As the AMEC community assembles for Measurement Month 2019, our European Chapter Chair Barbara Bassi and Vice Chair Nadin Vernon are joined by industry experts from across key European markets for an informative discussion.

Our conversation answers essential questions facing the measurement and evaluation community, provides expert advice and highlights important trends within the industry. Joining us today are:

• Florian Lazslo – CEO, Observer and Secretary General, FIBEP, @FlorianLaszlo
• Rick Guttridge – MD, Smoking Gun PR, @RickGuttridge
• Stefan Ryden – Head of Insight, Spotlight PR, @SpotlightPRse
• Mia Agova – Communications Director, A Data Pro, @ADataPro

Barbara: Thank you to all our European Members joining us today. If you could prioritise one thing for where you take measurement next, what would it be?

Rick: Taking the PR measurement discussion into wider marketing communication verticals is really important. All too often the client-side contact overseeing PR is a generalist marketer as opposed to specialist PR expert. This means they aren’t always knowledgeable enough about what PR really is, what it can achieve and therefore how to effectively measure it.

Mia: I agree, what I feel we’ve not been so great at is talking to and collaborating with our sister industries: PR, communications, and perhaps less so, marketing. These fields need us to enter the boardroom (and I firmly believe comms belongs in the boardroom) because we translate their efforts into boardroom lingo. I would therefore push the measurement industry to knock on the doors of the EACD, of international and local PR and comms associations, on the doors of the Effie’s, Cannes, you name it, and knock hard until we get in and invited to tea.

Florian: Measure the point where one wants to get to in the end. Then work your way down towards KPIs one can afford. The next level technically would be a sound social media platform data access, which we will not get anytime soon. Data is also key in online activity where real and checked numbers of media outlets would make a big difference in truly analysing and not guessing.

Nadin: We often find that organisations are unsure how to take measurement to the next level. If you were to give advice to someone who is either not doing measurement, or who is stuck with some of the ‘vanity metrics’, what would be your top three tips be to get more benefit? 

Stefan: Talk more about objectives. Our experience is that most pointless measurement disasters are set up without a thorough discussion on what the measured activity is supposed to achieve. Ask yourself why you, the client, are spending effort on this activity. Work out how your part may impact the end goal, and base metrics on this hypothesis.

Something is better than nothing. Often looking at one or two KPIs will not explain the whole story, but if these “golden nuggets” of marketing communication intelligence are well chosen and presented, they will stimulate management interest in investing more on measurement.

Florian: Define where you want to go, world domination or more turnover doesn’t count. Also, define what you want to achieve. If it is pure vanity, then you’re fine. And ask yourself which visible and measurable outcome comes closest to your goal.

Mia: I would approach those not measuring their communication efforts, assuming they’re comms professionals, with two questions, potentially followed by a single tip:

Q1. Can you prove your contribution to the bottom-line?

Q2. What if your business could get better results from talking to a single person than from 100 press releases, posts or events?

If these two questions provoke thought, I would advise them to check out the M3 tool as their ‘square one’ for effective communication measurement.

Barbara: How is the convergence between media channels affecting your planning, implementation and how you measure results?

Florian: I do not see a convergence really. I believe this because the data we get from the different media channels differs so widely and if they do not on the surface, then they do in practice (e.g. reach in print or online or social). On the communication side there is no convergence either, as the same content cannot and should not be published in different media types.

Rick: I believe the media feeds on itself. What we see trending on Twitter today is in the Daily Mail tomorrow. Traditional media stories grow legs and take on a whole new life across social media channels.

Stefan: One cannot isolate the measurement issue in this context, it affects the entire way of doing our business. We are re-engineering our process. As media converges, we need to have a broader understanding not only of media from a conventional PR perspective, but how media can be used in marketing and to what business ends. This means we also need to step back and discuss objectives from a broader business perspective, and how communication should support and drive the business. If we get this understanding right, figuring out what we need to measure, and how we measure it, becomes a lot easier.

In order to implement this thinking, we need to recruit and train talent with a basic grasp of business management in general, and specifically in the marketing area. We need to make sure we speak the language and learn the skills that are practiced in this new landscape. A more measurement-specific challenge to this scenario is the lack of common ‘currencies’ across marcom disciplines. For example, TV-buyers and digital planners have a significantly more sophisticated view on deliverables such as media reach than the PR-community.

Nadin: Are you seeing a greater willingness to share data across functions within an organisation and how is this helping build a picture of how comms is supporting the organisation?

Rick: This is something we preach about to clients, breaking down silos and sharing information from staff satisfaction, customer service and then the various marketing communication functions. Understanding the interdependence of these in a holistic manner and taking relevant actions based on data provides a great impact. However, there is too often an apathetic reluctance with technology barriers, an easily rolled out excuse, it seems. We all know that many people don’t like change so we must focus on the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) to drive these changes through.

Florian: I see the silo thinking as the biggest issue, but at least it is addressed in discussions and not ignored. Still, there is not much change, as budget limitations remain a relevant denominator. Marketing has a larger budget and so they call the shots, define KPIs and order analyses. Comms needs to get the support from executive level managers and be prioritised above operational marketing.

Barbara: Would you say the impact of technology is more of an opportunity or a threat to measurement methodologies and processes? Why?

Mia: As part of a highly tech-centred media intelligence company I can, hands down, say that technology’s impact on measurement processes and methodologies is exclusively positive. The opportunities technology offers are huge: to gain insight from vast volumes of data, to whip that data into whatever shape or form and to whatever purpose and end, all with minimal human time and effort once the machines have been set up. Yet, as a communications professional, I see two distinct threats stemming from the integration of new technologies in measurement processes.

The first one is the limited understanding of these technologies by communications, including by communication measurement professionals. It worries me that we’re flaunting and desperately clinging onto AI and new technologies as some measurement panacea that will magically solve communications’ greatest problem of proving the value of our work. Blindly trusting a model to produce results that are relevant is dangerous, perhaps even more so than going on intuition alone when planning comms activities, not least because of the seemingly indisputable argument of ‘the data said so.’

This, somewhat paradoxically, leads me to my second threat: that intuition has become a dirty word. Old-school as it may seem and despite the sound understanding of AI and automation that I’ve been fortunate enough to gain at A Data Pro, I continue to believe that communications is something you’re either born to do or you’re not, because so much of it is about intuitively understanding who you are talking to and what they want, about empathy, about cultural intelligence, about being able to listen. No amount of data, no machine and no degree or certificate can replace that, only magnify it.

Florian: Tech is always just a tool and can only do so much. Humans are needed in every step of the process to validate and check the automated findings. As a tool, tech will help us to provide insights that we cannot provide at market going rates without it. The threat lies in the belief of clients that tech alone can be ‘good enough’ for them or that automated results are relevant by themselves and then turn away from measurement in the process, because ‘it does not work.’ More tech means more effort to educate and inform clients.

Stefan: Personally, I believe a short term threat is the sudden availability of an overwhelming number of measurement options that almost uniquely zoom in on narrow, short-term, efficiency parameters which will inevitably promote a focus on narrow, short-term efficiency, rather than on what builds the long-term health of a business or brand. If left unchecked, I believe many will be disappointed at the usefulness of measurement.

Nadin: Finally, what does your organisation do to keep colleagues updated when it comes to the measurement of communication?

Florian: We source the web and social media for articles and stories. We also use the AMEC College and other providers for the basic tutoring of young colleagues.

Ends.

A huge thank you to those involved for your time and insights during this compelling discussion.

For further information on AMEC Measurement Month, and the AMEC College visit AMEC’s website for free resources, or follow the hash tag #amecmm on social media throughout November.