Demonstrating the Value of Communication Perspectives and advice on communication measurement and marketing activity may cloud the impact, but it is the first step on a rewarding journey. Even if only tracking basic output measures to begin with, set a plan to grow the quality of evaluation by using more comprehensive and useful measures. Demonstrating the Value of Communication 9 The other option is to do nothing. Without evaluation, successful, but not to know for certain, and not to fully understand how success was achieved. But so long as the metrics used ar (advertising value equivalency), there is something to help guide the next campaign. When the information from the evaluation is being used and the value becomes apparent, opportunities to identify other useful metrics will develop. Commit to the time and budget required. results are, why spend the time or budget on evaluation? So, if you are going to do evaluation, then commit and take charge of the program. Make sure that meaningful targets are set which demonstrate real success. Recognise that this takes time and effort to capture and analyse the data. Acknowledge that without in-house expertise, a third party will be needed, and allocate budget. There is also the opportunity to look at the marketplace and consider competitor campaigns - can that activity be undermined with messages targeting areas of weakness? Could your business be subject to this analysis? first and foremost? So, the ROI of spend on evaluation suddenly becomes very real and very important and very valuable. Nothing stands still. The world is constantly changing and the world of communications even more so. Whether it be the rise of , another case to be made for research and evaluati