EVALUATION Chapter 8

4th Step in the PR Process Research, Action, Communication, EVALUATION Evaluation is the measurement of results against established objectives set during the planning process (2nd step). It is “The systematic assessment of a program and its results. It is a means for practitioners to offer accountability to clients—and to themselves.” (Bissland) Your program is intended to cause observable impact– to change or maintain something about a situation (Broom/Dozier) Evaluating PR efforts can help you do a better job next time It also fits in with the business world’s desire to see that money, time, and effort expended on PR are well spent & contribute to the organ. objectives

Measurable Objectives Before any PR program can be properly evaluated, it is important to have a clearly established set of measurable objectives. This should be part of the program plan. If an objective is informational, measurement techniques must show how successfully information was communicated to target audiences– this doesn’t show effect on attitudes or action Motivational objectives can be more difficult to accomplish– you may need to show that it was the PR efforts that caused the increase rather than advertising and marketing strategies If the goal is to change attitudes or opinions, research should be done before , during and after the PR activity to measure the percentage of change (can use baseline or benchmark studies)

Basic Evaluation Questions Was the activity or program adequately planned? Did the recipients of the message understand it? How could the program strategy have been more effective? Were all primary and secondary audiences reached? Was the desired organizational objective achieved? What unforeseen circumstances affected the success of the program or activity? Did the program or activity fall within the budget set for it? What steps can be taken to improve the success of similar future activities?

Different Ways of Measurement Production Message Exposure/Compilation Media Impressions Internet Hits Advertising Equivalency

Production How many news releases, feature stories, photos, letters, etc are produced in a given period of time. This can give management an idea of a staff’s productivity and output. But PR pros don’t put much stock is this measurement form because it emphasizes quantity over quality. It may be more cost-effective to write fewer news releases and spend more time on the few that really are newsworthy. For example, it may be more important for a staff person to spend five weeks working on an article for the Wall Street Journal or Fortune than to write 29 routine news releases.

Message Exposure The most widely practiced form of evaluating public relations programs is the compilation of press clippings and radio-television mentions Staff members will methodically scan and clip area/national newspapers or use clipping services to scan/record hundreds of papers or broadcast news programs

Monitoring Services Large companies will hire such services to scan large numbers of publications, broadcasts and websites Burrelles/Luce, for example, claims it can monitor 40 million blogs and Internet forums, 16,000 Web news sources, 10,300 daily and nondaily newspapers, nearly 8,000 magazines and trade journals, and 925 TV and cable stations National Aircheck can search almost 8,000 hours of news talk radio each week “We should be able to tell someone within 10-15 minutes where and when they’re being talked about,” says National Aircheck’s president

Media Impressions This is defined as the potential audience reached by a periodical or broadcast program Media impressions are a way to document how many people may have been or potentially have been exposed to the message. They don’t however document how many people actually read or heard the stories and, more importantly, how many absorbed or acted on the information

Hits on the Internet This is a cyberspace version of media impressions. Each instance of a person accessing a site is called a hit, visit, or unique visit.

Advertising Equivalency (AVE) This involves calculating the value of message exposure This is done by converting news stories in the newspapers/magazines or on the air into equivalent advertising costs C of C men’s basketball team in 1997 NCAA tournament received media coverage worth $3.4 million in advertising equivalency

AVE’s Downside But some say advertising equivalency is like comparing apples and oranges because of differences between free publicity and paid advertising. Is a 15-inch article that mentions your organization only once among six other organizations comparable to a 15-inch ad that clearly highlights your organization?

Audience Awareness, Attitudes and Action… …can also be measured and evaluated through various types of survey research Baseline (also called benchmark) studies can measure an audience’s attitudes and opinions before, during, and after a public relations campaign “Day After Recall” is another way to measure audience awareness and comprehension– read a particular news story or watch a specific TV program– next day you are interviewed to learn which messages you remembered Ultimately, public relations campaigns are evaluated based on how they help an organization achieve its objectives through changing audience behavior, whether it involves sales, fund-raising, participation/involvement levels, changes in public policy, or the election of a candidate, for example.

Communication Audits The entire communication activity of an organization should be evaluated at least once a year to make sure all publics are receiving appropriate messages. At PR firms and departments these are usually done by outside companies specializing in such audits, to ensure impartiality and objectivity This can be done through focus groups, surveys, interviews, content analysis of company newsletters and other printed pieces Communication audits help critique and better establish communication goals and objectives, evaluate long-term programs, identify strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas which require improvement or increased activity. ###