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The Measurement Maven and Menace Awards

The Measurement Maven Award

Shonali Burke, ABC
Senior Director of Communications, ASPCA

Anyone who brings in a measurement wonk to talk to her leadership team almost within the first quarter of starting a job has to get the Measurement Maven Award. We first encountered Shonali when she invited me to speak at her PR group in San Francisco. She then landed in D.C. at Ruder Finn where she put together a textbook-perfect measurement program for one of her clients. Shonali joined the ASPCA in New York earlier this year, and, almost before she could find her way to the lunchroom, she was talking measurement.

What is particularly interesting about Shonali's approach is that she always starts with the goal of measuring outcomes. Media monitoring is seen as something you tie results to, not the other way around. So while making sure that the ASPCA brand is more visible than competing brands is important, it's not the only goal. Shonali and her team never forget that it's not just about the eyeballs. It's about creating a safer world for puppies and kitties. And naturally, raising the funds necessary to make that happen. -KDP

The Measurement Menace Award:

World Cup Sponsor Hyundai Motors and Sponsorship Intelligence

Okay, so we know that the World Cup is the most watched event in the world, with over a billion people tuning in to the final match. So there's nothing particularly surprising about sponsors happily forking over hundreds of millions of dollars to FIFA for the privilege of having their name in the stadium.

What did surprise me was Hyundai's statement to the media that the World Cup had generated the company some $7.3 billion in "PR effect." (Actually their figure was W7 trillion, which does sound more impressive. Note that 1 South Korean won = 0.00103589372 US dollars.) That figure is based entirely on the amount of time that the board bearing the Hyundai brand image appeared on TV screens. Sponsorship Intelligence, which handles research for FIFA, came up the "effect" number based on the number of viewers, the unit price of each country's World Cup ads, etc., etc. Read more about it here.

Calculating AVE's is nothing new, and we've ranted about that plenty of times. The real reason this calculation earns Hyundai and SI the Menace Award is the wrong-headedness of their assumptions. The notion that a bulletin board with a name on it can yield a "PR effect" is the equivalent of my saying, "I'm going to feed my family out of my garden," and pointing to pictures of vegetables as proof.

First of all, it assumes that all the "effect" of the visual is all positive. Never mind any possible negative impact of the brand being displayed when a favorite player gets knocked down, or when the opposition scores a goal. No, this silly calculation assumes that each and every one of those billions and billions of eyeballs warmed up to Hyundai just a little bit more every time the Hyundai name or logo or whatever it was flashed up on the screen.

Secondly, there is no such thing as "ad equivalency," since the TV ads they are comparing the cost to would presumably contain key messages promoting Hyundai cars. All those soccer fans saw was the logo. No messages, no pictures of cars, no happy drivers. There they go, comparing apples and lamb chops again. (See this article, elsewhere in this issue.)

Thirdly, lets assume that Hyundai would actually spend $7.3 billion on PR efforts. Think about how much money that is. I have enough faith in my PR colleagues to know that $7.3 billion could accomplish a heck of a lot more than to put a logo board in front of a bunch of football fans, World Cup or not. Hell, with a $7.3 billion budget, you could probably get Zidane elected president of Italy, or at least the US. -KDP

You know you need to measure your results, but chances are there’s never been enough money in your budget for evaluation. Until now.
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