Thoughts from AMEC's International Measurement Summit

I’ve been very fortunate to be able to attend every single AMEC International Evaluation Summit since the first one back in 2009 in the wonderful city of Berlin. This year the summit moved to Sofia in Bulgaria. Over 450 delegates came together virtually or in person sharing best practice and debating the industry's latest trends and developments. The pace of change in this industry is phenomenal. Tech and AI developments are red hot, and the interest in the sector has never been greater. There are many exciting reasons to be optimistic about the future of PR measurement and a number of common themes emerged.

The insatiable global demand to learn and implement best practice.

AMEC has long been known for campaigning and promoting our free educational resources to help achieve this. The Barcelona Principles, Integrated Evaluation Framework, PR Planning Guide, Say No to AVEs campaign and the Measurement Maturity Mapper all stand testament to this. (More on each of these here) With the principles, frameworks, and best-practice established, it’s now about global adoption and implementation. Each year more organizations and brands come to the summit to share their measurement journey with us. Some highlights this year included fabulous presentations from McDonald’s Abby Scott and Sarah Myles on the future or reputation measurement, LinkedIn’s Nicole Moreo on best practice and exciting new metrics, and Golin’s Jonny Bentwood on data and disruption. These were backed up by great case studies including from Elmeirillia Lonna of PT Astra International in Indonesia, Andrew Perrin of the Asian Development Bank, and Andre Manning recounting from his career heading up global comms at massive organisations including Royal Phillips, Booking.com and Tata Steel the three times that measurement has helped ‘save him’ in the Boardroom. Speaking the language of the C Suite is critical...

The generosity and collaboration of the whole AMEC community.

AMEC brings all global professionals in the comms evaluation space together, including PR evaluation consultants, data tech vendors, social media focussed business, PR agencies, in-house leaders, professional bodies and academics. This broad community was out in force in Sofia. The link AMEC provides between academia and practice is particularly strong, including the first AMEC Scholarship winner, Larry DeGaris of Medill Spiegel Research Center presenting his new approach to sponsorship measurement and a particularly powerful presentation from Jim Macnamara of the University of Technology, Sydney on simple yet robust ways to implement best practice in PR planning and comms evaluation. Jim is one of the titans of the sector. His delivery manner makes what might appear complex as simple and easy to understand and he shared many great resources to generously help develop the industry further. It wasn't just the academic researchers represented though, this year, through the generous support of Mary Beth West , 200 students were able to attend virtually. It was great to see the interst in our sector and reassuring to know that it is in such safe hands.

Important contributions were made by our partners, with the IPR's Tina McCorkindale, Ph.D., APR sharing timely research on combatting mis/disinformation in a polarized society and ever fracturing world, PRCA CEO James Hewes sharing his strategic vision for the organization, ICCO’s Rob Morbin explaining a collaboration between ICCO, AMEC and the United Nations Development Program and Kyle Mason of Shell and Allison Spray of H&K lifting the lid on the thinking behind the evaluation strategy of their large and complex organizations. It was fantastic to see strong support from international leaders including Tim Marklein who had flown in from the USA's West coast to challenge us to improve the value of the insights provided to our clients, something that is very close to my heart. AMEC’s core tenet certainly shone through, a rising tide really does lift all ships and will benefit the entire industry.

The relentless march of progress.

Unsurprisingly Data Tech and AI were topics that were explored in depth. They bring enormous benefits to the sector, increasing speed and capabilities in ways that seemed impossible even just a year ago. It is critical that we use the time benefits to our advantage, allowing us to increase our curiosity, improve our work, and up our insights rather than ‘dumb down’ our services based on ‘plagiarized soups’ of AI generated averageness. The importance of consultants and experts to make sense of the tools, enrich the data and provide context and relevance to the insights will be critical in this new world.?I’m often asked what is the best tool to use is in these days of AI and real time dashboards. I always say the same thing – the best tool is the one that we were all born with - our brains! And it is of course free.

Some headwinds remain

Amidst the positive themes, there are always going to be some challenges and a few frustrations. Despite the progress and general pace of change, there are some isolated pockets where change is not happening quick enough. There are occasions in the public relations sector where media coverage evaluation can be confused with PR effectiveness. The metrics are substituted, leading to overclaims of comms success. There can remain far too strong an emphasis on media metrics that are losing their relevance. In the same way that old metrics such as number of articles and ‘column inches’ are no longer relevant, ‘reach’ and ‘impressions’ are losing theirs too. It can still be too tempting to trot out the largest numbers that are available when reporting, not the ones that link to the outcomes that matter to an organisation.

When thinking about reach, remember that ‘article level’ reach is more realistic than domain level and remember that even then, over 50% of people rarely read beyond the headline and the first couple of paragraphs. ‘Reach’ these days is little more than a broad index and certainly not a number of people that have seen, heard or taken in your messages and perspectives. The days reports with claims suggesting that X billion people saw coverage as a validation of success need to be behind us. In the words of AMEC global MD Johna Burke ‘Your impressions don’t necessarily mean anyone was impressed.’

Let’s place more emphasis on the outake and outcome metrics instead that help us tell a meaningful measurement story. Incorporating these metrics should be the norm, not the stand-out best practice. So get ready to break down the silos in your organizations and get other departments to share the data that you need. Resist the urge to rely only on fancy online dashboards, where it’s all too easy to confuse multiple metrics and charts with relevant measurement and evaluation. Let’s cut the data down and use it to make our case and tell our story and remember to do this with brevity, clarity and beautiful design as we demonstrate the effectiveness of our work. And don’t be afraid to call an expert consultant in to help you, many exist and are standing ready to assist.

If this post has wet your appetite and you're developing FOMO from missing the summit, it's not too late! AMEC has some streaming passes to watch the whole thing again. I've been wading through it all once more since I returned from Sofia. IT really is a treasure trove of advice and information. So do consider buying a virtual pass here before you miss out. You wont regret it!