October 29, 2002

Monthly Mavens and Menaces
of Measurement

Do you think you know a suitable candidate for our Measurement Maven or Menace award? Send us your nominations.

Our Monthly Maven:
Wilma Mathews, ABC

We tip our hats this month to someone who has been spreading the measurement gospel for as long, if not longer, than we have. As director of public relations for Arizona State University, Wilma Mathews has been using and preaching quantitative and qualitative metrics for years. She must have a ton of frequent flyer miles, because she is always speaking at IABC, Ragan and other conferences on how to use measurement to better manage your PR department.

Our Monthly Menace:
Shame on Schon!

This month’s measurement menace is Jan Hendrik Schon, the AT&T star researcher who was found to have made up or altered data at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001. (The experiments in question were in the areas of superconductivity, molecular crystals and molecular electronics, and were not related to any of Lucent’s current commercial products.) And kudos to AT&T for acting so quickly to fire him. It was the first case of scientific fraud in the 77-year history of Bell Labs, the research arm of Lucent Technologies that used to be part of AT&T.

In the words of one researcher: “Statistics are like political prisoners, torture them long enough and they’ll say anything.” Too many people believe this to be true, and therefore don’t trust even the most conscientious research. Menaces like Mr. Schon only reinforce their prejudice. Any researcher found to be fudging results reflects badly on all the rest of us who are just trying to do good work.

New articles in this issue:

Articles with red titles require a subscription:
The View from the Pyramids:
The 2002 Cairo IPRA Conference.
Should you Trust your Agency with Measurement?
How to choose and work with a measurement-savvy agency.
Shopping for an Agency?
We rate seven top agencies.
The “Ad Value” of PR:
Jim Macnamara on AVEs.
Advertising is Dead; Long Live Advertising:
The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, by Ries and Ries.
How Do I Get my Boss to Use Measurement Properly?
Nobody likes failure, except when it leads to improvement.

The following articles do not require a subscription:
The Paine of Measurement:
Agencies should use research to measure their clients’ success, not their own.
The PR Weather Report:
Clearing skies in November.
Can This Reputation Be Saved?
Will Rosie Bloom Again?
Measurement Maven of the Month: Wilma Mathews
Measurement Menace of the Month: Jan Hendrik Schon
Measurement Site of the Month: Hot A.I.R. and improbable research.
Benchmarking in Their Blood: Andrew West
This Measurement Life:
Doing the Agency Shuffle with Martha and Bob.

1. You’ll learn how to use hard numbers to prove the results of your PR efforts.
   
2. You’ll learn which are the right vendors for your measurement projects.
   
3. You’ll learn how to design your program right from the start to be easily measureable.

Click here to subscribe now! (It’s 100% money-back guaranteed!)

Struggling to set up your measurement system?
Katie Delahaye Paine can help you at measuresofsuccess.com.

133 Islington Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801,
603-431-6967 www.measuresofsuccess.com