The AMEC Principles of PR Evaluation

You may have seen a load of #amec10 tweets last week? If you missed it, nearly 200 senior PR professionals from across the globe met up to agree some principles to start the PR sector on a road to ensure that it measures itself in using some agreed and universal methodologies. This all took place at the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) Barcelona summit. Some background These principles themselves are described, even by AMEC Executive Director General Barry Leggetter, as “baby steps” but needless to say they are an important move in a unified direction. Some of the principles outlined below might seem pretty obvious, indeed you might argue that a “we all believe in world peace” principle would be more controversial! That said, this should be seen in some context. AMEC has a worldwide brief and the UK seems to have a bit of a lead in terms of media evaluation. So, while some of the UK and US practitioners at the summit were in favour of a more aggressive “let’s start the process of producing a final solution” attitude, this conference was all about agreeing in principle to move forward. The real challenge for AMEC will be to ensure that it produces a roadmap to find agreement on a workable and universal method to measure PR over the future months and years. PRmoment.com’s view on this is that, yes, this is an important first step. But if PR doesn’t get a wriggle on, PR and trade bodies like AMEC may find themselves overtaken by the current speed of change sweeping through PR and social media. The importance of this is emphasised by the economic climate, (the marketing disciplines must be able to demonstrate their ROI) and the trend of other marketing disciplines encroaching on PR’s space. (ie,  if PR doesn’t sort out this issue, someone else will.) The seven principles are outlined below (for me, point six is the most interesting): 1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programmes. 2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality – cuttings in themselves are not enough.   3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity. 4. Social media can and should be measured. 5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results. 6. Business results can and should be measured where possible. 7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement.