NEWS: One giant step for evaluation

International media evaluators took the first step towards setting

common minimum industry standards last weekend.

Representatives of top evaluation companies and PR professionals from

the UK, United States, France, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Germany

gathered at the first ICO/GPRA workshop on international evaluation in

Frankfurt on 22 to 24 November to discuss the common interests of

international evaluators and public relations practitioners.

An international task force - including members of the recently-formed

UK Association of Media Evaluation Companies (AMEC) - is working on a

white paper on the future of international media evaluation, the

contents of which will be made public when the ICO and IPRA boards meet

at the time of the IPRA Public Relations World Congress in Helsinki on

16 to 18 June 1997.

Other commitments to come out of the conference include the production

of the first ever guide to setting measurable objectives including a

standard consultancy briefing format Peter Hehir, president of ICO -

which represents 500 consultancies across Europe - said: ‘Research into

industry awards entries shows that very few have real, common measurable

communications objectives. Clients set unrealistic aims which

consultants don’t challenge properly either because they daren’t or

don’t know better.

‘If we could develop real understanding of objectives, this industry

could double in size in five years. We have urged the media evaluation

consultancies to get their act together and give us products that at

least share a common language.’