The document presents insights from Tim Marklein on linking public relations (PR) to sales and measurement strategies at the South Carolina Governor's Conference on Tourism & Travel. It discusses the importance of moving beyond traditional metrics like ad value equivalency to better measure PR's impact on business outcomes such as sales, market share, and stakeholder engagement. Emphasizing integration across media and communication disciplines, the document advocates for defining clear, measurable goals and utilizing a range of evidence-based practices to demonstrate PR's value.

1. Communications Measurement:
Linking PR to Sales
Planning  Optimization  ROI
South Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism &
Travel – February 21, 2011
Tim Marklein, Executive VP, Measurement & Strategy
tmarklein@webershandwick.com
Twitter: @tmarklein
Slide 1 -- February 21, 2011

2. The Long, Winding Road
 Go to the wrong airport
 Wait in line 45 minutes to rebook
 “We can’t get you to Aspen today”
 “The last bus leaves before 6:00”
 Ignore signs: “Independence Pass CLOSED”
 Backtrack 2.5 hours to Aspen
Slide 2 -- February 21, 2011

3. Don’t Let This Happen to You…
Slide 3 -- February 21, 2011

4. Linking PR to Sales Requires…
 Determination
 Persistence
 Creativity
 Strategy
 Methodology
Slide 4 -- February 21, 2011

5. Industry snapshot:
Current state of communications measurement
THE GOOD Everyone agrees: Measurement is important
Basic standards, tools in place for measuring media
CMOs, CFOs and CEOs are asking for more
THE BAD
Still lots of lip service without investment
“What tool should I use?” – wrong question
Quarterly reports are shelfware, don’t drive decisions
THE UGLY
PR metrics aren’t translated into executive terms
Not enough definition or accountability for outcomes
“Random acts of measurement” – not enough integration
Source: Weber Shandwick
Slide 5 -- February 21, 2011 Measurement & Strategy practice

6. Watershed moment: Moving beyond AVE
• Oct’09: IPR Measurement Commission “condemns the
name, concept and practice of ad value equivalencies”
• No evidence that earned media space = paid media space
• Simply measures media “cost,” doesn’t measure the “value”
• Misused as a cheap proxy for ROI – distracts from outcomes
• IPR and AMEC working on alternatives, transition plans
• Shift focus to business outcomes – awareness, understanding,
attitudes, behaviors, engagement, sales, market share, etc.
• Always evaluate media quality and message, not just quantity
• Options for comparative “cost” evaluation: CPM, targeted reach,
“weighted media cost,” engagement/CPE, market mix analysis
• Follow updates at www.iprmeasure.org
Slide 6 -- February 21, 2011

7. Proving PR’s value: Watch your language
Typical PR metrics Key business metrics
• Total clips • Contribution to sales
• Total clips in top-tier media • Contribution to market share
• Total circulation/impressions • Contribution to profitability
• Share of voice • Influence on stock performance
• Media sentiment • Influence on stakeholder awareness
• Message pull-through • Influence on stakeholder opinion
• Ad equivalency • Influence on employee attitudes
• Cost per thousand • Influence on customer consid/pref
• Influence on stakeholder awareness • Influence on customer satisfaction
• Influence on stakeholder opinion • Influence on customer loyalty
• Influence on employee attitudes • Influence on brand equity
• Influence on corporate reputation
“It will be difficult for PR to get a larger share of the total
communications expenditure without quantitative means that
go well beyond measurement of media outputs.”
Source: Adapted from GAP V report, Annenberg
Slide 7 -- February 21, 2011 School of Communication, “Fifth Annual Public Relations
Generally Accepted Practices” study, Q1’08

8. Or as Duane Parrish put it…
Heads in the beds
Feet in the fairways
People in the parks
Slide 8 -- February 21, 2011

9. Proving PR’s value: Focus on outcomes
• Define clear, precise and
measurable goals in business
or marketing terms
• Borrow from outcomes inventory
published by PRSA and IPR (left)
• Don’t worry whether you can
prove PR’s impact – assume
you can, and then work
http://comprehension.prsa.org/?p=628 backwards to determine how
• Anecdotal evidence
• Data-based evidence
• Correlation
• Contribution
• Causation
Slide 9 -- February 21, 2011

10. Anecdotal evidence
The customer said they read a magazine
review, and that’s why they called us to
buy the product.
Slide 10 -- February 21, 2011

11. Data-based evidence
9.7% of the customers we surveyed last
quarter said they called us because they
read a magazine review.
Slide 11 -- February 21, 2011

12. Correlation
Every time our competitive media share
goes up, our sales in that region go up for
the next two months.
Slide 12 -- February 21, 2011

13. Contribution
Based on our marketing mix model, we
determined that PR contributed 2.7% to
our sales goal last quarter.
Slide 13 -- February 21, 2011

14. Causation
720 customers that read about us online,
then went to our site, bought the product
at an average sales price of $675.
Slide 14 -- February 21, 2011

15. Proving PR’s value: Integration is critical
• Old world, meet new world
• Integration of traditional, digital and social media
• Integrating WOM and other new influence patterns
• Silo #1, meet silo #2, silo #3, etc.
• Integration of PR with other communication disciplines
• Integration of PR with other marketing disciplines
• Integration across business units, products, geographies
• Measurement, meet strategy
• Integration of metrics, data sources, tools, dashboards
• Integration of data and insights into decision-making flow
Slide 15 -- February 21, 2011

16. Old world, meet new world:
New metrics, data sources, concepts
measures: Assess how content is accessed, shared,
adapted, amplified across various sites and media properties
measures: Assess the volume, engagement, sentiment
and reach of content shared via the web.
measures: Assess the paid and organic search rankings for
company content, brands and keyword associations
measures: Assess the volume, engagement, feedback and
reach of content shared via company’s web properties
measures: Analyze volume, content, sentiment
of conversations about company/brands across sites, media
measures: Assess audience, reach and “touch
points” of company content/conversations across sites, media
• Outcome measures: Assess how the content, conversation
and community measures correlate with desired outcomes
Source: Weber Shandwick Measurement & Strategy
Slide 16 -- February 21, 2011 practice, “Inline” measurement framework

17. Old world, new world:
Digital/social outcomes
Source: Altimeter Group and Web Analytics
Demystified, http://bit.ly/dldIHf
Slide 17 -- February 21, 2011

18. Old world, meet new world:
Analyzing WOM conversation volume, quality
Low Volume / High Quality High Volume / High Quality
Nationwide
Prudential
Industry
All State Average
Quality of Advocacy (%)
State Farm
Metric Score Industry
Share of Conversation 10% 4%
Net Favorability -62% 18%
Net Recommendation -24% 29%
Propensity to Relay 31% 50%
AIG
Low Volume / Low Quality High Volume / Low Quality
Share of Conversation (%)
Source: Weber Shandwick Measurement & Strategy analysis,
Slide 18 -- February 21, 2011 based on Keller Fay TalkTrackTM survey data Jan’08-Dec’08

19. Old world, meet new world:
Shifting media changes criteria and scale
• What’s more valuable?
• Chicago Tribune print story
• WSJ.com online story
• Industry blog post with lots of comments
• Customer recommendation via Twitter
• Depends on objective, audience, message, tone, influence
• Not all easily measured or compared across media channels
• Key considerations
• Total impressions vs. targeted impressions – efficiency matters
• Earned CPM vs. Social CPM – very different scales, don’t equate
• Engagement, CPE and Conversion – varies by channel, outlet
• Comparative Media Cost – inconsistency of source data
Slide 19 -- February 21, 2011

20. Silo #1, meet silo #2, silo #3, etc.:
Cross-media evaluation shows mutual impact
Slide 20 -- February 21, 2011

21. Silo #1, meet silo #2, silo #3, etc.:
Cross-discipline metrics are key to insight
Media Media Web Keyword
Analysis Analysis Analytics Analysis
(traditional) (social) (site) (search)
WOM Brand Customer Employee
Analysis Tracking Satisfaction Satisfaction
(surveys) (surveys) (surveys) (surveys)
Lead Gen Events & Analyst Data & Ind. Awards
& Sales data DM data Reports & Scorecards
(CRM) (CRM) (third party) (third party)
Source: Weber Shandwick Measurement & Strategy practice –
Slide 21 -- March 23, 2010 ARROW Measurement Suite, February 2009

22. Measurement, meet strategy:
Flexible + repeatable + integrated metrics
activities reach relevance outcomes worth
What activities Did you reach Were you What business What is the
were performed your audience? relevant to your results did you estimated dollar
to achieve How many audience? Were achieve? value of your
results? impressions, you credible? Awareness? communication
web visits, Did your ideas Engagement? efforts? What
reports, and messages Reputation? was the ROI?
attendees, etc. resonate? Did Leads? Sales?
were you drive Loyalty?
generated? conversation? Advocacy?
Quantity/Output  Quality/Outtakes  Business Impact  Value/Efficiency
Communications Team  Marketing Team  Executive Team
Source: Weber Shandwick Measurement &
Slide 22 -- February 21, 2011 Strategy practice, “ARROW” measurement model

23. Measurement, meet strategy:
Sample dashboard for “inline” programs
Activities
47 Media, Blogger & Influencer Interviews
94 Facebook, YouTube, Blog & Twitter Posts
Reach
170 Earned & Social Media Placements
3.9M Earned & Social Media Impressions
Relevance
64% Earned & Social Message Penetration
27% Earned & Social Media Share
Outcomes
14% Increase in Brand Engagement (via web data)
27% Category Sales Share (source TBD)
Worth
$4.72 Earned CPM (Cost Per 1K Impressions)
$8.22 Social CPE (Cost Per Engagement)
Slide 23 -- February 21, 2011

24. Measurement, meet strategy:
Sample dashboard for integrated comms
Slide 24 -- February 21, 2011

25. Measurement, meet strategy:
Advocacy drives sales
Advocates can
help a company grow an
average rate of
their competitors
Slide 25 -- February 21, 2011 Source: Bain & Company

26. Thank You!!!
Email:
tmarklein@webershandwick.com
Blog:
www.allaboutadvocacy.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/tmarklein
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