#measurePRGuest Post by Jen Zingsheim Phillips

The October #measurePR Twitter chat focused on the issue of gender bias in advertising and how measurement of gender bias can affect PR.

Our guest for the October chat was Angie Jeffrey, APR, ABX’s Vice President of Brand Management. She is on the team behind the Gender Equality Measure (GEM™), created jointly by ABX and the National Advertisers (ANA) Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE)’s #SeeHer team.

GEM provides measurement standards for advertising/TV programs and creates accountability for change. ABX and ANA AFE were recently awarded the prestigious 2017 ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award for their work.

As guest moderator, I chatted with Angie about how she started in measurement, what some of the biggest barriers to proper measurement are, and what the PR measurement community can learn about gender bias from the advertising measurement community.

First, we discussed Angie’s background and her entry into the world of measurement:

We continued our discussion by moving on to a question about barriers to measurement. On this topic, Angie noted a big one—that despite years of concerted effort on the part of IPR and other organizations, there’s still a lack of knowledge and understanding:

She further noted that a great tool to advance measurement is AMEC’s framework:

Understanding that failure is one of life’s greatest teachers, we moved on to the topic of PR measurement fails. Angie brought up an important point—when measurement is too complex, eyes glaze over:

Audience member Kristie Aylett noted that checklist management doesn’t indicate effectiveness:

Angie chimed in pointing out that overly simplistic measurement that doesn’t provide insight isn’t useful either:

The chat then moved on to discuss evidence of gender bias in advertising. We discussed what it is, how it is detected and measured, and why this is important:

Kristie noted why this is so important for companies to know and understand:

Uncovering gender bias can be tricky, so the next question asked what challenges there are in this type of measurement:

This is further complicated by a problem almost every research project faces—funding can be hard to secure:

PR pros generally focus on the written word, but with content creation, images are now a major component of what we are producing. This is an important point:

Angie suggested that PR pros take a look at KPI questions to identify what they should be looking at to determine if gender bias exists in what they are producing:

Advertising and PR—especially earned media—are tied together, so the focus on efforts to reduce gender bias do have an effect on PR:

It was an important chat, with Angie providing a ton of great information.

There’s much more to learn than what’s contained in the summary, so please check out the #measurePR transcript for October 12 to see what you might have missed—especially all of the resources provided by Angie to help you get started.

November #measurePR Announcement

The next #MeasurePR Twitter chat will be held on Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 12 pm ET. Instead of having a special guest, we’ll hold a community chat, where the special guest is YOU … it’s long overdue!

This is a great opportunity for you to give and gain insights from others who share your passion for smart measurement.

So make sure to mark your calendars for your monthly dose of smart measurement talk and use the hashtag #measurePR to join. We hope to “see” you there!

JenJen Zingsheim is a writer and strategic consultant based in New Hampshire. She most recently served as Vice President of Content Marketing and Media Analysis for eOutreach/CustomScoop, analyzing media, digital content, and trends for Fortune 500 clients. Earlier in her career, Jen worked at Fleishman-Hillard’s St. Louis headquarters, and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.