Communication in the News: An Interview with Katie Delahaye Paine

By Natasha Spring, Editor

Katie Paine, president of KD Paine & Partners, speaks to CW Bulletin about her views on effective measurement. Katie is the founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and publisher of The Measurement Standard and The One-Minute Benchmarking Bulletin, the first newsletters for marketing and communication professionals dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability. Prior to launching KDPaine & Partners in 2002, Paine was the founder and president of The Delahaye Group, which she sold to Medialink in 1999.

What is the biggest news in measurement today?

Data-driven decision-making and the use of dashboards where you have the ability to get the information you need when you need it, 24/7. Hewlett-Packard is measuring results on a global scale using a single, consistent set of metrics to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction. In the past, too many PR people relied on gut instinct when they were deciding on strategy and tactics. Today with the availability of data, people can make much better decisions.

Some communication professionals say that they don’t have the time or resources to measure their work. Moreover, their management does not necessarily support spending time on this. What can you tell them to help them make the case for measurement?

First, stop calling it measurement, since that’s never a very popular budget item. What you are spending money on is decision-support research that helps you make better decisions every day. If you spend US$25,000 to find out that a US$500,000 program isn’t working, that not only saves you money in the future, but it also provides data points that can help you plan better. Frequently, we find that a less expensive program may be working better, so showing how you can save money going forward is a strong reason to do the research.

If you had to identify the top five things that a communicator must know to measure programs and campaigns most effectively, what would they be?

1. Be very clear about what “return” your efforts are expected to generate. Does top management expect you to generate sales, inquiries, web site traffic, messages, attendance? Whatever the “return” they expect is what you should be measuring.
   
2. Understand your audiences in all their segments and permutations: Are they old customers or new customers? Business media, electronic media or online media? The audiences for your key messages are critical, and you should be measuring your relationships with those key audiences at all times.
   
3. Define a clear benchmark. Sometimes a benchmark helps to set realistic expectations. Without something to compare your results to, they tend to sound meaningless. If I told you that 25 percent of your coverage was favorable, you might think that was a pretty good number. But if I told you that of all the favorable press out there, you got 25 percent and your main competitor got 75 percent, that would be an awful number.
   
4. Understand the meaning of your research. Too many people generate tons of spreadsheets and data, and then can’t draw conclusions from them. I tell my clients that whatever happens, they should not go into a presentation and point to a chart and say, “See, there’s a big spike in June.” The only response you’ll get is “so what?” What you want to say is, “there’s a big spike in June because of that extra US$50,000 PR program we launched in May, and if you want us to continue at that level of exposure, you should continue to fund the effort.”
   
5. If you’re going to hire outside vendors, do a thorough search of all the possibilities. New technology and new services are cropping up daily. Be sure to check references and make sure that they can really deliver on what they promise. We try to keep a comprehensive list on our web site.

What would you identify as the five “don’ts” in measurement?

1. Don’t use false measures like Ad Value Equivalency. Not only is there absolutely no proof that an article has the same impact as a paid ad, but there is also no reputable science behind the number. But far more insidious are the unintended consequences. A client of mine was given a bonus based on achieving a certain level of ad value with her media relations program. To achieve that number, she landed a lot of stories in business publications like the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine. Unfortunately, since she was supposed to be promoting video games, her target audience was teenagers. So while she may have hit her number, she was not hitting her target.
   
2. Don’t fail to align measures with goals. For example, a woman I spoke with was measuring her results via Ad Value Equivalency, but she’d been hired to improve relationships with her local communities. She might be getting all kinds of press (good and bad), but if she’s not measuring relationships, she has no idea if she’s achieving the goal she was hired to accomplish.
   
3. Don’t start off trying to measure the world. Take a selected subset of key publications and measure your share of discussion relative to the competition in just those publications. Or take a small subset of your audience and measure those when you’re at a trade show or an event. Start with baby steps, and then sell the program as an example of what a bigger program can accomplish.
   
4. Don’t wait until the program is over and the money has all been spent to come up with a measure of its success. The most effective programs have measurement built into them, and when you design the measures in, it’s much easier to tie the goals to the outcomes.
   
5. Get buy-in from all departments, groups and agencies that might benefit from the research data. They can be some of your biggest supporters, but if you haven’t brought them into the process early on, they are liable to feel threatened.

What more can associations like IABC do to educate their members on the importance of measurement?

Two things: sponsor more workshops and seminars that allow sufficient time for people to have hands-on experience with the process, and promote the white papers, standards and guidelines established by the Institute for PR Measurement Commission. They were written by the best minds in the business, and everyone should be using them.

How does measurement play a part in the future of the communication profession?

I think measurement is our key to credibility and power. The more we base decisions on solid data and not on gut instinct, the more people in the C-Suites will pay attention to what we have to say. When we can go and cite statistics the same way the CFO and sales guys do, then we will be treated with the same respect. And, of course, presumably a decision based on data will be more effective, making you look like more of a star.