How to measure the success of a campaign? Creating campaign metrics TF-PR Workshop Vienna, Austria 7 September 2009

Terminology What is a metric? A standard of measurement. What do we mean by ‘campaign’? A connected series of activities designed to bring about a particular result

“Success has many fathers and mothers; failure is an orphan”.

Overview 1.The popularity of metrics 2.The starting point 3.Let’s work it out

Popularity of metrics ›Do most marketing/pr officers measure the success of their projects or campaigns? International Public Relations Association ›Why is this? Research FindingIPRA Evaluation recognized as necessary 89.8% Frequently research metrics 18.,6%

Main reasons why not done Intuition or ‘gut feel’ becomes our main metric

Overview 1.The popularity of metrics 2.The starting point 3.Let’s work it out

The ‘PRE’ Process AUDIT Where are we now? SETTING OBJECTIVES Where do we want to be? PLAN How do we get there? ONGOING MEASUREMENT Are we getting there? RESULTS & EVALUTION How did we do?

Setting SMART Objectives 1)Specific 2)Measureable 3)Achievable 4)Relevant 5)Timely Question: Is this SMART? Objective: To successfully launch eduroam Improved: To hold 3 well attended customer events/year. To gain 1 positive media article per month. SETTING OBJECTIVES Where do we want to be?

Plan – how do we get there ›Decide strategy ›Decide tactics ›Decide type of research and metrics to measure outcomes PLAN How do we get there?

Overview 1.The popularity of metrics 2.The starting point 3.Let’s work it out

Break out groups ›Three scenarios ›Choose the scenario for which ›You have the most experience or ›You would like to have more experience in ›Select one of the sticky notes that represents the scenario you chose ›In your groups, make sure you elect three people to be: 1.The time-keeper 2.The note-taker 3.The presentor

Scenario One ›You are organising a 2 day conference for your NREN, with both technical and non-technical parallel streams. ›Target audience: university IT staff, researchers and professors. ›# of people in target audience: ›# of target institutions: 100 ›Actual number of registrations: 125. Most are IT Staff. ›PR tools used to inform people of the conference: › 3 s sent out at 9mth, 3mth and 2 weeks to contacts. These are the only contacts you have in your database before the conference. ›Posters in every target institution 3 months before event. ›Website announcement (and registration online)

Scenario One ›Question: ›How will you know if your conference was a success? I.e. what metrics (# of registrants, increase of & from last year….) could you use to determine how successful the conference was and how will you measure this? ›(if time) ›How could you have improved the campaign in order to 1) have more successful outcome and 2) be able to measure it better?

Scenario Two ›Your NREN sends out 2 newsletters per year to its target audience, both are sent via paper and electronic. The newsletters generally cover topics like new services, case studies of institutions that are using the network in creative ways, announcements of upcoming local and European events, and other practical information like new NREN employees. ›Target audience: university IT staff, researchers and professors. ›# of people in target audience: ›# of target institutions: 100 ›# of contacts in your database: 5000 (50% IT staff/15% researchers/20% professors/5% others)

Scenario Two ›Question: ›How will you know if your newsletter was a success? I.e. what metrics (for example: # of downloads) could you use to determine how successful the newsletter was and how will you measure this?

Scenario Three ›Last year, your boss asked you to come up with a plan to market eduroam. The perception is that eduroam is not known within your target market very well (low brand awareness), which is one of (but not the only) the reasons that eduroam is not being used very much. ›To make your boss happy, you created an eduroam brochure and mailed in out to your target audience, you created a poster and hung it up at the key target institutions, and you added a webpage on your NREN website to help explain the benefits of eduroam and how to get it. ›Your boss comes to you and asks if your initiatives have helped increase brand awareness. Of course, you were ready for this question and provided him with evidence that this was true.

Scenario Three ›Question: ›What metrics and tools did you use to measure the increase in brand awareness? ›(if time) ›What could you have differently to ensure that you had some more statistics/metrics about the success of your campaign?

One last comment…. ›Make assumptions if details are missing in the scenario that you think are necessary to answer the question. ›Have fun!