Do you think the value of PR is measurable or immeasurable?
In my placement I have had to do a lot of media valuing. Media valuing is converting a news article, radio advertisement or TV announcement to advertising value equivalents (AVEs). AVEs are obtained by multiplying the column centimeters of editorial print media coverage or seconds of broadcast on radio or TV by the media advertising rates. Multipliers are then used to bump these figures up as it is viewed that PR is more credible than advertising. These figures are then collated and given to the client in the final PR report.
I had a discussion with Nigel about valuing PR and he sent me an excellent article by Dr Jim Macnamara titled "Advertising Values to Measure PR: Why They Are Invalid". The article claims that this method of valuing is invalid for a number of reasons. I have put these into perspective using my placements major client, Perth Theatre Company, as an example;
1. Publicity can be negative
In relation to my placement - If a theatre production receives a bad review should it be valued the same as an excellent review?
2. Editorial articles often contain coverage of competitors
In relation to my placement - If a show is listed in an editorials event listing with competing shows it is not as valuable as a stand-alone listing.
3. Editorial coverage can be poorly presented
In relation to my placement - If there are errors in the article or mistakes with photos accompanying the article it can show the client in a negative light.
4. Editorial coverage can be poorly positioned
In relation to my placement - Clients cannot choose where their editorial or announcement will be in a newspaper or TV/radio segment. In advertising, clients can choose their preferred positioning.
Although I agree that sometimes the figures are not representative of the true value of the PR campaign, I still believe that it gives clients a ballpark figure of the value of the consultancies work. I believe that the figure should only be used as an estimate and that clients should still be aware that PR is still fairly immeasurable.
What do you think?
Lucy
3 comments:
Lucy, first of all thank you for commenting on my post on Alzheimer Awareness and you will find my reply on it as well..
Concerning your post, you have raised a good question!! PR can be measured by the impact it have on people’s mindset. But nobody thinks the same and everyone has a different opinion on everything.
For example let’s take for example what you said about publicity can be negative; If a theatre production receives a bad review should it be valued the same as an excellent review? I would say that both need to be valued the same as it just depends on the taste of the person or even in which mood the person was at this particular time. Now the job of the PR is to have not only 1 review but many reviews so as to have a broader image of how well the event has went or not.
PR cannot be seen but PR is everywhere. In an advertising PR is choosing the right design/layout/text/photos to reach the targeted segment. In a radio spot, PR is the tone used to communicate the message and also the feelings you put into it so as the listener also feels it. Also the message you want to communicate should be clear and precise.
I would say that as PR cannot be seen, it can be measured simply by how people perceive the work done..
Sandy NMH
Charles Telfair Institute
Mauritius
Hi Lucy
I to have done quite a bit of converting advertising equivalents into PR Values. I think this can be an effective way of charging a client as it is quite straight forward, but do agree with the points that you have made. The company I am doing my internship with only use this system when the client requests it. I have found it quite astonishing just how much you can charge someone for media coverage, working on 2 - 3 times the advertising amount for PR Value. I think it is fantastic that you are critically analysing the things that you are doing during your placement. I hope you enjoy the rest of it and go well with your report writing.
Amy
Hi Lucy,
That is a really difficult question to answer as I believe every industry would measure the value of PR differently as it has a varying importance level. I have completed my internship at ‘Sunset Events’ and also did some work on media valuing. The points that you have raised make a good argument as many of the articles that featured Sunset’s events are just giving the public awareness of the event in terms of the music calendar and often feature competitors’ events as well. However, I think that this does not necessarily give the article any less value as it is still achieving its goal of creating awareness. On the other hand though, an article that is poorly presented can definitely diminish the value!
Also, when I had finished valuing some articles for my communications manager she told me that usually when compiling the report for the managing director, the PR value was just rounded to $1 million! This was because the success of the PR tools can be seen by figures gathered from the event and the evaluation of the day overall/feedback from sponsors and punters. So from this I would have to conclude that the importance of AVEs varies in each industry and there are a lot of other helpful measures of PR that can be taken into account. I would definitely suggest that they are not very accurate at all in terms of the value of PR at Sunset Events!
Melissa
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