The Monthly Measurement Maven

Meg Carnes, Fairfax County Public Schools,
Kim Schuchardt and Brenda Hughes,
National Security Agency
Attendees at the last three Ragan Measurement Workshops

Okay, call this self serving, but anyone who hangs around ’til after 5 pm on a Friday afternoon to talk about measurement is a Maven in my book. Meg, Kim and Brenda were the last participants to have their personal Dashboards developed on Day Two of my Ragan Workshop a couple of weeks ago in Washington, D.C. Kim and Brenda were looking for ways to measure what doesn’t happen, and Meg was looking to measure relationships with her various constituencies in a very large and demanding school district.

But they’re not the only Mavens I’ve met of late. In fact, all the attendees of these Workshops are Mavens for being willing to give up two whole days of precious time—never mind the cost of registration and travel—to learn to be more accountable communicators. Read my monthly rant in this issue to find out why I think these folks are all heroes. And the ones who stay late after class deserve the gold star.

The Monthly Measurement Menace

The USA Rice Federation
That’s not rice pudding, that’s rice gruel!

Shame on USA Rice, the entity responsible for promoting U.S.-grown rice, for using spoiled metrics when trying to dish up results. In a flyer lauding the success of their recipe contest and other PR efforts, they describe three articles in women’s publications as being so successful that:

That’s a guaranteed recipe for failure. First of all, I’m not sure if $1.9 million shows success or not—because there is nothing to compare it to. I’ve seen other (equally reprobate) organizations tout Ad Values for programs in the $25 million range. So is $1.9 million success or failure? Without any other numbers to use for comparison, both $1.9 and $25 million are meaningless. (Other examples of USA Rice’s use of AVEs can be found here and here.)

But, wait, it gets worse: Two of these three oh-so-valuable stories don’t mention U.S. rice at all. Isn’t the whole point to push U.S. rice? What kind of PR is worth a million dollars when it doesn't even mention the client?

Why aren’t they carrying out valid measurement? Like monitoring the U.S.’s share of the market? Or share of positioning on the issue of taste or nutrition? Or their share of press coverage?

Their article even awards non-existent superpowers to AVEs:

That sounds like a tasty dish, except they’re using the wrong ingredients. AVEs do not measure image, nor do they have any bearing whatsoever on awareness. (And if you can somehow extract competitive advantage data out of AVEs, please let me know.) As much as I might be tempted to try their recipes, I’ll pass: I’m on a low-BS diet.