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Introduction

Results matter. The measurement of success tied to actual business results is one of the most critical factors in how business leaders judge the relevance of — and allocate resources for — their various marketing activities. As competitive pressures and customer demands intensify the need for increased marketing effectiveness, the importance of tangible, transparent measurement criteria will only escalate.

As an agency, Ketchum has long been an industry research and measurement leader, and we’ve sought to provide meaningful metrics to our clients. But from agency to agency and client to client, what counts as acceptable measurement has been inconsistent – making it difficult for the industry as a whole to pinpoint the value of communication programs. Now, real change on this topic is finally under way.

Earlier this year, a group of global PR industry leaders came together to tackle the issues and create a solid foundation for transparent, consistent metrics that hopefully will soon be utilized by PR professionals on an international basis. The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), the London-based global trade body and professional institute for agencies and practitioners that provide media evaluation and communication research, initiated an effort to create and promote a more realistic, accurate and consistent approach to PR measurement. Ketchum’s David Rockland, who is also the chairman of the AMEC U.S. Agency Research Leaders Group, worked with the group to draft seven principles for PR measurement. The principles were reviewed and refined by more than 200 delegates from 33 countries at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement in Barcelona, co-sponsored by AMEC and the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), and the result was the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles.

The Barcelona Principles represent a collective, industrywide effort to bring professional standards and global consistency to PR measurement. They bring quantitative analysis to PR measurement, an evolving concept of growing importance to clients. Ketchum has experienced this firsthand, as our research group has grown from five people to 125 in the 10 years since its inception. With this sort of track record, it makes perfect sense for our own David Rockland to have led this industrywide measurement initiative with involvement from many industry organizations, research suppliers, and even firms we often compete with, all of which joined together to build the first-ever standards for PR measurement.

We devote this edition of Perspectives to the Barcelona Principles because we believe it is important to understand what they are all about, how and why they were developed, and how they will affect clients, PR practitioners and the industry overall. The “Overview” is a must-read starting point, explaining the seven Principles and providing supporting detail and explanation for each. In “Voices of Influence,” David lays out what he believes the Principles will mean for PR, and AMEC leaders Barry Leggetter and Mike Daniels join with Pauline Draper-Watts of IPR to talk about why it was important to push the initiative forward and the challenges and opportunities they believe lie ahead in the adoption of the Principles.

In “Viewpoints” two top global communications executives — Andre Manning, who currently leads global marketing and communications at Royal Philips Electronics, and Toney Wilkinson, the senior director of global communications at FedEx — explain how the Barcelona Principles relate to their existing communications efforts and what they think it will mean for the future of PR. (Philips and FedEx are both Ketchum clients.)

Our “Roundtable” section contains insights and opinions from top representatives of some of the world’s leading public relations organizations: the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, and AMEC. The individuals highlighted in this section participated in the AMEC Summit and contributed to shaping the final set of Principles.

Finally, in a separate article titled “Next Steps from AMEC,” we provide a snapshot of the organization and its planned next steps for furthering adoption of the Principles, including details about two AMEC task forces assigned to develop validated metrics to replace advertising value equivalents and ways to best measure social media.

As always, I hope you find this issue of Perspectives informative and useful, and I welcome your feedback. Please feel free to contact me at ray.kotcher@ketchum.com to let me know what you think.

Best regards,

Ray Kotcher
Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Ketchum