PRIA – Measurement and
Evaluation in PR
April 14 2014
Agenda for this Morning
• AMEC International Business Insights Study
– Summary of Findings
– Current Industry Trends
– The Clients’ Perspective
– The Future
• AMEC Measurement Week
2
Background
•
This report covers the findings of the 2013 AMEC International Business
Insights Survey
•
This is an online survey of two key audiences which offers unique insight into
the research and insights industry at this point in time
– 66 CEO/MD level respondents from AMEC member companies,
representing 83% of all member companies eligible to take part
• AMEC member companies were approached directly by the AMEC
team
– 65 clients of these AMEC companies
• Each participating AMEC member was asked to nominate up to six
clients and provide them with a link to the client survey
• Assuming all participating members did this, the client response rate
is a very respectable 16%
•
Research was carried out between 25th July and 23rd September 2013
3
Summary of findings
Industry trends
Social media
•
Members say client budgets are more likely to be increasing than
decreasing.
•
The trend towards simplicity in measurement models is touching
most AMEC members
– This is reflected in high client demand for “keep it simple”
styles of reporting
•
Some members are continuing to see a growth in ad hoc work,
but demand for continuous work is also buoyant
– The value ratio of continuous to ad hoc work remains at its
historical level of 4:1
•
Demand for social media and online news monitoring is
increasing across the board
•
Consequently, seven in ten AMEC members now believe social
media measurement is critical or very important to their business
success
•
Client demand is highest for measurement of Twitter and
Facebook. Industry blogs and forums are also important
4
Summary of findings
Client perspectives
•
Two-thirds of communications measurement efforts still focus on
outputs, according to clients
– However, the proportion of efforts focusing on outcomes and
business results has increased somewhat in the past three
years
•
Key objectives for clients from measurement work include
measuring both quantity and quality and transparency/ ability to
be replicated
– Social media measurement is the third ranked priority,
although AMEC members appear to under-estimate how
important this is to clients
•
Clients report that the industry performs well on most of the key
criteria for successful measurement work:
– Top management reporting, simplicity, brand/reputation
tracking and delivering insights
•
Areas where industry performance is felt to be lagging behind
expectation
– Including social media measurement, including radio and
providing online dashboards
5
Summary of findings
The future
•
Growth is expected to be strongest in four business categories:
– Consultative/ “deeper dive” services
– Integration with other marketing analytics
– New/ automated forms of measurement
– Digital/ social media analysis
•
Client budgets are growing across all areas of measurement
– Growth is strongest in the budget allocated to social media
listening and measurement
•
Survey participants report the highest ever revenue for the
industry A$103m
– The year-on-year growth rate stands at 12%, and growth is
strong in all business size segments
•
At the same time, the AMEC membership profile is evolving:
– More clients are reached through the PR consultancy
channel than ever before
6
Section 1:
CURRENT INDUSTRY TRENDS
Trends in client needs
SUMMARY
•
Half of all members are seeing a shift towards more emphasis on insights, with less emphasis on monitoring
•
A big majority are seeing increasing demand for simplicity in measurement models
•
Opinion is split over the extent to which ad hoc assignments are replacing continuous work
Disagree strongly/slightly
I am seeing a trend by clients to put increasing
emphasis on insights and less emphasis on
monitoring
Clients at the AMEC Summit in Madrid spoke of a
need for simplicity in measurement models, and I
have experienced this same demand from my own
clients
In my business, the volume of ad hoc projects is
growing and taking the place of what used to be
yearly assignments
27%
8%
Neutral
20%
51%
21%
38%
Agree strongly/slightly
71%
20%
Members Q1 Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of these statements. (Base: all members)
42%
8
Trends in client expectations
SUMMARY
•
There is a strong trend towards increased interest at top management levels in research and measurement which
tracks the business benefits of communications
•
Clients are now likely to be from a broader set of functions, including corporate communications as well as marketing
•
There is increasing demand for insights reporting to demonstrate the business benefits of communications
Disagree strongly/slightly
Clients are reporting increased interest from their
senior management/C-suite level in the use of
research and measurement to track the business
benefits of communications activity
In my business, we are seeing clients from a wider
range of functions than in the past, for example
clients from corporate communications as well as
marketing functions
Clients are asking for more insights reporting
because they increasingly believe it is important
to demonstrate the business benefits of their work
10%
16%
8%
21%
9% 8%
Neutral
Agree strongly/slightly
74%
71%
83%
Members Q1 Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of these statements. (Base: all members)
9
How demand for monitoring is changing
SUMMARY
•
Demand for social media monitoring is increasing for almost all AMEC members – 91% have seen demand growth
during the past 12 months
•
In addition, 68% report growing demand for online news monitoring
•
Demand for monitoring of other media channels is stable, except radio, where more members report a decrease than
an increase
Don't measure this channel
Social media
2% 8%
Online news
3%
TV
Newspapers
Magazines
Radio
7%
Unchanged
Demand increasing
91%
29%
11%
5%
Demand decreasing
68%
17%
56%
12%
71%
11%
18%
17%
12%
71%
18%
11%
55%
9%
Members Q8b For each of the media channels please indicate how client demand for monitoring has changed in the past 12 months (Base: all
members)
10
Section 2:
CLIENT PERSPECTIVES
Familiarity with Barcelona Principles
SUMMARY
•
Almost two in every three clients say they have never heard of the Barcelona Principles for measurement
•
Meanwhile 17% of clients know a little and 18% say they are relatively familiar with the Principles
•
AMEC members expected 66% of clients to know about the Barcelona Principles, somewhat over-estimating the
profile of the industry standards on the client side
Never heard of them
Clients
Members' expectations of clients
Heard of/know a little
65%
27%
17%
Very/fairly familiar
18%
53%
Clients Q3 In general, how familiar are you with the AMEC Barcelona Principles for measurement? (Base: all clients)
Members Q3 In general, how familiar are your clients with the AMEC Barcelona Principles for measurement? . (Base: all members)
13%
12
Focus for communications measurement –
change over time
SUMMARY
•
Clients were also asked to estimate where the focus for communications measurement lay three years ago
•
There has been a modest shift of focus away from measuring outputs towards measuring outcomes and business
results
•
However, both three years ago and at present, outputs remain the dominant focus for communications measurement
65%
72%
Outputs (i.e. media results)
Outcomes (i.e. change in behaviour)
20%
16%
15%
12%
Clients - now
Clients - 3 years ago
Business results (i.e. change in
financial metric)
Clients Q4 Please indicate how much of your communications measurement efforts focus on each of the following (Base: all clients)
Clients Q5 Please indicate how much of your communications measurement efforts 3 years ago focused on each of the following (Base: all
clients)
13
Objectives/structure of measurement work
SUMMARY
•
More than eight in ten clients say their measurement work always/mostly measures both media quantity and quality
•
Almost seven in ten always/mostly use transparent/replicable measurement approaches
•
More than six in ten say they always/mostly include social media
•
One in three says they never use AVEs, but 40% always/mostly do include this kind of measurement
•
Attempting to measure target audience change and/or determine business results from communications are less
frequently part of the process
Never
Measure both media quantity and
quality
Use approaches that are
transparent and can be replicated
Measure social media
Set goals before measuring
5%
Only rarely/some of the time
12%
3%
82%
20%
8%
68%
25%
8%
Include AVEs
63%
32%
57%
34%
Determine business results from
communications
14%
Measure target audience changes
resulting from communications
15%
Always/most of the time
20%
45%
51%
Clients Q6 How often does your measurement work do each of the following? (Base: all clients)
40%
33%
29%
14
Client priorities when considering
communications measurement services
SUMMARY
• The two most important aspects of communications measurement services for clients are a) ensuring that the data
creates insights and b) reports which can be shared with senior management across the organization
• The ability to track key reputation/brand attributes and simplicity of reporting are also among the highest priorities
• The inclusion of social media is the fifth-placed priority, coming in above both TV and radio
% scoring 4 or 5 out of 5 (where 5 = extremely important)
Creates insights from the data
89%
Reports that can be shared with the top echelon of your organization
86%
Can track key reputation or brand attributes
79%
Simplicity
78%
Includes social or other shared media
74%
Includes TV
70%
Includes radio
61%
Has an online dashboard
58%
Provides consistency across multiple geographies
55%
Can produce a financial ROI
53%
Includes a quality scoring system specific to your organization
53%
Cutting-edge methodology
48%
Focuses on measuring only key media
Includes owned media such as your website
Includes paid media such as advertising
41%
35%
30%
Clients Q7 On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = not at all important and 5 = extremely important, how important are each of the following to you when
considering communications measurement services? (Base: all clients)
15
Section 3:
THE FUTURE
Single greatest potential to drive business
growth
SUMMARY
• Members were asked to indicate the business activity with the single greatest potential for growth in the coming year
• Top if the list, mentioned by 23%, is digital/social media analysis, followed by new/automated measurement
technologies (21%)
• Integration with other market analytics and consultative/ “deeper dive” style services are also mentioned by more than
one in ten
Digital/social media analysis
23%
New/automated measurement technologies
21%
Integration with other marketing analytics
15%
Consultative/ “deeper-dive” services with clients
13%
Projects with international scope
8%
Online news analysis
Digital/social media monitoring
5%
3%
Manual measurement technologies
2%
Print media analysis
2%
Broadcast monitoring
2%
Print media monitoring
2%
Online news monitoring
2%
Other area of business activity
5%
Members Q13b Which area of business activity offers the greatest potential to drive business growth during the next 12 months? (Base: all
members)
17
Section 4:
AMEC MEMBER BENCHMARKING
Continuous vs ad hoc
SUMMARY
•
Despite the widely-held belief that the proportion of ad hoc assignments to continuous work is growing, the balance
between the two remains very similar now to the levels reported five years ago – 80% continuous, 20% ad hoc
Ad hoc
work: 20%
Continuous work: 80%
Survey year
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Continuous
81%
81%
80%
84%
80%
Ad hoc
19%
19%
20%
16%
20%
Members Q16a Please indicate the value of all research and insights business undertaken in 2012 as continuous work?
Members Q16b And now please indicate the value of all research and insights business undertaken in 2012 as ad hoc projects?
(Base: all members answering)
19
Client base by origin
SUMMARY
•
The AMEC members participating in the 2013 survey report a total client base of approaching 17,000 organizations
•
Two in three of this total are direct end clients for AMEC members, while the remainder are originated by PR
consultancies
•
The proportion of clients originated through PR firms has jumped this year – probably a reflection of the changing
profile of the membership base
• AMEC members taking part in the 2013 survey have
clients between them
End clients originated by
PR consultancies: 34%
Direct end
clients: 66%
Survey year
2009
2010
2011
2012
Direct
84%
81%
79%
66%
Via PR
16%
19%
21%
34%
Members Q18 Thinking now about the research and insights business you carried out in calendar year ending December 31st 2012 which was
originated by PR consultancies, how many end clients did you carry out work for?
Members Q19 How many direct end clients did you carry out research and insights business for in calendar year ending December 31st 2012
(Base: all members answering)
20
#amecatwork
Measurement Week
w/c 15th September, 2014
An AMEC Global Education
Programme initiative
The strategic direction
What is it?
• Measurement Week is a key
strategic initiative from AMEC
to fill the gap between
understanding the value of PR
measurement and doing
something about it!
• Measurement Week is a high
profile international
programme to help achieve
greater adoption of
measurement techniques.
• International week of AMEC
member-led events unified via
social media to raise
awareness and excitement
around the latest thinking in
measurement.
Launch ideas
• Strategy is to target the groups who are most vested in the
concept rather than promote too heavily among the wider
marketing community.
• Year 1 objective is to build a solid but perhaps not
spectacular foundation for future success and keep the
concept slightly below the line until momentum has been
generated.
• Encourage AMEC members to spread the word through
WoM and through their channels using #amecatwork.
• AMEC to provide content for publication as stand-alone or
as part of broader measurement material to AMEC
members at launch and during the week (& published to
the Measurement Week holding page.
23
Next steps
How will AMEC members
be involved?
• Each AMEC International
Chapter will promote
Measurement Week within
its geography.
• Each Chapter to look for
one flagship property to run
during Measurement Week
– e.g. collaboration with PR
membership group, trade
partner, etc.
• PLUS Special delegate
creative session for
delegates at International
Summit in Amsterdam in
June!
For further information on the survey:
Contacts for AMEC:
John Croll
+612 9318 4004
john.croll@isentia.com
Barry Leggetter
+ 44 7748 677504
barryleggetter@amecorg.com
25