why the company needs our services. PR-promotion is always a process, which real result always stays behind the door of the high office. However, after examining the client’s corporate materials, we concluded that the company is either seeking a buyer for its assets, or is going to attract some big investor. We built our proposal based on the assumption of the sale. This led us to the rough estimation of the company and understanding that there is no possible buyer for them inside our country. So our idea was focused and not only on Russian media, but also on the EU and the U.S. We were right, so we won. The transaction volume is still not disclosed, but it is not important, we were happy that our assumption was right.

Another case is about with Russian launch of the international IT-company. Since the company was not so well-known so far on our market, its brand couldn’t become the locomotive of promotion. Right the opposite, people learned about the product, and remembered the producer’s brand. We tried to convince the customer that the Russian media need persons, and speakers, and stories, not advantages and price of the product, but it was useless. Our PR support was part of the sales process and the first approximation to the market. It means that the result can be measured by marketing standards – the rise of awareness and demand.

Our customers from Finland and Sweden asked us to create a new brand and make PR-support of the new company in the Russian market. As this company was established by two different branches, the real PR-task was to hold the customer base of each of two companies and carefully direct their interest to the new name on the market. We reached it, although the reports were still based on the number of publications and media names.

It turns out that when the client announces a contest to choose the PR-agency, he is well aware, or at least hold in hand all the information for an adequate assessment of the communication campaign. Moreover, he also has an idea about ​​the intangible parameters of the project - about the key persons to be impressed, important events where he must be presented, all the "pros" and "contras" of relations with customers, suppliers, partners and creditors. But this information is closed, agencies are telling fortunes on the crystal ball and the winner makes more publications for the lower price. Is it possible to change anything here?

In fact, it is. The way of changes starts on the understanding PR-goals by PR-managers inside the company. This understanding will give us the measurement units. It can be compared with a number of gunshots. You make 10 shots, no hit – is that a result? If you wanted to be heard and to make everybody know that you’ve got several guns, this result is quite brilliant. But if you wanted to eat a duck, you’ve failed. So you may see for yourself – the measure of the result must be connected to the client’s task, not to agency’s experience, or media-list, or the contract price.