Dispelling the Myth of Pr Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures
Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures
Paper by
Mark Weiner President Delahaye
Don Bartholomew Senior Vice President MWW Group
Published by the Institute for Public Relations August 2006
Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures by Mark Weiner and Don Bartholomew Copyright © 2006, Institute for Public Relations www.instituteforpr.org
2
Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures
Mark Weiner President, Delahaye Summary Multipliers are often used by public relations professionals to factor circulation or audience figures when calculating impressions. Multipliers are generally rationalized by users to take into account pass-along circulation and/or to assign a higher value to PR impressions than advertising impressions due to a perceived higher level of credibility. The authors argue that the facts do not support the use of multipliers, and their use may actually hurt the credibility of the profession. Background In their search for a meaningful measure of public relations performance, PR professionals turn to a variety of metrics: in terms of news coverage or “outputs,” common metrics include volume of news coverage, quality of news coverage, and combinations thereof such as the delivery of key positive messages; in terms of impact on the target audience or “outcomes,” common measures include awareness, attitudes, preference and, finally, behavior. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and properly qualify the use of “PR Multipliers” in the assessment of outputs, particularly in the form of quantifying news coverage. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors. While they are consistent with Institute for Public Relations guidelines, this is not intended to be used as strict rules but rather as an expression of a particular viewpoint. The Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research1 defines an impression as
Paper by
Mark Weiner President Delahaye
Don Bartholomew Senior Vice President MWW Group
Published by the Institute for Public Relations August 2006
Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures by Mark Weiner and Don Bartholomew Copyright © 2006, Institute for Public Relations www.instituteforpr.org
2
Dispelling the Myth of PR Multipliers and Other Inflationary Audience Measures
Mark Weiner President, Delahaye Summary Multipliers are often used by public relations professionals to factor circulation or audience figures when calculating impressions. Multipliers are generally rationalized by users to take into account pass-along circulation and/or to assign a higher value to PR impressions than advertising impressions due to a perceived higher level of credibility. The authors argue that the facts do not support the use of multipliers, and their use may actually hurt the credibility of the profession. Background In their search for a meaningful measure of public relations performance, PR professionals turn to a variety of metrics: in terms of news coverage or “outputs,” common metrics include volume of news coverage, quality of news coverage, and combinations thereof such as the delivery of key positive messages; in terms of impact on the target audience or “outcomes,” common measures include awareness, attitudes, preference and, finally, behavior. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and properly qualify the use of “PR Multipliers” in the assessment of outputs, particularly in the form of quantifying news coverage. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors. While they are consistent with Institute for Public Relations guidelines, this is not intended to be used as strict rules but rather as an expression of a particular viewpoint. The Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research1 defines an impression as