Media Evaluation
So your message was picked up by the press. But was it the right sort of press coverage? Did it reach the right people? Was the PR campaign a success? And how will the results of this campaign affect future planning?
Using a number of media evaluation techniques we’ll measure the effectiveness of your media relations and present the results in an easy-to-read report. Your report will have details of the publications, date, audited circulation and other relevant data.
What can we evaluate?
Print media evaluation including national, consumer, regional, trade and specialist publications. Broadcast media: TV and radio. And websites and blogs.
So how do we measure the effectiveness of media relations?
The most effective media evaluation combines both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Qualitative media evaluation
| Tonal bias | does the article have a positive, neutral or negative slant |
|---|---|
| Tone of the media | an analysis tool that accurately reflects the mood of the press |
| Target publication tracking | is there coverage in the target publications |
| Core message tracking | what publications are picking up on your core message |
| Press release tracking | how much of your press release has been published verbatim |
| Sector analysis | measuring your industry sector's media coverage as a whole |
| Competitor analysis | what are your competitors up to |
Quantitative media evaluation
| ACE value £s (Advertising Cost Equivalent) | measuring the success of your campaign in advertising £s |
|---|---|
| PR value £s | measuring the impact of your campaign in PR £s - 2.5 times more valuable than advertising |
| Impressions / impacts | the number of times a marketing message is seen x the number of people who see it |
| Column centimetre data | how many column centimetres your editorial piece cover |
| Demographics | what sort of people would have seen your PR coverage |
| Keyword tracking | how many times your company name, product name or core message appears |
| Media breakdown | what publications your message appears in |
What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative analysis?
Qualitative analysis is collecting and analysing data regarding what people do, say, and think about your product or service. For example, are they positive or negative about it?
Whereas, quantitative analysis refers to actual measurements: How many times was your company mentioned? How many column cms did you get? How many people in your target market read the article? Read more public relations definitions.
Using ACE for media evaluation
The term ACE or Advertising Cost Equivalent has become generically linked to Paperclip, and encompasses all the media evaluation tools we use to measure PR in qualitative and quantitative terms.
ACE enables you to:
- Measure the success of your campaign in return on investment terms
- Decide if your PR budget is delivering value for money
- See if your PR campaign is more or less successful than last time
ACE is a precise calculation of the £s value of your editorial coverage, had it appeared as paid-for advertising.
Each press cutting is analysed individually and the precise area of your editorial is measured and entered into Paperclip's software. This will also include other relevant information such as headlines and graphics. The ACE value of your editorial is then calculated.
Evaluating broadcast media
Broadcast media is analysed in the same way either using recorded media or transcripts. The difference between PR and advertising is that advertising spots generally run for 30 seconds whereas a PR 'spot' can run for considerably longer. Our analysis is therefore based on the 30 second rates; taking into account time of day, and calculated pro-rata to the length of your broadcast.
Evaluating new media
We’re one of the pioneers of website and blog monitoring. With an ever growing list of media areas where coverage can be published, we understand the necessity to track every piece possible.
Competitor evaluation
We can also evaluate the media coverage your competitors are receiving. And present this information in easy-to-read reports.
Categorising and editing
When your press clippings come to us they’re always sorted by date order unless you ask otherwise. For instance we can sort your press clippings into specialist categories, sub categories, media type or publication.
We can then crop and edit, highlight and underline, on both the original and copy sets.
We have worked to the trickiest briefs imaginable. For British Waterways we sorted by river, by tributary, by canal, by region, by manager; with several regions sharing the same story and stretch of water. No other media evaluation company was prepared to undertake this level of categorisation.
For more information on media evaluation please contact us.