The need to prove PR's effectiveness

As public relations competes for funding with other marketing activities such as advertising, the major challenge is to prove its effectiveness.  This is important at any time but especially so during a downturn when budgets are tight.  Now, Spectrum’s Vector monitoring and analysis solution enables the effect of PR to be monitored, analysed and directly compared with advertising and any other form of marketing activity.

 

Nearly all marketing activities, whether online or offline, have an impact on the Internet. Television advertisements, for instance, generate a significant amount of online buzz through comments on blogs and social networks.  Likewise public relations, whether through online media coverage, blog comments or reviews, virtually any and all PR activity generates online buzz.

 

A major benefit of the Vector solution is that it monitors and analyses this buzz in real-time at regular time intervals, enabling the impact of any PR and marketing activity to be tracked very accurately, as it happens.  The blue, green and yellow lines on figure 1, below, show the online buzz generated by a variety of marketing activities around Sainsbury’s 140th anniversary, monitored and analysed using Spectrum's Vector. The Sainsbury’s campaign kicked-off with a tv ad (view), which aired on 6th May, 2009, followed by PR and other activity at the end of the month that coincided with the Spring Bank holiday weekend.

 

The impact of the launch of Sainsbury's anniversary television campaign can be seen from the blue and yellow lines on figure 1, which  reveal  that  online  buzz associated with Sainsbury’s ‘140th anniversary’ and ‘birthday’ was generated on and following 6th May, when the TV ad first aired. The impact of the Spring Bank holiday PR and sales promotion activity can also be seen, with the blue and yellow lines moving upward during and following the weekend of 23rd to 25th May .

 

 

 

The critical importance and value of search

As well as enabling online buzz generated by PR and other marketing activity to be tracked and evaluated, Vector also enables the impact of this activity on key audience outcomes such as Internet search, to be measured. The value and importance of Internet search as an indicator of attitudes and buying intentions cannot be under-estimated.  The reason for this is both simple and remarkably powerful. 

 

When we use search engines such as Google, we already have in mind what we’re looking for.  If we search for a type of vehicle the most likely reason is that we’re thinking of buying that make of car.  If we search for a holiday location the most likely reason is that we’re thinking of going there for a break; and if we search for an advice or help site the most likely reason is that we’re concerned about our health or some other problem.  It is the pre-conceived nature of this action that makes Internet search such a valuable measure of our attitudes and buying intentions; and that is why search is such a critical outcome against which to measure PR and other marketing activities.

 

Figure 1 also shows volume of searches carried out by UK consumers on Google for Sainsbury’s (orange bars).  This is critical for two very important reasons: first, this search was a key outcome performed by consumers, so linking it with marketing activity provides powerful evidence that the activity was having an effect. Second, search can be closely associated with sales and therefore directly linked with ROI.  This can be seen in figure 2, which shows UK consumer searches for Waitrose against sales. The correlation is remarkably strong and is, in fact, quite typical.  But don't just take our word for it, read the research paper Predicting the Present, produced by Google by clicking here.  This demonstrates the relationship between Internet search and data such as car sales. 

 

 

PR shows dramatic impact

By far the most noticeable impact from the Sainsbury's anniversary activity can be seen from the green line on figure 1, which shows coverage for the ‘avocado wars’.  This was a classic example of using PR to exploit  marketing opportunities created by issues, in this case the ‘spat’ between Sainsbury’s and M&S over which company was the first to introduce avocados into Britain.

 

The impact of the avocado wars PR activity on consumer searches for Sainsbury's can clearly be seen on figure 1, which shows a very obvious spike coinciding directly between them (represented by the green line and orange bars, respectively). Although there are standard statistical techniques, which Vector uses, to determine the statistical relationship between variables, these are hardly needed in this instance when the impact of the avocado wars coverage on consumer search for Sainsbury’s is so clearly evident.

 

Advertising versus PR

The single greatest challenge for the PR industry is to prove its contribution to business success. The Sainsbury’s 140th anniversary example shows how Vector can reveal the strong link between online coverage generated by PR and key outcomes, such as consumer searches.  It is typical of what Vector could do for you, providing clear and demonstrable proof that PR not only works but that it can also generate significantly greater audience outcomes – in this case Internet searches – than advertising.  

 

It also reveals how Vector can be used as a powerful planning and measurement tool, by highlighting the impact of different techniques on key outcomes. The impact of the avocado wars on consumer search llustrates the likely value of exploiting "controversial but fun" PR activities, using techniques similar to the avocado wars, in future consumer campaigns.

 

Now the true impact and value of PR can be measured

These results demonstrate that:

1. PR, advertising and other marketing activities generate significant online buzz.
2. Vector can track and measure the impact of PR and other marketing activity that generates this buzz.  Note that it doesn't matter what type PR or marketing activities we're talking about.  They all generate online buzz and because Vector can track and measure them in real-time we can separate the impact each makes, which we can test and confirm using standard statistical techniques where necessary.
3. Vector can also determine the impact of PR and other marketing activity on key outcomes. In this example the outcome is Internet search carried out by supermarket consumers, but it could just as easily be sales or share price.
    

Vector can monitor and track the impact of different marketing disciplines in real-time. This means that the  results of PR can now be directly compared with advertising, direct marketing and any other online or offline marketing activity.

 

To arrange a meeting or online demonstration simply complete and submit the information request form by clicking here.