Dubai: Don't just go by those column inches. The initial moves have been set in motion that will allow local public relations (PR) agencies and their clients to get a better handle on their campaigns and, pertinently, measure their outcomes.
In other words, the industry — or some sections of it — believes the time has come to get over the obsession with measuring gains through column inches of editorial in the print media.
"There are so many mediums to market these days and PR is not just about press releases," said Nicola Gregson, managing director of Ketchum-Raad M. E.
"For instance, it could be more effective to issue a white paper or hold a business forum or round-table. That could be more effective than column inches.
"If you have a clear goal with a campaign, you need to have something solid to measure it by. Otherwise all that gives you is a stack of coverage, but it doesn't give the tone of voice, nor does it give you a share of the voice of competitors."
Barcelona Principles
While there is no formula for a tamper-proof solution, Ketchum-Raad is putting its weight behind the Barcelona Principles, which has won the backing of ten of the world's leading specialist PR firms.
In June 2010 more than 250 industry professionals met in Barcelona to agree the way forward for the PR industry with regards to measurement and the evaluation of PR results. They collectively agreed on seven pointers that make up the Barcelona Principles.
According to Gregson, some of the individual agencies within the Middle East Public Relations Association are already working on their own initiatives to set a measure for their work.
"It's now for us in the region to coach and mentor the industry through," she said. "The PR industry is working collectively working towards this."
A concerted push by the industry grouping couldn't be more timely. According to a survey conducted by Ketchum-Raad among senior corporate executives and PR professionals in the UAE, 75 per cent found that the existing regime of ‘advertising value equivalencies' felt that it did not offer a proper measure of PR activities. Even then, 44 per cent of them still relied on it.
"It's concerning that the PR industry is still relying on an antiquated method of measuring the value of what we do as a profession," said Gregson.
"The Barcelona Principles give guidance on the alternatives we should be doing. All PR consultants should do is make sure a clearly defined and measurable goal is set.
"Make sure it's specific — what you are going to do and by when, and what you are going to deliver rather than vaguely say we are going to increase coverage or awareness of something. It has got to have a figure or percentage in there."
Does this mean the end of the road for column inches as a decisive factor?
"They are not necessarily out and one of the indicators would still be the column inches you are trying to achieve [as an agency]."
As to whether all future client contracts the agency enters into will reflect changes, Gregson said: "We can't force it into any contracts. What we have been doing is discuss with all of our clients to move away from output and number of press releases issued into outcomes.
"We define what the PR objectives are and then we will go towards what outcomes you want. Forget about outputs and let's think about outcomes.
"Facts and figures that are used cannot disappear overnight. Advertising value equivalencies will be there for a while, but they will not be the defining factor. The majority of clients are working towards that with us — it will be a process of one, two or five years."
Return on investment hardly matters
Dubai: Businesses may dedicate funds set aside to mount ambitious campaigns, but many still seem to be doing so not expecting much of a bang from the buck.
In the Ketchum-Raad survey, 70 per cent of respondents felt that the return on investment (ROI) had minor or no impact on a company's public relations' spending.
This was to a question on what effect the 2011 ROI has had on clients' PR budgets for 2012. This was despite 85 per cent of in-house respondents and 95 per cent from agencies rating PR measurement as important or very important.
Widely adopted
This survey also found that only 29 per cent of respondents were aware of the Barcelona Principles, which have been widely adopted by the public relations industry internationally, with 52 per cent having no awareness of them at all.
