by Carol Holden*

In a recent PR News Q&A with Tim Marklein of Weber Shandwick, leading up to the Measurement Conference in D.C., a number of points resonated with me – particularly those relevant to our media measurement work.

Some of the highlights were:

• The more you can frame metrics in the context of your own organization, the more they’ll matter.
• Bridge the gap between PR language and the broader language of the business when presenting media metrics and when attempting to convey the value of your efforts to the C-suite.
• Think of a good measurement structure and process before looking at measurement tools and cost.
• Define clear, crisp, desired outcomes for your communications objectives; get more specific about your target audiences and clearly define each one.
• Some long-held measurement assumptions — one is impressions – are being called into question. So carefully consider the types of metrics you are using.

The last two points, in particular, struck a cord when reflecting on own my experiences with our clients:

First, as we design custom measurement programs with clients, many clients struggle to be able to define clear target audiences for us. In providing quality rating scores (QRS) for stories, we marry the story content score with the media importance score, so the clients’ ability to provide their targeted tiers of media by importance is crucial, but often difficult for them to do. 

Secondly when we do provide impressions or “opportunities to see,” we judge these by favorability and we always encourage clients to present all media metrics in the context of favorability.

This Q&A served its purpose in whetting my appetite for the actual live discussions that will be presented by my BurrellesLuce colleague Johna Burke and the other presenters at the PR News’ Measurement Conference. I am particularly curious to learn more about the measurement challenges PR and marketing professionals face in the ever-expanding world of media.

What areas of measurement do you struggle with? What areas have proved successful for you, your company, brand, or client? Will you be attending the measurement conference? If so, what are you hoping to take away from the experience? I look forward to continuing the discussion here on the Fresh Ideas blog. 

Bio: I’ve been in the media business all of my adult life, first in newspapers before going full circle and joining BurrellesLuce, where I now direct the Media Measurement department. I’ve always enjoyed meeting and especially listening to the needs of our customers and others in the public relations and communications fields; I welcome sharing ideas through the Fresh Ideas blog. One of my professional passions is providing the type of service to a client that makes them respond, “atta girl” – inspiring our entire team to keep striving to be the best. Although I have been lucky enough to travel through much of Asia and most major U.S. cities for business or pleasure, my free time is now spent with my daughter, visiting family/friends, and of course the Jersey shore. Twitter: @domeasurement LinkedIn: Carol Holden Facebook: BurrellesLuce