Formation of Independent Measurement, Evaluation body in Nigeria; long overdue, says Philip Odiakose of P+
Lead Consultant of frontline Independent PR measurement and evaluation agency in Nigeria, P+ Measurement Services, Mr. Philip Odiakose, has called for the establishment of Nigerian Media Monitoring and Measurement Association (NIMMA), which will be an Independent Measurement and Evaluation body in Nigeria, to regulate and create best practices for media monitoring and evaluation in Nigeria.
In what he described as ‘long overdue’, Odiakose stated with over seven known media monitoring and measurement agencies in Nigeria, that this lack of association has resulted in Nigerian media monitoring and evaluation agencies seeking assistance from APCON or PRCAN when letters are required to get certain businesses.
He said: “South Africa has an Independent Association called SAMMA (South African Media Monitoring and Measurement Association) governing the Media Monitoring and Measurement consultants. There are no Independent associations in Nigeria for the consultants in Nigeria, which is why some of us run to APCON or PRCAN when an association letter is required to get certain businesses and that is very wrong.”
Odiakose also explained that the non-availability of an Independent monitoring and measurement body, is the reason why PR or advertising agencies can take Independent monitoring briefs; an unethical, unhealthy and unprofessional practice in his opinion.
“It is not right for you to be the accused, the judge and jury of your work. Having an Independent Monitoring and Measurement association will break such unethical practices and bridge the gap between PR agencies and independent measurement practitioners,” he said.
Going by speculations that some PR agencies are considering the establishment of new agencies that will cover communication measurement and evaluation, Odiakose stated that this act would be very unprofessional for the PR agencies and unhealthy for brands, adding: “I think we need to stop looking at the monthly PR retainer for a minute and think of the brand health, questions like ‘Is it healthy for me to mark my own homework and still deliver value to the brand?’
“It is still awkward when I hear PR agencies say they do media monitoring in-house. A known Communications director said ‘PR agencies marking their own homework is just like a student who writes an exam and also mark his own scripts’. I think PR agencies should start seeing Independent Measurement and Evaluation agencies as friends rather than competitors as we are all in the business to create an unforgettable brand experience.”
The agency recently co-hosted the AMEC Measurement Month event with Media Monitor in Ghana – a forum that required PR Measurement consultants around the world to sensitize PR agencies, communications managers and media practitioners on the importance to integrate measurement and evaluation into their communications strategy and the importance of the new AMEC framework.
“We were also there to communicate our success rate as there has been an increase in awareness for brands and communications managers to see the need to engage an Independent measurement and evaluation agency for brand health check and performance audit, which is something that P+ has been pioneering and preaching for the Nigerian market. Brands are starting to understand that allowing their PR agencies to mark their own homework is doing a lot of damage to brands,” he added.
However, Odiakose revealed that brands are beginning to separate Media monitoring and measurement from PR agency briefs as Communications and PR managers are turning advocates for the independent measurement. “They have seen the impact and value we have provided with our timely media intelligence report. Business decisions are made and strategies are created from our work and we expect more ownership from more communications and brand managers in the future to be advocates. An example of such is the just concluded Edo state governorship election, which P+ Measurement Services was appointed as the Independent Monitoring and Measurement Consultant for one of the aspirants. Our timely delivery and media intelligence report played a major role in the emergence of the current elected Governor of the state in which we worked alongside Tony Usidamen, the CEO of UBURU an Independent communications agency in Lagos, and Media manager to the Governor during the campaign.”
For some years now, the use of Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) has been high as agencies perceive it as he only way to show value for their spend. Nevertheless, the P+ boss is of the opinion that AVE analysis has done more harm than good to their clients’ brands.
He said: “At P+ Measurement Services, we use measurement standards which are acceptable all over the world and we stand with the Barcelona Principle 2:0 vs 5 which states that AVE is not the true reflection of value for ROI. Let me make this clear, that the word ROI is wrongly used in the PR practice as all eyes tend to look at the financial figure in PR; neglecting the fact that PR is all about reputation, image building, crisis management and media relations. So when measuring the impact of PR on brands, key KPIs like, JRM, SOI, SOV, reach, cyberspace analysis, spokesperson impact, reputation measurement, journalist/Blogger loyalty analysis, message sentiment analysis, competitive analysis should be looked deeply into. Public and Media perception Audit of a brand should be checked quarterly or bi-annually which will require the input of an Independent Measurement and Evaluation agency.”
P+ Measurement Services is Nigeria leading and fastest growing indigenous Independent Communications/PR Measurement and Evaluation agency that focus on delivering detailed Media Monitoring, Measurement, Evaluation and Analysis across the full spread of media channels.
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