Our NYC PR firm got client Richard Branson’s Necker Island featured as the dramatic backdrop for the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition with over 45 million readers. This kind of coverage is one way to evaluate your PR firm!
When it comes to evaluating the results of your PR agency, there are a number of ways to approach it. Many variables come in to play: quality over quantity, top tier media versus regional publications, online, print, and broadcast, and the list goes on. Top New York City PR firms have a variety of standardized approaches, and you can ask yours to customize reporting to your desired criteria.
Here are a few of the tools to consider:
Convert the publicity to advertising equivalency — Some firms will take an article, such as a feature in Conde Nast Traveler, and if it’s three pages, convert that exposure to ad dollars. So, if a color page would cost $20,000, then the coverage is worth $60,000. Agencies will also do a multiplier and some will deduce that because it’s editorial coverage on the property, it holds more credibility than advertising.
Positive, neutral or negative — Another technique is to list the stories and give it a rating, and then total the columns for each. One has to take into account that there might be a few negative comments in an article even if the overall tone is positive. Some would believe, like Donald Trump, that any publicity is good. Others have found, particularly in the blogosphere, that one negative comment can catch like wildfire and go viral, sometimes from a small blog that happens to get indexed highly by Google.
Features, mentions, and pictures — Many firms will codify the stories by the amount of coverage the company gets within a story. Obviously features in top tier press have the most impact, with the New York Times being considered the Holy Grail. Pictures, which are now indexed by google, have tremendous value and the old expression “a picture speaks a thousand words,” is more apropos than ever before.
Online, print, radio, TV – The various types of media should also be considered. Online has an immediacy that can’t be beat. Print has staying power, as it sits around houses and offices and airports for a while and people often clip articles of interest. Radio has the captive audience of commuters. Television may reach the biggest audience, but the type of product, service or destination must be considered with respect to the target audience. Certainly exposure on the Today Show can’t be beat.
Media tracker – These simple spreadsheets keeps a running tab of all coverage, with the number of impressions – aka eyeballs – who potentially see the article. So, for example, the Sunday Travel section of the New York Times reaches over one million homes. When compiling this data, an agency will also inform the client that the household has two adults, both of whom presumably read the paper (another multiplier). Be sure to ask for sample reports when looking for an agency.
When it comes to evaluating your agency, Abelow PR recommends you look for quality over quantity. After all, getting a cover story in Conde Nast Traveler with a six-page spread is going to have a greater impact than a mention in a small newspaper. You should also keep in mind that when an agency is responsible for a nationwide campaign, regional coverage is powerful as well.
Always ask your PR agency how they intend to report on their results so you can best evaluate their performance. And when looking for a new agency, or just shopping around, there is nothing wrong with asking to see some sample reports. Then, you can judge for yourself.