Golden Ruler Award for Excellence in Evaluation

By: KK / 14.01.09

The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) supports PR evaluation by not only having created a Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation but also honoring once a year excellence in evaluation with the Jack Felton Golden Ruler Award. Since 2004, the award's primary objective has been to identify superb examples of research used to support public relations practice, and to publish these as case studies.

The awards programme was created by the Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation, a body combining expertise in the field of measurement and pro bono service to the profession. Jack Felton, for whom the award is named, served as President and CEO of the Institute and was instrumental in founding the Commission. The Golden Ruler awards programme is sanctioned and judged by leaders in public relations research, measurement and evaluation from corporations, nonprofits, PR agencies, academic and research organizations. The judging criteria can be found here.

The Golden Ruler Award 2008 has been given to the U.S. Communication Team of Shell Oil Company, with Burson-Marsteller and A Brink & Company for the project  "A National Dialogue on Energy Security". When Shell Oil Company launched an 18-month project to improve the understanding of energy issues among business and community leaders, measurement quickly became an integral part of the project. The core of the project was a national dialogue – a 50-city, face-to-face tour led by the U.S. head of Shell. The challenge of measuring face-to-face communications was met through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research throughout the span of the programme. To complete the feedback loop, participants received a final report summarizing the tour and measurement data. The case study of the winning entry are available for download here. [pdf]

Two more „Certificates of Merit“ have been awarded to the following projects in 2008:

• SeverStal and Echo Research, "A Russian Steel Giant: Aligning Identity and Image for Improved Performance" [pdf]
  
• American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and KDPaine & Partners, "Defining PR's Role in Achieving Organizational Goals for the ASPCA" [pdf]

The winning cases from the years 2004 - 2007, for example Padilla Speer Beardsley and GfK for Rockwell Automation [pdf] or Watson Pharma, Inc. and Porter Novelli [pdf] are availanle on the IPR website as well.

More information and registration for the 2009 awards programme are available here.

About IPR
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent nonprofit organization that builds and documents research-based knowledge in public relations, and makes this knowledge available and useful to practitioners, educators, researchers and their clients. It was chartered in 1956 as the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education.

Related News: DPRG (German Public Relations Association) and AMEC (the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) are organising together with the IPR the 1st European Summit on Measurement , June 10 - 12, Berlin.