INTRODUCTION

AMEC’s outgoing chair, Khali Sakkas, got select APAC leaders to come together over a virtual fire-side chat. In this chat, Khali asked them some questions and each leader provided his/her perspective on some of these questions.

1. What are the biggest challenges facing the measurement and evaluation industry right now?
2. How is technology impacting measurement in your market/s? Any big predictions for 2020?
3. How has technology changed the way you recruit in your business?
4. Which resources would you recommend to anyone wanting more information on evaluation and analytics?
5. What were your highlights from the AMEC Summit in Prague and what are you looking forward to in the next Summit in Vienna?
6. Best book you’ve read recently?

If any of the above questions interest you, we invite you to read this fire-side chat.

Also, all of us, at AMEC, thank Khali for her contribution to the measurement industry in the last few years. She was not only the APAC chair but also a very active member of the AMEC International Board. We wish her the very best, for her future endeavours.

Leaders in this fire-side chat include:

DEB CAMDEN, The Communication Dividend

ASEEM SOOD, CEO Impact Research & Measurement Pvt. Ltd

SALLY CHADWICK, Manager Insights and Analysis, Mediaverse

ANDREW NICOLLS, MD and co-founder, CARMA Asia

NGAIRE CRAWFORD, Head of Insights, ANZ, Isentia, Chair of AMEC Young Leaders Group

PRASHANT SAXENA, Head of Insights, Asia, Isentia. Vice Chair APAC AMEC Chapter

FELICIA NUGROHO, Director – Monitoring & Analytics, Maverick Indonesia

KHALI SAKKAS, Ex-Chair, AMEC APAC Chapter, Interviewer.

What are the biggest challenges facing the measurement and evaluation industry right now?

FELICIA NUGROHO: Here, in Indonesia the biggest challenge facing the industry is in convincing clients to move away from AVEs, or more commonly used here are the PR values. The metric is still commonly used as C-level executives still insist on seeing PR values as a way to, disturbingly, quantify their ROI for their PR activities.

 SALLY CHADWICK: Collaboration between departments and functions. We largely work with PR and Corporate Affairs clients and as a result the insights we provide tend to be focused on measuring PR output and impact specifically. Greater collaboration with the broader business such as marketing and customer service would give us access to more data points which would in turn deepen our measurement and insights capabilities. This is obviously easier said than done. Our clients are often limited in their ability to overcome the silos. We persist though!

ANDREW NICOLLS: Staying on top of the fast-evolving media landscape and the integration of client side teams across PR and Marketing

 

How is technology impacting measurement in your market/s? Any big predictions for 2020?

PRASHANT: Technology (primarily AI and ML) will push the limits of measurement and will bring together large media datasets at the fingertips of communicators. Sampling and human verification of these media datasets will still be essential to ensure clients get the best of big data and rich data.

ASEEM: Technology has had a mixed impact in our market.

On the Positive side, we have been able to do two things

1) improve efficiency: While human involvement has not completely gone away, technology is now able to assist Humans better. We are able to deliver solutions faster (but the change is not incremental and not drastic).

2) introduce new products: Using fully automated technology we have been able to create a few news products/ solutions which did not exist earlier. These solutions are only 80%-85% accurate but near real-time delivery has made these products valuable in certain situations.

On the negative side, we find that the terms Machine Learning and AI are frequently misused and misunderstood in our market. This has led to unrealistic expectations amongst few clients. Clients suddenly believe that AI will take away human involvement completely and therefore their expectation is that all solutions should be way cheaper. Some SAS solution providers are adding more to this confusion by offering services which may not offer accurate solutions but the reports are extremely fast, polished using sexy looking charts. These solutions are not even useful at times.

In 2020, I am optimistic that AI will start delivering on some of the (tall) promises that have been made for AI. Accuracy levels are gonna go up, leading to better acceptance on automated solutions with lesser/ different human intervention. It will be exciting because if we are able to promise faster deliveries while maintaining quality and controlling price, we will be able to work with more number of clients.

 How has technology changed the way you recruit in your business?

Which resources would you recommend to anyone wanting more information on evaluation and analytics?

NGAIRE: AMEC Measurement Month is an ideal time to become involved in AMEC activities. I love all the content. I love seeing the articles, the blogs, the #amecmm hashtags, and the new resources. My social feeds light up with really smart people talking about my favourite things, and I love being able to share and chat and feel like part of the community.

 

 

What were your highlights from the AMEC Summit in Prague and what are you looking forward to in the next Summit in Vienna?

Deb: Firstly, it was great to reunite with AMEC colleagues I had met at my first summit in Barcelona as well as those I’d met online through the AMEC network throughout the year.

Secondly, it was great to be part of the program with our client from QIC on stage on the first day talking about “Quantifying the creative in a financial services B2B environment’ and then to moderate a workshop session on “Measuring up: Using data to quantify the value of marketing communications”.

Last and by no means least, the Summit was a great reminder about the power of recognition. We were fortunate to win Bronze in two categories at the AMEC Awards for International Communication Effectiveness.

The recognition by our AMEC peers has provided an enormous boost to our visibility as well as our ability to leverage it as part of a globally-credible service offering to clients.

ASEEM: AMEC Summit in Vienna will be an important summit as we start the next decade. At the summit, I would like it if we:

1. a) Celebrate the last 10 years. We have made lots of progress on measurement in these years and we must celebrate the same.
2. b) Set agenda for measurement for the next 5 or 10 years. Bring more clarity on the measurement journey and processes and also establish that technology needs craft to offer better value to business w.r.t Measurement.

3) Call out to other disciplines to collaborate to build on the measurement programmes.

ANDREW: In 2020, I’d like to see more examples of great measurement practices from clients

Best book you’ve read recently?

SALLY: Bruny by Heather Rose – Set in Tasmania this book touches on subjects relevant to Australia and the world right now.

ANDREW: Alchemy by Rory Sutherland