Boost your budget. As the end of the financial year approaches for many businesses, one in five are forecasting that PR budgets will fall. The most recent IPA Bellweather report anticipated a decline in spend during 2026/27 following a rare period at the end of last year when PR spend grew faster than investment in [...]

Facing formidable headwinds. PR still struggles to measure outcomes at a level that adequately explains where, when and how it is making a difference. As the third sector faces what the Guardian, in its look ahead to 2026, called ‘formidable headwinds and an ominous financial crunch’ comms teams will be pivotal to tackling the pressure [...]

Consumers are quick to forgive and forget PR ‘crises’. “Panic stations! Call an urgent meeting! Drop everything!” PR continues to treat adverse media coverage as a ‘crisis’, although it usually isn’t. Many brands attract the occasional bad news story. In fact, our analysis of companies in the travel, automotive, financial services and other sectors reveals [...]

Darling, hold my hand. How online news media coverage about a viral song engaged millions and drove 80% of Google searches for Jet2 Sometimes, gold is found in unexpected places. Consumer response to an advertising campaign can’t be forced, but if content really resonates with the audience, it creates a bigger brand-building opportunity beyond the [...]

Earned and paid-for media coverage. Why combine them? Clients often ask whether we can measure the impact of paid advertorials in online versions of traditional media. They’re keen to know whether ‘pay to play’ opportunities work. The answer is often ‘Yes, they do’. But there’s a caveat. It depends where the advertorials are placed. They [...]

Don’t ‘spray and pray’! Instead, test and learn. Test and learn is an iterative, data-driven approach to developing consumer engagement strategies.  It tests the likely performance of activities by gathering insights about how real consumers respond to them.  Taking the guesswork out of planning, test and learn optimises activation budgets and increases the likelihood of [...]

Traditional media can help address the Gen Z paradox. Gen Z is the most influenceable generation, yet the least loyal. It spends more time on social platforms but trusts them least. Making up around one quarter of the world’s population currently, the global purchasing power of Gen Z is estimated to reach $12 trillion by [...]

When You Can’t Get Your Head Around the Data: Phone a Friend! One of the best pieces of advice we heard from a brand at the recent PR Week Measurement Conference was, ‘The Data & Insights team is your friend.’ We’ve seen this in action. Working with PR teams eager to use their audience data [...]

Aldi: The impact of news coverage on the brand and consumers. Aldi’s focus on value has created brand loyalty and ongoing expansion as shoppers increasingly choose discounters for groceries. Media coverage has demonstrably helped the brand on its growth journey. Aldi has encountered some unusually strong news headwinds in the last year or so, however. [...]

Proof that Audience Data is Essential for Effective Media Evaluation There is growing recognition among media evaluation industry experts that it is essential to include audience data if the true impact of media coverage on consumers is to be communicated to the C-suite. In this article, Metricomm compares results derived from traditional volume metrics with [...]