PR Valuing - Inconsistent or uneducated?

A major aspect of PR that is not covered throughout the PR degree is valuing of media coverage. This may be due to the fact that each consultancy might value differently. For example, one of the major PR consultancies in Perth determines the PR value to be 2 times the advertising value, while another is 5 times – a significant difference!

I believe the basics of valuing - column centimetres, modules and page rates – should be highlighted more during the PR degree, instead of the brief mention I can vaguely remember. These valuing techniques are different for most publications, and can change over time, but learning how to apply these techniques so students do not go into the workforce blind would be a huge advantage.

So far during my internship I have had to do valuing for various clients, and while the account managers are always happy to help with any questions I may have, I think they would rightly expect that I should have some grasp of the techniques coming out of my university degree.

I guess I do have the disadvantage of being at a small boutique consultancy, where there is not really a comprehensive database of rates of all publications and media outlets (most publications are there, online news outlets are lacking). However this has taught me that in PR if you want to find out something (e.g. advertising rates) – you must call to find out. Spending hours trawling through websites is just not practical.

It is important to highlight the importance of getting a PR technique like valuing correct. It does not look very good for the agency if the value of coverage received by a client is significantly incorrect. Consultants use the amount of PR value gained as a way of determining how successful a campaign or strategy has been. I believe it is an important tool as a way of ascertaining the return on investment by a client, however it could be argued that media coverage does not necessarily determine how much work has been put into a campaign. Regardless of opinions surrounding PR valuing, it is a tool adopted by consultancies as it is usually expected from the client.

The livALIVE Media Launch – My Experience in the Up’s and Down’s of Event Planning

While the picture above is perhaps more relevant to wedding planners it rings true in a sense for a media launch because when you’re planning an event you have to think of EVERYTHING. The pressure to do this is tenfold when it is a media launch – your job is to secure coverage and that is determined entirely by the success of the event you hold.

My second week at Linc centred on the launch of the livALIVE campaign. The process was undoubtedly an interesting one. It began with documents – a lot of them – that needed to be written, proofed and then proofed again. I was responsible in large part for the action plan along with proofing and fact checking - an undervalued part of the process I feel. If the media were to come across an untrue statistic or statement, the brand might have been in the paper for all the wrong reasons and as we savvy PR folk know, it is an absolute fallacy that ‘all publicity is good publicity’.

Just ask any of the cast members of Jersey Shore. They may be very public.. But their reputations aren’t exactly favourable!

As with every event, what could go wrong did go wrong – the most notable instance of this being when the key speaker pulled out the day before. It was a mad rush to find a replacement and update everything according to the last minute change, but we got there.

The event itself was hectic but enjoyable and produced a reasonable result. Unfortunately, a breaking news story involving an 80km police chase dominated the news that night. As a direct result, the camera crews that the PR girls had spent several hours talking to that morning, who had promised coverage, did not show up. This is the dilemma of every PR launch – the news for the day can turn at any moment from ‘slow’ to ‘breaking’. However, coverage was received in The West (online and print) and on Perthnow along with several Community News stories.

Another important lesson learnt that day for me was the difficulty of dealing with clients. Despite the immense effort the team put into the event, the client felt it was not enough and that the event had been an expensive failure. To combat this, I was asked to prepare a document detailing the outcomes of the launch (part of which can be seen below).

PR Valuing is a point of contention for many PR pro’s. Most resent the practise as it reduces the value of PR to a monetary figure which can’t ever be accurately recorded. A reputation is a collection of societal impressions; not a number. Yet sometimes we resort to a table with dollars in it to show a client who might not be able to grasp it any other way. It is another one of the unfortunate quandaries that each PR person will encounter at some point. It is worth remembering that the true value is far greater than what any bean counter might think. Having a good reputation means much more – I read recently that 51 percent of people punish or reward a company based on their perception of that company’s corporate personality. Ask an accountant to put a dollar figure to that..

Well that’s me for the week – hope everyone is having fun at their placements still!

Beth Caniglia