By Daniella Graham, Senior Strategist at Engine Mischief

This month’s AMEC Summit saw Ben Levine unveil the updated Barcelona Principles, and it couldn’t have come at a more important time.

AMEC and its members have been banging the drum on the value of evaluation and measurement for a long time, but it’s clearly becoming an increased priority across the communications industry. From Visit Britain to the World Bank, at the virtual summit we saw how more and more organisations are building robust measurement into their planning processes, ensuring that clear outcomes are a core focus from the very beginning.

This is reflected in the updated Barcelona Principles. When they were first unveiled in 2010, goal setting and measurement was ‘important’. In 2015, it was ‘fundamental’. In 2020, setting measurable goals is ‘an absolute prerequisite to communications planning’.

I couldn’t agree more. Too many people box off measurement and evaluation as ‘the bit that comes at the end’ – a chance to congratulate ourselves on a job well done, pulling together some facts and stats to share at the end of a campaign before forgetting all about it and moving on to the next thing. Now, more than ever before, this approach just won’t fly.

Outcomes need to be a clear focus of the planning process – defining from the very beginning what you are setting out to achieve, and how you’re going to measure it.

The updated principles also recognise that outcomes and impact take many forms, stating that ‘outcomes and impact should be identified for stakeholders, society and the organisation’. During planning, keeping those desired outcomes front and centre ensures you’re starting off on the right track, finding the right answer to the right question.

When activity is happening, it also ensures everyone stays on the same path, working towards the same goal – and reacting accordingly. It seems obvious, but everyone involved in a piece of work should be able to confidently answer when asked: “Why are we doing this?” It’s easy to get distracted by shifting demands or bumps in the road, but even if you need to change the way you get there, you still need to know where you’re going. That’s where the integrated evaluation framework can be so helpful. I’m a big fan of using it as a planning tool, filling in a skeleton framework at the beginning of a piece of activity and checking in throughout to see if things are on track. If we’re not, what needs to change to get there?

If outcomes have been front and centre throughout the planning and execution, then it’s much more likely they’ll have been achieved when that work finishes. With robust measurement in place, we’re equipped to prove the value of our work – and take those campaign learnings into the next campaign and beyond.