The Barcelona Principles 4.0. Image: AMEC.
In a previous post I explained what Barcelona 3.0 Principles are and why people who pay for Public Relations should understand them and ask if the people they’re paying are using them to properly measure and evaluate the effectiveness, and therefore value, of the communication done in achieving the Business and Communication Objectives which should have been set in accordance with the 2010 Stockholm Accords.
Recently AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, announced its latest update to the principles – Version 4.0 – to the excitement of all in professional communication who care about proving the true value of their work.
What’s New?
In the accompanying ebook, Richard Bagnall, the Barcelona Principles V4 Team Lead, explains: “Barcelona Principles V4.0 are an evolution, not a revolution. This is deliberate. They stand on the shoulders of the work of many comms giants. Hours of work and evolving thought have been put in to each iteration.
“The brief to AMEC’s global workgroup was clear: build on what works, refine what needs modernizing, and ensure the Principles remain relevant. They must be robust, easy to understand and globally appropriate. The Principles must align with AMEC’s other flagship resources – especially the Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF), the PR Planning Guide and the Measurement Maturity Mapper (M3).”
Further on, Richard gives an overview of the principles behind the updates:
“Clarity and Practicality: Each Principle has been refined for clarity, amended to ensure they remain relevant, and structured to flow appropriately. They are supported by practical “what to do” guidance. This makes them easier to apply and more relevant than ever to daily application.
“More Aligned Structure: The reordered sequence creates a better narrative flow that mirrors the steps of AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework. The Principles now start with objectives, stakeholders and audiences, move through planning to analysis and evaluation, and end with the critical importance of transparency, governance and ethics.
“The mirroring of the Integrated Evaluation Framework’s flow follows the logic of how users should implement best practice in real-world situations. The Principles have been color-coded to match their place within an updated framework graphic so it can be easily seen where each applies.
“Modernized Relevance: The update reflects today’s complex communication landscape: from audience fragmentation and data governance to the impact of AI and the rising importance of stakeholder-focused impact. The language has been sharpened to emphasize what we know drives better communication success.”
Subtle shifts
Richard goes on to list a number of subtle shifts in the new version of the principles, including:
- “From seeing audiences as endpoints to understanding them as co-creators of value with whom there exists a two-way communication flow. In true communication, audiences and stakeholders can, and often should, be active participants.”
- A change in terminology to ‘stakeholder audiences’ – to reflect both the academics’ push for two-way communication associated with ‘stakeholders’ and the more typical use of ‘audiences’ by PR & Comms teams. “The Principles stress the importance of using measurement and evaluation to engage in active and ongoing listening to stakeholder audiences. Doing so should inform planning and activity as well as gauge audience outcomes and impact.”
- “From static campaigns to iterative, ongoing and responsive communication that can change over time. The Principles and the framework are not just for use on individual campaigns but should equally be applied in the ongoing communication cycle, ready to be iterated and learnt from for continual improvement, strategic refinement and better planning.” The new Integrated Evaluation Framework graphic shows how learnings should be fed back into the strategy and planning cycle.
- “A stronger emphasis on the responsibility of ethics and governance, particularly around data sourcing and accuracy, the use of AI, and transparent methodologies.”
How have the Principles changed?
Principle 1
This was “Setting Measurable Goals is an Absolute Prerequisite to Communication Planning, Measurement, and Evaluation” and is now “Setting clear, measurable objectives is a critical prerequisite for effective communication planning, measurement and evaluation.”
Clarity of objectives has been added because “Objectives that are well-defined help demonstrate the role of communication in driving tangible impact beyond just media presence” and their importance has been updated from an “absolute” to “critical” prerequisite.
In the accompanying ebook, AMEC also states that the objectives set should be SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluated and Reviewed), rather than just SMART as “Regular review is important to adapt to changes in the broader communication environment and best practice.” Plus “Regular and iterative measurement of objectives ensures a clear view on what’s working and where you might need to modify your approach.”
Principle 2
This was “Outcomes and Impact Should be Identified For Stakeholders, Society & the Organization” and is now “Defining and understanding all stakeholder audiences are essential steps to plan, build relationships and create lasting impact.”
As the ebook explains, “The latest version of this Principle puts more emphasis on the importance of understanding all stakeholder audiences” because “Effective measurement and evaluation should be about listening to audience stakeholders to inform planning and activity as well as gauging audience stakeholder outcomes and impact.”
In practice, AMEC recommends practitioners should:
- “Build audience research into the planning of communication activity as well as during and after the activity.”
- “Examine the broader landscape and environment in which key audience stakeholders operate.”
- “Understand all the ways audiences and stakeholders consume or are influenced by information and messaging. Define the paid, earned, shared and owned channels that most influence each key audience stakeholder group.”
- “Seek to understand how the audience stakeholder groups can influence each other” e.g. how experts can influence buyers
- “Build processes to regularly listen to audience stakeholders and understand how their perceptions and attitudes change over time. Effective communication is more than one direction, top-down ‘broadcasting’, with long term trust being built through two way listening and relationship building.”
Principle 3
This was “Holistic Communication Measurement and Evaluation includes All Relevant Online and Offline Channels” and is now “Comprehensive communication measurement and evaluation should be applied to all relevant channels used to understand and influence audience stakeholders.”
AMEC explains the subtle shift in wording: “The media and communication landscape has shifted rapidly in the past five years with a decline in traditional news media outlets, the introduction of new social media platforms and advancements with generative AI. The principle needed to account for all relevant channels and content sources meaning the delineation of online and offline has become irrelevant. Organizations today are even reaching audiences through augmented reality!”
As with version 3.0, AMEC says the metrics should be both quantitative and qualitative (see next Principle).
Principle 4
This was “Communication Measurement and Evaluation Should Include Both Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis” and is now “Effective measurement and evaluation of communication require qualitative and quantitative analysis.”
This is another subtle change in wording, as AMEC explains: “By returning to the more compelling and definitive term “require,” we emphasize that comprehensive and effective communication evaluation cannot be adequately performed without integrating both types of analysis.” It’s also improved and clarified the guidance for how to ensure you do this properly.
Principle 5
This was “AVEs are not the value of communication” and is now “Invalid measures such as advertising value equivalents (AVEs) should not be used. Instead measure and evaluate the contribution of communication by its outcome and impact”
This principle has evolved by setting out positive examples of how you can replace the use of AVEs with valid metrics which measure contribution to objectives, including creating awareness, doing education within your organisation and developing a checklist for metrics.
Principle 6
This was “Measurement and Evaluation Should Identify Outputs, Outcomes, and Potential Impact” and is now “Measurement and Evaluation should report outputs, outcomes, and impact related to the organization and stakeholder audiences.”
AMEC succinctly explains the difference: “Communication outputs, outtakes, outcomes and impact should not be measured in isolation. Instead they should be reviewed in combination to understand the impact on the organization and its audience stakeholders.”
In order to do that, it adds: “Make sure your communication goals are aligned with your organization’s strategy and objectives.” So you need to do find out what they are set the communication objectives accordingly.
Principle 7
This was “Communication Measurement and Evaluation Are Rooted in Integrity and Transparency to Drive Learning and Insights” and is now “Ethics, governance and transparency with data, methodologies and technology builds trust and drives learning.”
AMEC explains the difference: “The latest wording emphasizes that a transparent and ethical approach not only builds credibility and trust, but it also provides evidence-based insights that support learnings and improvement.”
Also: “Over recent years, changes in regulation, such as data protection and copyright, and rapid development in technology, especially in artificial intelligence, have reinforced the importance of ethical behavior, transparency and governance in the capture and use of data, in research sampling and methodologies and in the use of artificial intelligence and other forms of automation in the research and evaluation workflow.”
Useful
All in all, a useful and comprehensive revision of the principles along with great guidance on how to apply them.
Combined with the revised Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF) and PR Planning Guide, there’s now no excuse, if there ever really was before, for Public Relations practitioners who care about properly demonstrating the value of the work they’ve done to their client not to follow the principles.
Or for PR buyers not to ask if they’ve been used when seeking to find out what the benefits of what they’ve paid for have been.
For more on Barcelona Principles 4.0, listen to Richard Bagnall’s interview on the For Immediate Release podcast.
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