ROI. CPC. PR?
In the world of marketing budget performance metrics acronyms – earned media — is the one that has traditionally never fit neatly into a quantifiable slot.
Yes, it bugs us, too.
“How many eyeballs can I get with a budget this size?”
Our advertising colleagues can tell you. Their media buyers can tell you. So can we, in the PR world. To a point. And that’s the kicker, because so much of how we work is intangible by its very nature.
Marketers love paid television campaigns because there is a quantifiable efficacy derived by reach and frequency. They love social channels, because they are fast becoming paid channels themselves. And, in the case of consumer products, they say they can track them all back to purchase.
Really? I’d love to know what makes that algorithm tick.
Why does PR find itself constantly having to prove that it drives purchase, when no other marketing channel (with the possible exception of loyalty programs) can definitively do so – at least on its own.
Yet third parties and researchers with deep influencer experience – from WOMMA to Yakelovich to Forrester – continue to trumpet the power of earned media (media, blogger, influencer relations) in driving brand affinity and purchase because the trust generated by a credible third party endorsement is worth its weight in gold.
Procter & Gamble – arguably one of the most meticulous when it comes to measurement and tracking of all things leading to point-of-sale – was possibly the first global company to recognize the value of PR. Under the leadership of A.G. Lafley and uber successes like Febreze and Swiffer that they directly credited to earned (recall Jessica Simpson’s slipup for Swiffer as the ‘Swifter’ and the sales impact that this unpaid celebrity mention had on sales), the company remodeled their marketing mix to an allocation of almost half toward the earned space – events, PR, social media and influencer marketing. In their case, it wasn’t PR. It was ER – external relations – and the best marketers at P&G at that time understood that the almighty TV spot was not the only recipe for success.
Red Bull established a global army of superfans based entirely on the power of earned word-of-mouth.
Coca-Cola recognized that if you tap into a chat leader, chances are your brand message will spread like wildfire – most often hitting people through friends and family. One of their most powerful brand campaigns in recent memory was all about sharing a Coke with a friend, colleague or loved one. They even put the name right on the bottle. Coincidence? Not likely.
And yet, PR agencies, event companies and corporate communications heads continue to face questions about the value of earned play. We are constantly challenged harder than anyone else in the communications world to prove our worth – and we spend loads of money on annual “trust barometers” and influencer studies (like this one, for example) to do just that.
In an era when the ethics of corporations are being questioned more than ever, when millennials are deliberately choosing brands based on their transparency, reputation and endorsements from their influencers, it’s astonishing that the inherent value of earned PR still needs proving.
So, if you’re a marketer in the midst of your FY16 planning right now, the question shouldn’t be whether to include PR in the budget or how much to allocate. The real question should be, what’s the cost of NOT doing PR?
Krista Webster is president of Veritas Communications
