Public Relations Business is unique in the sense that there are very few quantitative measures of performance, if any. Regarding performance, the main objective of a PR firm is to show its clients the reach, penetration and influence of a PR campaign. While these PR campaigns may effectively be able to measure the qualitative features of the campaign, qualitative measurements are mostly depended on vague data. Such an ambiguity can produce lower profit margins and constant change of rules leading to price commodization. In contrast, it is much easier for companies and their clients to track the PR campaign performance by evaluating the numerical data in the form of numbers.
The Role and Benefits of this Patent
The Performance Based Public Relations Patent defines a procedure where both the PR company and its client can work together to define the rules governing the performance of a PR campaign based on a pre-defined formula and inputted weighted values. The formula and weighted values will be recorded by a Public Relations Analytical Reporting System thus creating a streamlined Campaign Specific Public Relation Performance Index (CSPRPI). Such a procedure will help both parties to visualize their activities in a quantitative format. There are numerous benefits to quantifying the data in the shape of CSPRPI which includes the production of final data as a financial vehicle to determine revenue, creation of an objective method to calculate payments to generate accurate invoice, production of designing a simple revenue model, use of easily comprehensible intelligence reports for future forecasting and agreeing on a performance based compensation plan, among other.
Logically, a Public Relation Firm wishing to invest the time and effort in creating a long term strategy would want to preserve the agreed upon rules so that these rules are not negotiated, again. Consequently, it is wise to deploy an automatic system that would provide results in an easy to follow numerical values. As a result of this system, there would eventually ambiguity. Moreover, both the firm and the client will be able to focus their energies on other quantitative values which can be formulated to produce a numerical value for the system.
Process
This invention also explains the process and specific order of the steps in that process to achieve the desired objectives. Accordingly, the objectives may constitute a Public Relation Clients wishing to increase its media footprint and Public Relation firm wishing to enter into a long term contract with a certain client.
Initially such a system would require a PR firm to provide its potential client an Initial Public Relation Intelligence Report (IPRIR) containing the coverage of the client in a variety of media including Print, Web, Social Media and TV. This is followed by a performance survey where both the PR firm and PR client fine tune their expected costs and results. At this point, the system intelligibly generates a list of items which can be assigned an individual numeric score. This information guides the system to generate the inputted weighted values creating a Campaign Specific Public Relation Performance Index (CSPRPI). After the allocation of numeric scores to gauge the performance of PR campaign, both the firm and the client agree on a minimum Pass score and a maximum score that consist of additional performance bonus for the PR firm. Such an agreement will allow both parties to acknowledge a compensation value that can track the financial performance of that particular PR campaign by depending on the data derived by CSPRPI. These steps would further allow evaluating a minimum monthly performance score, drafting a PRC line of credit agreement as well as the generation of an automatic PRC invoice based on the values generated by the system and PRC line of credit agreement.
Additional Benefits
Historically, PR firms have relied on short term partnerships between their clients due to a lack of effective system that can automatically generate results based on an agreed upon set of rules. This invention tries to remedify this problem by engaging the client in a potentially long term relationship. Moreover, it is distinctive from other PR system because it allows both interested parties to devise system according to their needs. Still, the foremost advantage of creating PR campaigns by these rules is that it permits a PR company to market an effective quantitative based system before agreeing on initiating that particular campaign. It will not be an oversimplification to suggest that PR firms can also utilize the defined steps to select a potential client by utilizing the data provided to determine if the values provided by the client can readily be formulated to generate a Campaign Specific Public Relation Performance Index (CSPRPI). Nevertheless, it should be noted that the implementation of this invention is not only restricted to Public Relation firms but can involve certain other hybrid indirect sales and marketing companies.