“Upping the Game” – 6th European AMEC Summit on Measurement
The sixth European AMEC Summit on Measurement took place under the theme “Upping the Game – From Measurement to Insights”. Central finding: Social media measurement and evaluation gains more and more importance in an increasingly digitalized environment. This development could already be seen on last year’s summit in Madrid. Furthermore, the congress wanted to deliver insight into the logic of different key performance indicators of media measurement and evaluation.
In the beginning of June, 24 participants from 36 different nations were attracted to the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, where they could participate in different lectures, discussions and workshops. “The 2014 Summit was a further important milestone in the development of standards. It was very encouraging to see and hear the commitment by delegates to continuing the process to refine and expand the ‘march to standards’ for measurement and evaluation in the PR and communication management field”, said Professor Jim Macnamara from the University of Technology in Sydney. He was one of the conference’s main speakers.
„Use the Barcelona Principles!“
One of the thematic key aspects – “Measurement and PR” – was already set at the beginning of the conference. Kevin Murray, Chairman, the Good Relations Group, Dave Senay, global CEO of FleishmanHillard and Matt Neale, President, International, GolinHarris. agreed upon one central thesis: Although the evidence of the creation of value of communication will become more and more important both for companies as well as for agencies, the Barcelona Principles still play a minor part in professional practice.
Dave Senay reminds the participants of the Barcelona Principle's relevance in daily work (© amecorg.com).
Senay urged PR firms to pro-actively use the Barcelona Principles in their work in and with clients. It seems to be remarkable that this plea is essential, because the Principles are nothing more than usual standards of empirical social research. These should be taken for granted in evaluation of communication. The workshop “The stormy marriage of PR consultancies and measurement providers – a couple’s therapy” did not deal with the difficulties between PR agencies and companies, but it broached the issue of another conflict-riddled relationship: PR consultancies and measurement providers. The workshop’s goal was to identify decisive controversial subjects and to develop strategies to overcome them.
Numerous workshops on various subjects took place on the second day ot the Summit (© amecorg.com).
Social Media Measurement gets more important
The sixth AMEC Summit on Measurement followed the current increasingly crucial debate of social media measurement and evaluation. After the AMEC Social Media Valid Framework has been presented in Madrid last year, the summit in Amsterdam also brought about some new thoughts. The AMEC Social Media Measurement Framework User Guide can be described as a support tool for practitioners, which helps them to evaluate social media activities adequately. By providing a clear link from the planning stage, to setting objectives, to measuring results, the framework and User Guide provide straightforward advice to ensure social media measurement success. The character of a real manual is completed by a video, which deals with a case study. Apart from the User Guide, there was another new way of thinking presented by Jim Macnamara in Amsterdam. He unveiled his MAIE model, a new conceptualization of what Public Relations measurement can and should be. The MAIE model provides insights into several of the major difficulties that measurement faces and tries to overcome all obstacles with the help of a new four-stage-approach. More information about the User Guide and the MAIE Model will be published on communicationcontrolling.de forthcoming.
AMEC Awards
Like in the years before the AMEC Awards seek to recognize and promote best practice in communication planning and evaluation. In 2014, Ogilvy Public Relations was extraordinarily successful scooping four Golds, the Grand Prix International Award and the Best Newcomer Award. Hot in contention were three firms who each won three Golds: iSentia from Australia and South East Asia; Pegasus PR from Brighton, UK and Gorkana Group. This year’s choice was so difficult that judges made three awards in the Young Professional category: Ngaire Crawford, of iSentia; Mounir El Agouz, Salience Insight and Cate Setterfield from the Mediaverse were delighted about a distinction.
Marion McDonald, Managing Director, Strategy & Measurement, APAC Region Ogilvy PR give thanks for the Awards (© amecorg.com).
Conclusion: Social Media Evaluation on the march
Participants from small and big organizations, communication agencies and research institutes gained practical insights and incentives for their daily work by diversified workshops and discussions within the three-day conference. 50 international PR experts talked about topics like social media measurement and they stressed the urgency to broadly introduce evaluation standards in the professional practice. “In my opinion the topic of social media measurement and evaluation will be one of the most dominant ones in the next years”, forecasts Barry Leggetter, AMEC CEO and summit’s director, at the end of the sixth AMEC Summit on Measurement.
About AMEC
AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, is a worldwide trade body for agencies and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research. You can find further information on www.amecorg.com.
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