intelligent measurement

Standardisation of PR Evaluation Metrics?

February 17, 2010 at 8:39 pm Leave a comment

The  UK government’s  Central Office of Information (yes, I know it’s rather Orwellian sounding…) has produced a set of metrics for measuring PR campaigns: “Standardisation of PR Evaluation Metrics” (pdf).

Frankly, they are disappointing.  The title is deceiving, it should be called “Standardisation of media monitoring metrics”. As that all the document covers – the superficial stuff – “reach”, “Favourability of coverage”, etc. These are  “outputs” of PR activities.

But what about metrics for measuring “outcomes”? These don’t get a mention. Well there is an admission but you have to dig deep, they do say:

“It is worth bearing in mind that these standardised core metrics for media evaluation are only one component of any campaign evaluation. It is crucial to agree specific key performance indicators (KPIs) at the outset of a campaign.”

So they admit it, these are metrics for media coverage only. And no guidance is given on these KPIs (that are typically “outcome” level).  If you are interested in learning more about metrics for “outcomes”, I’d recommend you start with the excellent guide from the Institute of PR: “Guidelines and Standards for Measuring the Effectiveness of PR Programs and Activities” (pdf).

Entry filed under: Campaign evaluation, Communication evaluation, Media analysis & monitoring, PR evaluation.