New Declaration guides PR industry

The Barcelona Declaration – a document agreed to by global players in the media analysis field, including AMEC, the IPR and the PRSA – issued seven guiding principles that communication professionals should adopt as part of their media strategy going forward. The Declaration, which provides guidelines to the effective use of media measurement tools, has greatly boosted the need for sound strategic measurement suggesting the alignment of business objectives to specific outcomes.

Last year, the Public Relations Consultants’ Chapter (PRCC) of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) issued guiding principles around strategic measurement. Among the recommendations was that the use of AVE, where deemed as a necessity, be used on a 1:1 weighting only, and that it be supplemented by a variety of qualitative units of measure – to be determined by each company in response to its stated objectives.

Daniel Munslow, vice-chairperson of the PRCC and Chief Communication Officer at Talk2Us, says, “Any business should be seeking to measure the impact of its public relations efforts. The impact should be measured against your business objectives, with specific focus on financial return, brand equity, internal audience perceptions; as well as the variables chosen to assess the media positioning. What is important is that these variables go beyond the assumption that communication is the end result, and accepts that public relations is a means to an end”.