New AMEC Guide to Measurement

It’s over seven years since AMEC pronounced the death of AVEs as a valid means of measuring public relations in the Barcelona Principles.

There has been much work since, both in spreading the word and in developing a robust and sophisticated framework for evaluating public relations and communication efforts.

Now AMEC – the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication – in partnership with PRCA and ICCO has brought this thinking together in a new version of The PR Professional’s Definitive Guide to Measurement.

As the PRCA’s Francis Ingham and AMEC’s Richard Bagnall write in the introductory chapter:

‘This third version of the AMEC, ICCO and PRCA PR Practitioner’s Guide to Measurement takes away any last excuses for NOT putting evaluation at the heart of every piece of work. It’s practical, not theoretical. It’s accessible. And crucially, it’s highly international.’

The guide contains a series of contributed thought pieces from international leaders in PR and comms.

Chapter 8 addresses ‘How PR professionals can move from data to insights’. Contributor Khali Sakkas acknowledges that we’re now overwhelmed by data so need to focus on insights rather than analytics, quality rather than quantity.

‘Obviously, the most important part of an “end-to-end” approach is to measure the outcomes of PR activity rather than just outputs (ie. the results that really count to your organisation).’

This is a collection of thought pieces rather than a measurement and evaluation toolkit – though contributors Richard Bagnall and Alex Aiken refer to their preferred models including the AMEC one – but each author gives three top tips and the guide contains a useful glossary of terms for those who need to get up to speed.

For those who need one simple takeout from this publication, you need to hear the #SayNotoAVE message loud and clear.