A long-standing issue in the communications field is that of proving the return on investment for PR initiatives. Since the profession is not and will likely never become scientific, it has always been difficult to quantify our impact. A communicator can rarely stand up at a general meeting and explain that this letter to the editor changed 568 public perceptions thereby saving the client $8500. Don’t even think about justifying a word-of-mouth campaign to the finance department responsible for your budget!
In order to bring our profession to the next level of accountability, the Canadian Public Relations Society and International Association of Business Communicators joined together to showcase a new tool being presented as one of the biggest steps in reaching a level of standardized evaluation of our work – Media Relations Rating Points.
The Media Relations Rating Points system (MRP) is being called a cost-effective, simple measurement that gives professionals apples-to-apples comparisons of Media Relations initiatives. By predetermining customized evaluation criteria (key messages, inclusion of photo, quote from spokesperson – what you want to hear and see in the media coverage) for each campaign, a simple point system then offers a direct rating out of ten to quantify your success. Over 300 users representing over 1300 clients have already incorporated the system into their practices.
What does all this mean? Well, let’s find out by evaluating my own media campaign. In November of 2007, I was a finalist in the CBC Radio Canada Writes competition. [Despite crashing and burning in the first round, I still maintain the rights to hold this over the heads of my peers until the end of time.] As such, I made numerous radio appearances and was interviewed for both local newspapers in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We’ll use my media coverage to illustrate how the MRP system works. Read on!
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