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Evaluating the media: August 2007

PR geekiness - the tools & techniques to gain insights from PR exposure

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Interesting analysis of Canadian research


Alan Chumley, the Research Director for Hill & Knowlton in Canada has submitted an analysis of the Canadian media research industry. He makes a number of good points, the highlights of which to me were:

- As a progression from the Macnamara's Output / Out-take / Outcomes model the additional inclusion of 'Outgrowth' measure in response to an attempt to closer tie cause and effect. I see real value in focusing effort on the resulting impact of process as a way of better illustrating PR effort.

- He also spoke about the selection of branded packages available from research suppliers. He makes the point that if all medium/large organisations were the same then they would all need the same style or research. As they are not trying to fit needs to designated product styles is not helpful.

Super article, Alan.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Free trials......is it worth the effort?

Just occasionally its necessary to talk about something unrelated to research and on this instance it is the company Pitney Bowes. A few months ago I was persuaded to take a trial of a franking machine for a month. I found it useful and easy to use but as most of my communication is electronically it was of limited use.

Since then the machine has been returned but on various occasions my 'free' trial has been valued a amounts ranging from £59.43 to £95.91. Whats the most frustrating thing is people from Pitney Bowes in the UK tell me when I call up (premium rate number) that it has all been cancelled and a credit note has been raised. But then this morning I receive another invoice for £70.30 so I tried to call to be told every ones on another line. So I leave a message...will anyone get back to me? They probably will as I have already been told on 2 separate occasions it will credited; I have just yet to see it in writing.

Please let it happen soon!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Wikipedia manipulation

BBC Radio 5 Live did an item on their Wake Up To Money show about Wikipedia being subject to manipulation and wholesale alteration by organisations keen to project a positive side in their entry. It was great to hear a contribution from David Phillips backing-up the argument that this sort of immature propagandist tactics do nothing for their reputation and any feeling of transparency. Great one David - sure did wake me up!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Wrestling with measurement


Cross-media measurement tools seem to be all the rage at present. Advertisers want to equate their media spend and analyse the impact of their budget across the different media...ie press, broadcast and new media. Advertising measurement specialists are trying their best to assist with a host of systems and packages. Erik Sass has an interesting discussion on some of those currently available.

With traditional media (press and broadcast) the audience was quantifiable but with new media there are so many more uncertainties. My understanding is that one proposal is to measure the time spent with a page 'open'. I quite often leave a page I am interested in open all day, just refreshing it occasionally. My time actually spent reading the page probably only numbers minutes.

No, there has to be another way for new media. My suggestion would be a sample of viewers analysed via a users pointing camera to look at when the screen is being looked at in conjunction with a log of the pages fully open. This measure of 'actively viewed' pages as I see it would have to be the most accurate form of measurement for new media.