Tracking News In Cyberspace
Interesting read from the NY Times on tracking news in Cyberspace. And more here.
measuring the big story…
Cleaning out my inbox and came across an email from one of our team on measuring strategic media coverage… In short, based on studying the impact of certain news articles on business results and in stock price you standardize on a definition of stories that have the most impact — call them “Top Stories”. The performance of these stories then flow into core business metrics… A definition of a Top Story might include that it is proactively driven media coverage — in a strategic outlet — designed to change perception with target audience. And they might contain the elements below:
- Proactive
- On Theme
- On Target
- On Message
- Third-Party Validated
- Company spokesperson
- OTS reach
- Images
Having a simple but powerful metric in an executive scorecard enforces PR as a key component in the business success mix. I really like the idea of this particular metric.
Are you working or using anything similar?
Why 47% of Campaigns Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeeds
Jon Beattie of Marker is up at the Future of Online Advertising Conference – he’s put together a great summary of a keynote on why 47% of campaigns fail – a summary of the presentation by Greg Stuart at the Future of Online Advertising conference today in New York. Greg is the former CEO, IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and co-author of “What Sticks“.
He claims: Over US$112 billion ad spend is wasted out of a total of $295bn – Advertisers and agencies use the excuse of “publicity” to justify a failed campaign.
Here are the three highlights I liked:
- Did the campaign message get through? 31% of campaigns failed
- Out of 5 advertisers (P&G, J&J, Kraft, Nestle, McDonald’s) that did creative research of online campaigns: 1 was okay; 2 found half didn’t work; 2 all ads failed and had to start again
- McDonald’s took 20 per cent from TV put 13.4% into online kept the rest and increased awareness by 5 per cent when it had previously leveled out using traditional media.
That Timesheet Thing Again
Stumbled onto this piece (sub required) from Peter Arnell that hits nicely at what I keep ranting on timesheets and agency billing about. In this case, replace hours billed with request for a full time equivalent employee:
It is time to reconcile archaic FTE accounting with the talent-driven, multidimensional world we live in today. There is more creative doing, more crossing of traditional boundaries, more thinking and contributing by talent who multitask and participate on many levels at once. Great ideas are the cultural currency that clients will profit from in the end, and attaining this level of contribution does not run on a clock or time sheet.
Let’s put a typical staffing allocation formula in terms of MasterCard:
An experienced account director: FTE of 1
A sane creative team: FTE of 3.2
A person with one good idea: PricelessThe goal of clients should be to seek what is priceless at a cost agencies and their talent deserve.
Source: Advertising Age – CMO Strategy – Peter Arnell: Find Value in Results You Cannot Measure