The Monthly Measurement Menace and Maven

The Monthly Measurement Maven

Lucie-Anne Fabien, APR

There were so many measurement mavens in Miami this month it was difficult to single out just one to mention. But Lucie-Anne Fabien, APR, a PR Consultant with Carcon-DDM in Montréal, presented some findings that really intrigued us. In a fascinating, well-researched paper she presented her study of measurement practices in French-speaking Canada. While the results weren't exactly what we'd prefer to hear, they do give us much better insight into the Francophone mentality on measurement than we had before. Her respondents were better educated and more experienced than most of the respondents we've seen south of the border.

The good news is that there's a lot of good solid research going on among this group of people. Nearly a third undertake audits before each planning exercise, 22% conduct an audit after every major change. And a whopping 54% said that it is important for them to personally establish measurable goals. Most practitioners use press analysis (84%) and traditional survey techniques, though there was a bit more emphasis on focus groups (76%) than we'd like to see. But two-thirds said they use in-depth interviewing techniques which says great things about the future of research in Canada, at least among practitioners. —KDP

The Monthly Measurement Menace

Canadian PR Consultancies

Unfortunately, Ms. Fabien's conclusions were pretty grim when she turned her attention to consultancies; Canada's PR agencies have a long way to go before they reach measurement maturity. (Read the full paper here.) The truly horrifying statistic is: "Less than half of Canadian consultants recommend research to measure a campaign's impact." And the most menacing of the Menaces, (name withheld to protect the guilty) said, "I am not convinced that the tools really do measure effectiveness…"

What kind of an idiot offers (and charges for) advice to clients yet is so ignorant of current measurement tools? It's not like the IPR Web site couldn't enlighten him or her. This kind of head-in-the-sand approach is the bane of the PR profession and deserves to be sent to the next Canadian hockey game without padding.—KDP

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