Tiger Makes The Right Choice

Looks like Tiger Woods is finally getting some sound PR counsel. His recent press conference, although somewhat transparent to PR pros, was the right first step toward controlling the PR mess he has himself in and trying to refocus media attention on his game.

No matter when Tiger returns to competition, the media will go into another frenzy and everything from the tabloids to top sports writers will ring in. But, in terms of crowd control — which could have gotten very ugly in his first tournament outing — he could not have picked a better venue than The Masters. The event is known for having the most polite (read: controlled) crowds in golf. Many of the normal crowd that follows Tiger are sports fans used to getting rowdy during the heat of competition. But, any fan who's rowdy at Augusta National is politely escorted from the grounds and asked never to return.

The Masters is a precise operation. To get onto the grounds, you pass through security gates and are scanned like at an airport. In fact, those lines move so smoothly that airports could learn a thing or two from Augusta. Food lines move briskly and the multiple souvenir shop lines (which are long and tightly controlled) move with military precision so that you get in, buy and get out within minutes.

The Masters gives Tiger the best chance of a heckle-free return to competition. And, if he wins the event, he will have made a strong first step toward moving much of the discussion away from his personal affairs and toward the return of a great player to the game.

For Tiger, The Masters is the right choice.

Impact Analysis More Important Than Ever

With social media and Web-based communications coming on so strong, some PR folks are debating whether the old method of providing return on investment stats is a thing of the past. For years (it feels like centuries, actually), PR folks have measured editorial coverage against the cost of comparably-sized advertising, figuring in what the client has spent on PR services to determine an ROI.

That approach speaks to clients who are always looking to see what they are getting for their investment in PR. Never mind that some of the most impactful publicity might appear in low-cost media, or that you can't put a dollar value on the third-party endorsement of media coverage.

With pay-per-click and Web analytics, clients are experiencing results in ways that they never could with traditional advertising. And so, they are looking for similar stats from PR.

And, just to be a little cynical, you have to wonder if some PR folks are eager to ditch ROI analysis because there aren't so many expensive magazines to measure against. Newspaper and Web-based ads cost way less than the glossy four-color print ads in magazines. ROI can shrink pretty drastically in the face of that. So, ROI is not as impressive.

So is ROI dead? No. But it can't be asked to stand alone in the face of scrutiny. That's where reach becomes increasingly important.

And impact analysis — determining if you actually reached the target markets the client wanted you to aim for — is critical.

It's a new day dawning. And half the excitement is figuring out how to communicate the value of PR in concrete ways that speak to the client.