Viewpoints: Three letters that make PR pros cringe

Measurement - The word that always crops up and the majority of PR teams don’t have the full confidence to address, although that will never be admitted.The PR industry often uses measurement for the wrong reason - to justify the work that we do and show clients that the KPI has been hit. At the end of the month, account teams scramble together to pull a beautiful report that highlights the quantity of coverage and where the client was mentioned. You often hear account teams saying, “If it’s a mention, it counts.”Back in 2010, PR practitioners from 33 countries met in Barcelona to discuss this very topic. The outcome was the 'Barcelona Principles', aimed at identifying the need for outcome rather than output- based measurement of PR campaigns. It called for the exclusion of ad value equivalency (AVE) metrics and for the recognition of social media value.We are almost six years down the line and it is disappointing to see marketers still asking for AVE and focusing on quantity rather than quality. It’s even more disappointing to see PR agencies bending over backwards to figure out how they can meet their clients requests and what AVE calculation they should be using. Every agency uses a different method to measure AVE so how can such an inaccurate way of measurement still be in use?AVEs are used by advertisers and are purely a quantitative metric that have no focus on quality, message pull through or tone. As agencies move closer to digital, we need to focus more the quality of content, engagement and reach, trending issues, market positioning and so much more. What is the effect of the outcomes? What is the effect on business results? Clients should focus more on quality, reaching their target audience and how PR supports the business objectives rather than the number of pieces of coverage or mentions they get.As an industry, we need to effect change to focus measurement on reputation and impact rather than analysing coverage. PRs and marketers need to work together to drive new ways of thinking and advance the way that we measure. At CPRFHK, it is our responsibility to change perception and educate our members and respective clients to embrace a new style of measurement and energise the industry to demonstrate the strategic value of public relations.Vicky Neill is vice president of Racepoint Global and honorary treasurer of Council of Public Relation Firms of Hong Kong (CPRFHK).