PR 3310 Principles of Public Relations

PR 3310Principles of Public Relations Monday, 6/15/09

Class Objectives • Presentations: A. Rodgers and A. Pate • Lecture • Explanation of grading of midterm and ex 2. • Ch. 8, Evaluation • Homework assignments • Presentations tomorrow: S. Campus and K. Black • Read chapter 8 in book • Paper 2 due on Thursday 6/18 at 12:05 pm

What’s in the news today? • http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14cohen.html?hpw • Twitter will name you a “suggested user”, and instantly you can gain more than 500,000 followers who get their brief updates via a cellphone or the Internet. • Suggested users include celebrities (people) and products like the NFL, NYTimes, and JetBlue • New people who sign up on Twitter get shown these suggested users as a type of a welcome wagon • Half-hearted suggestion by a web entrepreneur to pay Twitter $250,000 to make him a suggested user for 2 years • Instant audience, cost per impression = $.50 • A possible revenue source for Twitter? • PR aspect: Twitter manipulates the exposure/popularity of accounts = good for b-list celebs, authors, etc.

What’s in the news today? • M Dowd opinion piece on high-definition and its impact • http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14dowd.html?_r=1 • Female celebs are writing into their contracts that camera shots must be taken slightly out of focus and less tight shots on their faces • Males getting shot from the waist up • Make-up used on celebs is changing (no more heavy concealing) • Cosmetic surgery shows up on HD screens (slightly bluish tinge of some fillers, lumpy bumps and ripples from fillers and surgery) • The term “high definition” is being used on many different products (make-up, sunglasses, and cleaning products) • PR aspects: • How will this change the message/image of the product/person? • Will post-production techniques grow (Photoshop)

Midterm Exam Grading • Extra credit had to be exact (including spelling) • Short answer for 1-on-1 media was based on the chart on page 172 in book • 1-on-1 media includes personal visits (lobbying), telephone calls (telemarketing) • Also took texting, e-mails • TV, radio, newspapers = public media • Cost per impression (not cost of production) is high because you aren’t broadcasting to a large audience. • The CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $0.019; and a spot radio ad is $0.005.

Ex. 2 grading • What’s in the news on Friday- Congress passes a historic smoking regulation • FDA will now regulate what goes into tobacco products • Marketing to teens will be restricted (no flavored cigarettes), only b/w text advs in teen magazines • PR aspect: why is Phillip Morris supporting this? • 25 points • Most points off for lack of terminology • Avoid using slang (“pushing the product”) • Still needing correct formatting and 1 full page

What is evaluation • Last action in program planning • But do not wait until this last phase to determine how you will conduct the evaluations • Evaluation also cuts into the budget and should be included in your timeframe • Purpose of evaluation is to see if we met the objectives • So we can do a better job next time • So our clients can tell if their $ and time was well spent

Review: PR is a process • 1. Research: What’s the problem? • What is your budget and timeframe? • 2. Action: What are your objectives? • Are they informational or motivational? • Pg. 172: to build awareness, respond to queries, reinforce attitudes, crisis mgt • 3.Communication: What are your tactics/ how will you accomplish those objectives? • What media will you use (public media =tv, radio, newspapers, interactive= internet, 1-on-1, controlledmedia= brochures, POP displays, reports, events/groups= rallies, demonstrations, speeches) • 4. Evaluation How will you measure the success of how well you met those objectives?

1st method of evaluation: Measurement of Production • # of PR deliverables: Count how many news releases, feature stories, photos, letters, blog postings, tweets, etc. are produced in a given period of time • Positives: Gives mgt/client an idea of PR staff’s productivity and output • Negatives: Emphasizes quantity over quality • How many press releases actually get picked up a magazine?

2nd method of evaluation: Measurement of Production • # of media placements: Specify exactly what the PR publicist should accomplish in obtaining media coverage • Example. 4 feature stories in the 10 largest newspapers in the nation, 2 news releases used by at least 20 news web sites • Positives: Mgt/client feels the #’s are motivational • We’re going to win vs. We’re going to win 10 games • Negatives: Almost impossible to guarantee because it’s up to the media gatekeepers to make the decisions

3rd method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • # of media impressions: A count of how many people will see/hear your message • Example. If a story about your client appears on the ‘Daily Show’, the media impressions are 10 million people (my guess) • Is cumulative/ will build: Daily Show was shown on YouTube and on Hulu, media impressions increase • Positives: Commonly used in advertising to show the breadth of message penetration • Negatives: Don’t show if people actually read, hear, or respond to the message

4th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Web page hits: A count of how many people will see/hear your message on-line • Software to track this and to separate out unique visitors from repeat visitors (based on ISP?), can sometimes see company names • Also will track how long the stay on the page, if they downloaded things, number of pages they went to • Positives: Good for showing a comparison of hits from previous timeframes • Negatives: Very superficial way to see if website is successful (I think measuring repeat customers is a good idea as well)

5th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Advertising Equivalence: Convert stories that are covered in regular news columns into advertisements, and calculate how much this new “adv” would cost. • Positives: Called “free” advertising, especially good for public service announcements • Negatives: Many claim that this is comparing apples (controlled content) to oranges (content controlled by the gatekeepers) • Is output, not outcomes, based

6th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Systematic Tracking: Computer software and databases do analysis of the content of media placements by count of keywords, type of publication, tone of coverage (+, -), sources quoted, repeating of key copy points • Positives: Deeper evaluation (versus breadth) • Negatives: A lot of data is reported back and someone needs to analyze this.

7th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Requests and 800 numbers: Count how many people request more information and materials by calling your 800 number/hotline • Positives: Assumption by audience is 800 number is free to call, so you increase the chances of having them use it • Negatives: Some messages are too sensitive to have a hotline (e.g. sex + pre-teens)… can you have an alternative to telephoning?

8th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Return on Investment: How much did it cost to reach your audience? • Cost of media /Media impressions = Cost per thousand • Spending $400,000 to publicize and event and having 52 million impressions = $.007 • ROI by increasing sales of a product (or getting new customers) and/or avoiding litigation • Positives: Clients like #’s, ROI is a common term among other business professionals • Negatives: Short term focused, hard to measure attitudes

9th method of evaluation: Measurement of Media Exposure • Counting audience attendance • How many people attended the rally? The conference or seminar? • Combine real with virtual attendance if held on-line • Positives: Good way to evaluate pre-event publicity • Negatives: Doesn’t get post-event feedback, attendance to an event happens for many reasons

10th method of evaluation: Measurement of Audience Awareness • Did target audience actually receive, understand, and retain the message? • Don’t forget that noise factors into this • Tool used is mainly surveys (on-line and real world) • Aided recalling of message, day-after recall, unaided recall • Positives: deep feedback • Negatives: Costly and slow

11th method of evaluation: Measurement of Audience Attitudes • How does the audience feel about the message? • Credibility or not? • Did their attitudes change? (good for motivational objectives) • Key thing to do is get a baseline attitude and compare changes to this after your message is delivered • Pre and post-test • Tool, again, is survey • Positives: deep feedback that can be statistically measured • Negatives: Costly and slow

12th method of evaluation: Measurement of Audience Actions • Did the message prompt the audience to do anything? • They heard the message, understood it, retained it, formed an opinion about it, and now did what about it? • Purchased the product, blogged about it, send $$ to the NPO, e-mailed their state rep • See http://www.64forsuu.org • Positives: shows results of the hardest challenge in PR (getting people to act) • Negatives: Many other variables factor into acting/ difficult to attribute all actions to PR campaign, difficult to collect data on all actions

Video: Coke’s Water Bomb • ½ of video on Coca-cola’s PR “disaster” with Dasani drinking water in Britain • In 2004, a story broke that revealed that the source of the Dasani water was treated tap water, not a natural spring water source • In fact, there was a carcinogenic (a promoter of cancer) in the water after they treated it!

PR 3310 Principles of Public Relations