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October 29, 2002 Benchmarking in Their Blood by Katie Delahaye Paine
This month's profile:
Andrew
West Andy West is Text 100’s Europe, Middle East and Asia Managing Director. (A year ago, Text 200 was voted PR Consultancy of the Year by The European Technology Forum. See our discussion of Text 100's measurement capabilities elsewhere in this issue.) Andy has worked in technology PR for 15 years and has been with Text 100 for 11 years. Question: What was the first measurement program you did? Answer: Text 100 has always linked its campaigns into clearly defined measurement criteria in the belief that PR is not some black art. This view was pretty radical in the late ’80s but gained considerable currency during the ’90s to the point today when it is inconceivable that any campaign would not contain clear measurement criteria. As a result, our measurement philosophy has evolved through a combination of in-house thinking and industry demand to the stage today where it is an integral part of our core methodology. Question: Why are you so committed to being accountable? Answer: We have a fundamental belief that PR is the primary driver of the brand and hence business. It’s therefore natural that we support our belief by demonstrating to our clients the impact PR has on their business. Our approach to PR is not to simply open a toolbox of common tools and to then get to work. We analyse our client’s business and ensure we have a thorough understanding of their business goals. Only then can we map PR programs to the client such that they clearly support the achievement of these goals. In this way, PR is able to demonstrate a demonstrable ROI, something that every CEO and CMO we have met appreciates. And if the “C Suite” is happy, then we retain the client, so accountability in our business equates to a stable client base and satisfied customers. Question: How has measurement helped your business? Answer: It has provided us with a far more disciplined approach to public relations and has enabled us to train a worldwide team of consultants in an consistent, intelligent and accountable method of PR delivery. This has given us a strong competitive advantage at all levels of our business from locally owned indigenous clients right through to global accounts. Question: And can we say anything more about your proprietary measurement product? Answer:
Our proprietary measurement product Benchmark is now in version
2.0 of its lifecycle. We are currently integrating this into our client
extranet solution on a global basis with a view to providing all clients
with real time access not only to the results we have achieved for them
but also linked directly to billing information, account activity reports,
strategy plans and timesheets. Our goal is to deliver a totally transparent
client experience in which every client has full visibility to the program
from inception through implementation to review. In this way we aim
to ensure there are no surprises for our clients and, more importantly,
that we use the data and results to adapt quickly and effectively to
changes in market conditions. |
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