HOW TO MEASURE A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN

Real entrepreneurs do not care that much about glory: they want to see the numbers.
It’s the only thing they consider relevant and gives them certainty that they will prosper.

Broadcast PR (and PR in general) operates in a borderline environment which is the domain of branding and perceptions.

MARKETING IS BRANDING == > BRANDING IS THE SCIENCE OF SHAPING PERCEPTIONS.

As you can tell, you can’t tangibly measure people’s perceptions.
It’s by far too complicated, and the range of error too wide.


HOW TO MEASURE A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN?

The answer is simple, and it is related to the distinction I made in a previous article between a PR BLITZ and a PR CAMPAIGN.

A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN is something you commit to for the long term while scientifically manipulating your audience with a methodological way to communicate your message that helps your target believe he is free to chose your product, while you have just pulled the trigger to appeal to unconscious motives that drives his actions.

My definition of branding is pretty clear:

BRANDING IS RUTHLESS PROPAGANDA

Is ruthless propaganda unethical?

It depends on how you use it. If it is to benefit your potential customers, simply their life, make their existence more meaningful, and make profit out it, you are on the right track.

Of course, manipulation works even when you do not have the good intentions just expressed above. Unfortunately, I can’t deal with your own conscience and, frankly speaking, I don’t care that much about it.

But if your intention is to benefit your potential customers, simply their life, make their existence more meaningful, and make a bit of profit out it, it’s your moral obligation to leverage any single technique that gets their consent, to have your voice speak louder than that of your competition and prosper yourself as a consequence.

That said, the question still remains...

HOW TO MEASURE A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN?

Broadcast PR agencies (and PR agencies in general) will tell you that a broadcast PR success should be measured by the number of viewers, readers, and listeners who have been exposed to your message.

If you have read my previous articles and my book (If you haven't read it yet you can grab your copy here), you already know this is a total nonsense from a branding point of view.

I was born in sales and I see all market dynamics with the approach of a salesman who must sell his service to someone.

Let’s say I own a company that programs software for businesses and I need to sell my software to become a multimillionaire as I promised to my wife a couple of years ago.

Who am I going to call to make the sales happen?

The granny at the corner of the street who doesn’t even have a cell phone?
Am I going to knock at the door of a kindergarten?
Do I try to push the sales with some unemployed guy I have just bumped into?

Of course not…

I am going to target some business that might see considerable value in purchasing my product.

The same is true for broadcast PR.

When it comes to media coverage, I am interested in being be seen and heard where my target gather its information.

My communication efforts must go in the direction of my target.

If I own a software company for businesses, I am certainly not going to be featured in a general magazine for mums who want to learn to cook creative biscuits for their children. Even if that magazine sells four million copies a month.

This sounds elementary. Unfortunately, it’s not.

It doesn’t matter how many viewers, listeners, or readers I reach.

What matters is the number of ON TARGET viewers, listeners, or readers I reach.

If you run a local bakery, for example, you might not have any interest in being featured on the BBC, but you might have all the reasons in the world to get media coverage on the local TV where you explain how your bakery is the only one in the region to prepare local bread by following step by step a tradition inherited from the ancient people who lived in the area 500 years before, and how that recipe will benefit your customers’ health according to a research study you have personally commissioned.

The questions still remains unanswered…

HOW TO MEASURE A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN?

Once you have communicated your message in different ways through different channels and reached your on-target audience, there is only one indicator that can tell the truth about whether or not your broadcast PR campaign has been successful.

And that answer depends on an additional question:

Since I have started to be featured on the air, on TV, in multiple magazines, etc…

HOW MUCH HAVE MY SALES INCREASED?

That is the only reliable indicator that tells you the truth about your PR investment.

Thus, the number of viewers, listeners, and readers aren’t at all an end. They are an instrument.
As an instrument, they must be beneficial to your own game.


IS IT GUARANTEED THAT IF I START A BROADCAST PR CAMPAIGN MY SALES WILL INCREASE?

No. Unfortunately not.

Often your broadcast PR campaign will reduce your sales even further, while increasing the sales of your direct competitors for free at the expense of your tiny marketing budget.

“MR LINGARD, you are an absolute troublemaker. You are destroying decades of common sense, reminding me how much money I have thrown out the window. Now, you should tell me how I can solve this additional problem.”

Dear reader,

welcome to the world of complexity, where lasting success lies.

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