Years ago, when I first started the public relations agency chapter of my career, one of my first responsibilities was managing an account for a small Pittsburgh technology company. 
The company had developed a “cyber surveillance system.” The patented technology was ideal for enabling real-time monitoring of everything from nuclear facilities, to automobile dealerships, to universities and health systems. Back then, the strategies and tactics for reaching the target market for such a product were fairly standard. One thing was clear: this was a business-to-business play.
Not included in the optimal arsenal for reaching the buyer: a story on the local 6 p.m. news.
So what did the client want? A story on the local 6 p.m. news.
Being a bit green and new to the client service side of public relations, I told my boss what the client wanted.
His response: “Why?”
I stammered a bit. “What do you mean, ‘Why’?” I thought to myself.
I managed some sheepish response of the naïve stripe: “That’s what they want.”
It’s what they wanted, but it wasn’t what they needed. A great business story that doesn’t reach the intended audience might as well go untold. The best way to reach the buyers the client needed to reach was not through a local 6 p.m. news story. B2B decision makers are not making decisions based on the 6 p.m. news broadcast.
It seems so obvious, yet there are times today when questions such as, “What is the objective?” and “What is the business goal?” don’t get asked soon enough or at all. Or, just as bad, the answer is fuzzy. These questions should be asked immediately when strategy discussions begin.
Not only are they smart questions that will help guide smart strategy, in today’s “What am I getting for my money” environment – whether your CEO is asking you or you’re asking it of your PR agency – they’re critical to ensuring a public relations effort that brings real value.
For as long as I’ve known this business, return on investment and measurement have been part of the conversation. But these conversations have been elevated from side bar to feature. Clients want to know, “How are we measuring success? How are we demonstrating a return on investment?”
A story on the local 6 p.m. news about a local tech company that made good on some patented technology might make the business owners feel good, especially if a neighbor or, better yet, a grandparent sees the story. But meaningful return on the investment it takes to earn that story will be hard to measure.
A story in the March 16 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reminded me of that lesson.
In the story, a ladder company and its advertising agency discuss a sponsorship deal with the NCAA that puts their ladder under the hoop at the end of the March Madness basketball tournament, to be climbed by the champion, who will cut the net while perched on said ladder.
The agency president talked about the value of all the photographs the media take of the net-cutting ceremony and the reprinting of them in newspapers and other news outlets across the country, and the broadcasting of the ceremony, all complete with the ladder company’s logo front and center. He called this “earned” media and talked about the credibility his client was, well, earning from it. (Maybe it’s semantics, but I’d argue the earned media point. As well, credibility doesn’t come through paid sponsorship.)
So, to the point of this blog, I ask, “What is the ladder company’s business objective in paying to put its ladder under the hoop?”
They sell the ladder to sports arenas throughout the United States, so perhaps they’re hoping that of the 23 million viewers of the NCAA championship game, a few of them are in a position to purchase ladders for their sports arenas and will remember the brand name they saw on the ladder when it comes time to buy ladders. The fact that big-name sports arenas (and smaller ones, too,) use their ladders does lend the product credibility. But that credibility can be demonstrated and leveraged much more efficiently and effectively than paying a large sum to get the logo in a picture or on a screen where few buyers will see it or come to know the benefits of it.
Their objective surely is not to reach the individual consumer and make him or her aware of the brand. The ladder is not available in the United States to consumers.
Nowhere in the Post-Gazette story does anyone mention demonstrable, measurable return on investment. It’s clear executives feel good about what they’re doing and believe they have benefitted. And there could well be some qualitative benefit. But today, the gray “increased visibility and awareness” objective is not enough. Today, a “feeling good about what we’re doing” mentality won’t cut it either.
In today’s business environment, answering the “why” is the first step in determining the “how” of a meaningful, effective public relations effort. Meaningful measurement that determines ROI, then, puts real points on the board.
How does your company determine ROI on its marketing and public relations efforts? I’d be happy to share ideas with you.
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Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications. 
