Following my recent post on the Barcelona Principles, the CIPR and AMEC met this week to discuss our review of measurement and evaluation guidance. It was a fascinating conversation, focused on how we can use the Principles to underpin our recommendations, the merits of developing a simple framework for measurement, the importance of research and planning and a focus on outcomes rather than outputs. We also met with a range of other organisations to tackle issues such as understanding and tracking reputational value and government measurement standards.
We agreed that our consultations will result in a structured and practical new initiative to help our members and the profession to communicate value - and now more than ever, we have to work hard to demonstrate it. As public sector budget cuts bite, the need for communication and engagement in support of difficult change is vitally important - internally and externally. But, investments need to be linked to outcomes. As the private sector identifies opportunities for growth, PR has a key role to play and we must not forget not-for-profit and other social initiatives that need to maintain their voice with their publics.
As Katie Delahaye Paine pointed out in our interview with Katie and Barry Leggetter of AMEC in Barcelona, the PR profession needs to provide consultancy and guidance to our clients and/or our own organisations on what is best practice - best practice that will deliver a sharp focus on value.
We will keep you updated on progress and thanks to all who have inputted and spent time sharing their views and experiences so far.
4 comments
The heading Jay uses says it all - "the value of public relations discussion". At AMEC we always hoped our Barcelona Principles would get PR professionals talking about the need for programme measurement. Talking, engaged, wanting to contribute to change. We're delighted the CIPR is not just encouraging discussion though but moving ahead with new measurement recommendationsd for its members.
As the founder of one of the larger evaluation companies in the UK, author of one of the few books on the subject and now engaged with a global company that offers similar insights across most digital media, one can only marvel at how long all this has taken.
The real issue is that the industry is fixed on gaining (old and, to a lesser extent, new) media coverage rather than developing relationship value.
It is not that relationship value is new.It is, after all, part of the Stockholm Accords. It is that few practitioners have been exposed to the thinking, it seems to be beyond the capability of the universities to teach and there is not much by way of grounded research.
Until there are more people with an interest in the value PR creates, develops and propagates, there will be little progress in PR evaluation.
The value of the CIPR initiative lies not only in establishing best-practice, but in creating common practice - a universal standard by which PR practioners have access to transparent and credible performance measures. Perhaps one of the constraints on PR development within businesses and organisations has been the lack of a benchmarking system which can be understood by colleagues and boardrooms from outside the PR world.
To kick-start change, the people who measure PR - the membership of AMEC - needed to agree the Barcelona Principles to deliver a standard set of universal KPIs.
And this development could not have been more timely. As we transition to a new media landscape, accepted practice around reputation tracking, brand value etc is being revised. So CIPR has an opportunity to lead and support its members and the wider marcomms community.
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