Measurement

Does the U.S. have a perception problem? Not so, according to one survey. FutureBrand, in conjunction with Weber Shandwick's Global Travel & Lifestyle Practice, released their fifth annual Country Brand Index (CBI) today.

The U.S. came in first, followed by Canada and Australia. New Zealand and France round out the top five. In terms of methodology, the survey, "incorporates global quantitative research, expert opinions, and relevant secondary sources for statistics that link brand equity to assets, growth and expansion."

"It's logical to assume that the shift in the political climate and renewed optimism surrounding the election of President Obama was a key influencer in the U.S. topping the list," said Rene A. Mack, president, Weber Shandwick's Travel & Lifestyle Global Practice.

Have you ever had to compile an ad equivalency report? Do you even know what one is? It's pretty simple, actually. An ad equivalency report attempts to compare the value a brand received from a PR campaign - media coverage, etc. - with the value the brand could have received spending the same money on advertising. Not only do they not work, they can be misleading, many PR measurement experts say.

"...with the rise of social media, AVEs have little meaning when the value of the most traditional media is dropping daily, and the power of individual blogs, many of which don't accept advertising, is growing exponentially," wrote Katie Paine in a Ragan.com op-ed today.

Paine has been in the measurement game for a while and is happy to announce that the Institute for Public Relations' Measurement Commission recently voted 19 to 2 to 'reject AVEs (ad value equivalency), the concept and the practice.'"

Corporate websites, social media and custom content lead the way when it comes to the most effective ways to communicate with prospects and leads, according to King Fish Media's "2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement."

In addition, 86% of respondents said their companies are currently creating or planning to create original content. It's great that companies want to create content, but of course one should always make sure the content being created serves is effective. As Josh Bernoff at Forrester Research points out, only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them.

PRSA CEO Michael Cherenson gives the best sound bite we've read in a while when it comes to PR measurement:

Our fundamental goal is to change how the industry talks about what public relations accomplishes...Instead of meaningless catch phrases, such as 'create buzz,' our recommended approach focuses on identifying meaningful expressions of business performance, suggesting more appropriate measurement metrics and recommending proven tools for demonstrating how those metrics were impacted.

Ambitious? Certainly. The quote is in support of the trade organization's new push to establish measurement standards for the PR industry. PRSA is seeking comments via their blog and will review all feedback at the end of this month, before assessing all of it to "make adjustments."

When it comes to getting someone to read or take action after viewing content, it turns out PR related functions - namely, placing your client in a story - are more effective than online advertising tactics.

According to an ARAnet poll by Opinion Research Corporation, cited today by eMarketer:

Compared with banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers and sponsored links, articles that include brand information were most likely to lead US Internet users to read - and act.

"A key finding for marketers is that younger audiences respond to information that reaches them in the form of articles," said ARAnet president Scott Severson to eMarketer. "More than two-thirds of the respondents between 18 and 34 said they conduct Internet searches for products or services they read about in online articles either very frequently or somewhat frequently."

[image courtesy eMarketer]

[Screenshot of Vantage, a new media intelligence tool from VMS]

Ad equivalency reports - in which PR pros attempt to align media coverage with advertising spend and compare the ROI of both - are generally a dreaded task in the PR world. Do they really mean anything? Isn't it an apples to oranges comparison? These are just some of the questions that surround the practice.

Media intelligence company VMS wants to make this process a bit easier, with the launch today of Vantage, a solution the company says gives marketers "the ability to understand true Return On Investment (ROI) for advertising and public relations media activities and expenditures."

The solution is not cheap. Left out of the press release, but mentioned in a story today on the launch by PRWeek's Tonya Garcia:

Carrying a seven-digit price tag, Vantage is intended for the large marketing budgets of Fortune 500 companies.

To be clear, Vantage offers much more than what PR pros seek to uncover with just an ad equivalency report. The solution also involves messaging analysis to see if advertising and PR messaging is aligned, and the ability to "Measure advertising and public relations performance across all major media to see how editorial coverage and advertising effectiveness impact each other," among other features.

The first news of Nielsen ratings for Fox Business Network (FBN) hit today, and we can imagine the PR teams at both CNBC and FBN have had a busy day.

From TVNewser:

Interestingly (or perhaps not), The Times story did not have a quote from an FBN executive or spokesperson.

CNBC's Kevin Goldman declined to comment to PRNewser while Fox's Irena Briganti could not be reached for comment.

Kevin did send us a CNBC press release highlighting "robust ratings growth."

Meanwhile, an FBN insider sent us the following, "CNBC has been trying to pitch this story for two months and they finally found a sucker in Jacques Steinberg...But Steinberg got smoked badly today when he read FBN executives commenting in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Daily News."

Everyone likes to write a trends story this time of year. Well maybe not everyone, as we've received a few emails from writers saying they like to stay away from such speculation. Why not have some fun?

In a sure to succeed PR move, the search engines have all released their top search terms of the year.

Maybe that is the reason why your new SEO tool just told you too add the word "Britney Spears" 18 more times to fully optimize your release.

As John Battelle notes, it must be especially hard for Ask.com to reveal their top 10. The reason? Number three is "Google."

To check out Yahoo's top searches, click here.

For Google, go here.