The words ‘Achilles’ and ‘heel’ often come to mind when PR professionals discuss measurement. How do the self-proclaimed owners of ‘earned media’ evaluate effectiveness when we are often perceived to measure output rather than outcomes, even in a digital age?
For those who are implementing social media, citizen journalism, digital PR campaigns – call it what you will, this has become an even more urgent question – and for too long have responded with a most dissatisfying answer. As the digital opportunities form and reform with each new blog post, video upload and 140 character musing, we’ve steadily moved towards the classic moment when a big question has to be addressed. How will we measure it?
In these difficult economic times, where budgets are being re-evaluated and ROI is even more scrutinised, we as an industry need to justify our slice of marketing budgets by focusing not solely on output (CPM, AVE, etc) but on the ability to measure effectiveness like never before. As an agency that has turned inside out to transform itself into an organization where Digital Influence runs through everything we do, this has been at the forefront of our mind. The fact that 84% of social media campaigns are not measured1 is a huge opportunity for those of us who focus on evaluation when analysing the digital fruits of our labour. How we measure the impact of social media is a question that is not only fundamental, but is answerable in the here and now, with software doing a good proportion of the legwork.
We do have an opportunity to be more rigorous given the rise of technology solutions. At a tactical level, the adoption of social media releases (SMR) for example has proved invaluable in shaping the way we now engage with stakeholders and measure the impact of our outreach. Whilst working on the 50th anniversary of Barbie earlier this year, a project targeting multiple international markets, we were able to shape the campaign around the creation and distribution of broadcast and online video content via the SMR, ensuring the story reached a global audience in a cost effective, measurable and impactful way.
The ability to tag, monitor and measure the impact of video content in particular is also shaping the way brands are leveraging this most powerful of communication tools. As the thirst for video continues to grow, so has the need to demonstrate its effectiveness to clients in helping to communicate the brand’s key messages. The adage that ‘good content will always find an audience’ still rings true, but now is the time for us to embrace the ability to demonstrate the impact of this content rather than focus disproportionately on the ‘perceived’ effectiveness and output of our campaigns. The rules of third party engagement have evolved rather than revolutionised over the last few years, providing PR with the ability to tangibly quantify behavioural change through more scientific metrics.
The Holy Grail is simplicity and comparability in media measurement. As a result, John Bell, President of WOMMA worldwide and an Ogilvy digital leader, developed the Conversation Impact™ model. Born out of a need to align closer to widely accepted marketing and reputation building models, particularly the ‘purchasing funnel’, it places a bigger emphasis on measuring behavioural change rather than solely focusing on ‘traditional’ metrics. This has to be way forward in my view. The challenge is for us all to focus on the big objectives and outcomes while forensically exploring the granular range of new digital tools to support us in this process.
It’s about time that we who deal in social communications do the same. We need to come together and take an “open-crowd-wiki-sourced” approach to it and set some benchmarks and agreed parameters we are all happy with. We should be able to shouldn’t we? It’s called SOCIAL media after all…
In these times, when we are all under pressure, a few simple questions can help us focus the mind.
We are all under pressure - to do more for less even more creatively and faster; to push teams and/or the agency harder; and yet, at the same time, to wire into shifting consumer attitudes that have shifted spectacularly, thanks to the recession.
It’s easy to lose focus and edge in these ‘interesting times’. Also, easy to lose ones conviction about basic on-going truths when it comes to engaging consumer audiences.
Here, in no particular order, are three questions which I have recently noticed myself, and others I work with (clients and agency colleagues), asking more often since the credit crunch. They seem to have helped maintain focus and edge. Hopefully at least one will be useful to you.
There may be some short term shifts in consumer attitudes but what, given the campaign objectives, is the on-going relevant long term consumer ‘truth’?
Here’s a recent example where asking this question brought clarity around the issue of austerity versus ethical brand behaviour. Some clients and industry commentators argue that recessionary pressures fundamentally erode consumer attitudes in this area. In June we commissioned a survey into consumer attitudes to CSR. In fact the research has shown that consumers are actually slightly more sensitised today to CSR when it comes to brand preference. However, their trust in brand’s/companies’ commitment to maintain standards in this area during a recession has declined. Consumers have not suddenly changed how they judge brands and businesses on the basis of their ethical behaviour even if their spending behaviour short term has. The ‘truth’ remains that differentiated and well communicated CSR will become a point of competitive advantage as the economy turns.
Are we sure we reached the target consumer as efficiently as possible?
In today’s digital and social media world, consumers are finding it easier to become part of communities. Calculating ‘opportunities to see’, ‘reach’ or ‘penetration’ is fine but look for at ways of gaining added value momentum. Search out consumer communities via partners (media, other symbiotic brands, NGOs etc) that can grow organically. Here is a great example. The Comfort fabric conditioner brand wanted to reach out to mums about its baby product. National media remain important but, for longterm and cost effective results, using ‘word of mum’ communication to reach and build communities was also critical. The efficiency question pushed fresh thinking. The team linked with media on-line creating the ‘Comforteers’ – an incentivised community of like minded mums. In weeks over 7,000 mums signed up to take part. The activity and on-going community has now touched millions via other relevant communities - it has become self sustaining.
Are the solutions we are developing over complicated?
Faced with the pressure to do more for less and fit more in to communications it can be easy to develop over complicated solutions. Simplicity differentiates – especially if it comes from the heart of the brand. Recently Welsh Lamb has been challenging not only New Zealand Lamb but also English and Scottish Lamb. The competitors have used a queue of celebrities (Beefy and Lamby), chefs, experts, DJs etc. Welsh Lamb needed to keep it simple and differentiate. Welsh passion lies behind their brand. This became the clear centre point for the campaign - who better to represent passion for quality than a Welsh Lamb farmer! The launch and hunt for the this farmer ambassador has attracted extensive coverage - a simple idea cut through the noise.
Everyone is asking the other obvious ‘interesting’ questions about value and measurement but these have been in our faces for a while – good luck in interesting times!
Mobile, Money, Keys. It’s a phrase nearly all of us repeat at least once a day, but it goes to show just how important having your phone with you, as the principle personal and portable interface between you and the world, has become. That’s why OPR is thrilled to be working with 2ergo, an extraordinarily dynamic global company, that is really leading the way in the mobile marketing communications arena and is at the forefront of the interaction between telecommunications, marketing, entertainment, information and the mobile lifestyles that are coming to define the 21st century.
As a leading international provider of integrated mobile products and services with a focus on mobile marketing, mobile business solutions and mobile entertainmentthe company has delivered a whole range of innovative solutions for mobile network operators, marketing agencies and brands and includedFox News, O2, Yahoo, Audi and Phones4u as clients.
The company’s group managing director, Chris Brassington, has over 20 years of IT, e-commerce and telecoms experience and is not just ready toevangelize on the use of the mobile channel for marketers and business, but also the benefits that can be harnessed when mobile comms are used to support the goals of charities and civil society, and not to mention a startling insight to the different patterns of use and mobile cultures (read any keitai shousetsu lately?) that mark out one country from the next.
Working on a retainer basis OPR’s 2ergo campaign starts in July. Central to the campaign will be developing and telling the 2ergo story and marking the company out as unparalled go-to experts in the field of mobile marketing communications. 2ergo has a significant presence across MNOs/MVNOs, as well as working with high profile clients in the Public Sector and the worlds of Retail, Finance, Media and Entertainment.Ogilvy Group UK already offers 2ergo mobile technology to its clients.
On April 20th, The Holmes Report, a leading public relations industry publication, announced that Ogilvy PR had earned its Large Agency of the Year Award for 2008.
“It is quite an honor, especially considering how challenging 2008 was, not just for public relations, but for industries, businesses and organizations worldwide,” said Marcia Silverman, Global CEO Ogilvy PR. In naming Ogilvy PR, editor and publisher Paul Holmes cited us for a “strong and harmonious management team” and for “driving a series of innovations,” especially in social media.
We’re pleased at the recognition, of course. But we know this honor is not for Ogilvy PR alone, but also: our clients, who support and trust us as we build relationships to achieve results; our partners, who add immense value to our efforts; and our colleagues, past and present, whose hard work built the agency.
Please visit www.ogilvypr.com for the full story from The Holmes Report. And know, as you read it, that you made this honor possible.
Ogilvy PR will be officially recognized as The Holmes Report’s Large Agency of the Year at the Sabre Awards dinner on May 12th at Cipriani in New York City.
HCC (Meat Promotion Wales) has selected Ogilvy PR as its new consumer PR agency for Welsh Lamb. We won the business after a 5 way pitch and will now be implementing a year long consumer campaign highlighting the provenance of Welsh Lamb.
Bill Joyce, HCC’s Marketing Manager said: “We are delighted to be working with Ogilvy PR. Their understanding of and passion for the food arena, along with their innovative yet results oriented ideas made them the natural choice for Welsh Lamb.”
Our campaign will focus on communicating the quality and uniqueness of Welsh Lamb to all those Hugh Fearnley Wiitingstall loving, Borough Market shopping, Observer Food Monthly reading foodie types. It will combine traditional media relations activity with digital and experiential work.
As our MD for EMEA Ash Coleman-Smith said “We are thrilled to be working with a product that is renowned for its quality “, and there is no one more thrilled than the team who will be working on the brand. They’re such foodies that they’ve held office baking competitions, plus they’re very much looking forward to getting out in the gorgeous Welsh countryside, a farm visit is already being planned!
London. It’s an inspirational city. Chalked full of museums and theatres, all within a stone’s throw of each other. However, Canary Wharf can often seem far removed from the inspirational surroundings tourists to the city are greeted with.
Given the global remits and international scope of the FM Global account, it thus made sense to hold our European PR Summit in a city where one can’t help but be inspired by their surroundings. Hence, the UK OPR FM Global team crossed the channel and journeyed to Paris in early July to meet with both our French and German OPR colleagues and FM Global’s European communications team for brainstorming sessions and to share ideas with our continental colleagues across the water.
Given the international make-up of the group (the UK team alone comprised of two Americans, a Canadian and a German, and one lonely Brit) we relished in the opportunity to liaise with our international colleagues on a day out of Canary Wharf. After a productive and collaborative half-day meeting, the teams decided to soak in some French culture, with a stroll along the Champs Elysees, brief tours of the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triomphe and a brilliant dinner at a local brasserie prior to heading back to London.
All in all, a successful day out. We must have become inspired by our Parisien surroundings, as we’re currently implementing many of the strategies and initiatives outlined during the brainstorm.
So a month or so ago, you’ll see from Tim’s post below, the consumer team here at OPR, have been working on Embratur. As a teenager, I used to leaf through the NME and dream about one day becoming a music journalist, and a decade later, our recent work for the aforementioned Embratur (Brazilian Tourist Board) enabled me to fulfil my long-forgotten ambition. Fifty years ago this year, the bohemian beach scene in Rio de Janeiro threw up its most enduring musical form – bossa nova– so to celebrate, we helped to put on a festival on the South Bank in London. The idea behind the exercise was to bring Brazilian culture to a new audience, so the bands hired to play at the show weren’t necessarily of Brazilian origin. We wanted to show that Brazil is a cultural superpower, and its bossa nova music – just like jazz in the USA - should be recognised as a timeless international genre, rather than dismissed as little more than elevator music. No one demonstrated this better than our headline act, Nouvelle Vague – the French band who are popular for their breathy covers of classic British punk songs, though few would identify the bossa nova inspiration. By ghostwriting a piece by them for The Guardian (in amongst the copious amounts of other coverage the event received), we helped bring a little taste of Rio’s Zona Sul to the urban English music fan (and I rekindled a passion that really, had never gone away).
A fascinating piece in the WSJ on how we make decisions. Our unconscious has already decided an action a full ten seconds before we have the conscious thought, which throws up all sorts of questions about free will and our freedom to choose. Interestingly the more complex the problem the better to leave the thinking about it to the unconscious. So, let yourself be distracted, let your unconscious hum away in the background and before you know the answer, you will.
Good news- here at Ogilvy PR in London, we’ve been selected as Agency of Record for Embratur, the Brazilian Tourism Board.
We’ve been chosen to showcase the diversity and affordability of Brazil as a holiday destination to Blighty holiday makers. The team will support Embratur’s consumer marketing and trade activities at key industry events including World Travel Market in November.
Chris Fuzinatto, Director of the Brazilian Tourist Office in London said, “Ogilvy PR London was a natural choice to implement and coordinate our UK activities because of their understanding of and passion for the travel sector as well as their proven experience in delivering results. We look forward to sharing our story so that people can discover the many hidden wonders of Brazil.”
Rosie, (for those of you who aren’t travel and tourism journos!) is our travel and tourism specialist here in the Wharf and claims to be able to speak fluent Spanish and Portugese. She qualifies this having had “a bit of banter” during an earlier campaign for Embratur, with none other than Brazilian World Cup winning legend Carlos Alberto, listening to him talk through his 1970 ‘wonder goal‘! It’s a terrible existence hey Rosie; all that South American travel and fire-side chats with living football legends?!
The aforementioned Bossa Nova festival will celebrate fifty years of the chilled-out Bossa Nova sound this year and will play host to acclaimed international musicians bringing a little bit of Rio to the South Bank. Well, nearly.
Our MD Kerrin said; “Adding such an important and beautiful country to our growing travel portfolio strengthens our reputation for providing journalists with creative and interesting ideas for travel and lifestyle stories. Furthermore, our broadcast and digital specialists will bring the sights and sounds of Brazil directly to holidaymakers surfing the ‘net looking for exciting and adventurous new destinations.”
Ogilvy Amsterdam, MTV Networks and film producers Shilo in conjunction with the Burma Arts Board came together earlier this year to produce a beautifully shot video as a message of support to the people of Burma living under the Burmese military junta. The short, haunting film was initially due to launch during the first week of May but was was held up from being released, due to a new crisis that afflicted Burma; cyclone Nargis.
The website and spot’s final title card were rescripted to change the messaging to encapsulate the new disaster that had hit the Burmese people, and the result is even more powerful. While aid to Burma has been hampered by military authorities, only this morning we read that the Burmese government is now beginning to allow foreign aid workers in regardless of nationality.
The spot was featured on Ad Age this week and is generating a large amount of buzz online having already wracked up thousands of hits on youtube, sparked conversations on Twitter, and the creation of facebook groups showing their support. A worthy cause and a video to watch out for.
