News
PR Evaluation Trends Revealed
22 January 2010
Demonstrating the value of PR generated media coverage to senior executives in UK financial services companies has increased significantly as a result of the recession, but PR evaluation methods have not kept pace with shifts in the media landscape.
These are the findings of a survey conducted among senior in-house PR and marketing professionals by Broadgate Mainland and The Financial Services Forum.
Fifty two per cent of respondents said that a major part of their job is to secure appearances of key executives in their preferred publications where they would like ‘to be seen’ among their peers and other influencers.
Fifty one per cent of survey respondents do not measure broadcast coverage and half evaluated coverage on social media sites media based on gut reaction to search engine alerts and RSS feeds. Over 50 per cent of the survey respondents are not satisfied with the tools they are using to measure social media.
More than 40 per cent of respondents felt that demonstrating the value of PR activity to senior executives had become more important due to the recession and 48 percent use advertising value equivalents (AVEs) for this purpose. But nearly one third of survey respondents said that measuring coverage through AVEs was misleading, but just over half said it was useful with senior executives.
Mark Knight, director, Broadgate Mainland, said: “Justifying the success of a PR campaign to the people who hold the purse strings in financial services companies has always been a top priority and never more so when times are hard. It doesn’t mean that the analysis is incorrect but our research reveals the need for an evaluation process which provides a co-ordinated approach covering all types of media so you can accurately measure influence and audience reach because the media status quo is changing so fast. The increase of media copyright licensing costs has made the task that much harder.”
Almost three quarters of survey respondents said that favourability of coverage was the top measurement tool they used to judge a successful PR campaign, followed by volume of coverage and the number of cuttings, key publications and journalist tracking. More granular evaluation methods, such as benchmarking studies, measuring brand and reputation change were used by only 16 per cent.
Andrew Porter, managing director, The Financial Services Forum, said: “Direct response campaigns for financial products and services in both traditional and digital media are always the subject of in-depth analysis to prove their effectiveness. But PR has always been the poor relation when it comes to evaluation. As an important tool in the marketing mix, PR needs to be evaluated alongside other marketing activity, to be able to judge its effectiveness and return on investment.”
When it comes to increasing web traffic, the tactic enjoys mixed importance across the financial services sector. It is a key priority for PR campaigns over the last year in just over one third of respondents’ eyes. Almost three in ten respondents said it had not become a priority.
The Financial Times is classed as the top media outlet to promote senior executives according to the survey, with more than 80 per cent of survey respondents stating this was one of their top five publications, followed by The Telegraph and The Times weekly and Sunday titles. Social media sites didn’t receive any votes despite their widespread coverage of the sector, thus illustrating the lack of readership research of the medium’s penetration among decision makers.
For a full copy of the report please email evaluation@broadgatemainland.com
