Holmes Report the resource for corporate communications, public relations professionals, journalists
Agency leaders believe effective measurement and evaluation?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùparticularly as it relates to the ability to reach opinion leaders and change attitudes?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùis critical to the future success of the public relations business. But they give the PR industry low marks for its ability to measure effectively, and complain that clients are generally unwilling to pay for evaluation.
When I moved from journalism to public relations, I worked for an educational institution. Our main job was to crank out press releases and send them out. That was easy; I could certainly write and I didn't care what happened to the press releases once they went out. We did this for the first two years I worked there, until one day a new boss insisted that we stop.
We were told to think first, plan, and then communicate. It was then that I learned how important research is to successfully communicating a message. I thought this was what we did as PR practioners? When did it become so hard to sell research as a valuable part of the communications planning process?
I see research as being part of measurement. And measurement is the only way to show that attitudes have changed and the message has been received.
This Holmes' Report indicates that clients are unwilling to pay additional fees for evaluation. Does this mean they don't want to pay for fancy software tools that provide a snapshot of the campaign, or they are being asked to pay for something that should be part of the evaluation of the campaign? I don't work for an agency, so perhaps I don't understand, but I would think firms would want to show success, which seems to me is only done through a complete evaluation of the campaign.
[tags]PR, Public Relations, PR measurement[/tags]
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