Work.

Global consumer appliances brand.

A company with a global portfolio of consumer appliances wanted evidence that its PR activities were contributing to commercial outcomes. Traditional metrics based on volume of articles didn’t satisfy the need to show how media coverage influences sales revenues, particularly around key seasonal shopping events. Prime Day, Black Friday, Christmas and promotional events from individual retailers are extremely important to manufacturers of consumer goods. But does PR help to maximise sales opportunities? Until now, the PR agency had not been able to prove that its efforts moved the needle.

Sentiment analysis is a very poor proxy for consumer consideration. Analysis of the key messages in media coverage only proves what the press is interested in or confirms the company’s positioning. What was missing was evaluation of the effectiveness of media coverage in driving consumers through the funnel. Did it help build brand strength and awareness at the start of the purchase journey? Did it prompt people to search for the company’s products or visit their website? Which were the topics in coverage that influenced buying behaviour?

Metricomm analysed online media coverage for the brand, producing a benchmark report followed by regular updates that focused on business outcomes. This demonstrated that media coverage works in the same way as advertising – building brand and prompting consumer action at the point when there is a good reason to buy (for example during price promotions). In other words, it supports and amplifies the effect of other marketing spend. Specifically, we

• quantified the contribution of media coverage to levels of Google search for the Masterbrand, major product categories and individual products over time, illustrating where and when media coverage was encouraging consumers to look for additional product information online

• showed how and when media coverage played a role in increasing the volume of website visits for a range of different session types, both Paid and Organic, as well as Direct, Affiliates, Video and so on

• measured the contribution of a range of topics in coverage – including key shopping events – to producing uplift in website visits. This enabled the PR team to understand where to focus messaging

• identified the named media which were delivering business impact by driving search and website visits. This threw up a few surprises and allowed the PR team to rethink its media targeting strategy.

Applying Metricomm media effectiveness evaluation to supplement media monitoring, the client and its agency were able to build a much better picture of where, when and how they were achieving impact. This fed into the planning process, as well as detailed quarterly reporting. It also supported several product launches, helping ensure that media objectives were being met.