FAQ's
Media Relations Rating Points (MRP™) is a new measurement system that provides
standardized reporting of editorial media coverage.
It is based on a 10-point rating system that can be used for any type of editorial
media coverage (i.e. print, TV, radio, online etc.) and can be easily customized by
company or by project. The MRP™ system provides clear qualitative and quantitative metrics
to evaluate media coverage, track total reach and cost per contact.
The system is linked to a subscriber based database that provides up to date reach numbers
for all media.
MRP™ will allow public relations practitioners to work with a consistent, official system of measurement.
With a standardized measurement system in place, PR activities can be measured on a
level playing field using comparable criteria, similar to GRPs in the advertising
sector. The MRP™ system will be your tool to immediately and accurately report your
return on investment to internal and external stakeholders.
The system includes a spreadsheet that allows users to track editorial media coverage
on their campaign including:
- Editorial outlet
- Reach
- Five customized criteria
- Total rating score out of ten
- Cost per contact
Editorial outlet and reach data is provided by key industry standard suppliers (see below).
Criteria
The key to the success of the MRP™ system is a dialogue at the outset between the
communications professional executing the campaign and the stakeholders evaluating the
success of the campaign to determine the five criteria.
These can include, but are not limited to, brand mention, key message inclusion,
prominence, photo, spokesperson quote etc. There is an optional bonus/demerit point.
The extra point is outside of the rating system and is used for exceptional coverage,
either positive or negative.
Tone
Tone can be denoted as either positive (5 points), neutral (3 points) or negative (0 points).
The MRP™ system assigns 5 points for positive tone, 3 points for neutral tone, 0 for negative.
For tips on selecting criteria or analyzing tone please see the user guide.
Cost per Contact
Cost per contact is determined by dividing the total cost of the program by the
total reach.
News Canada, a company recognized for the past 25 years for its accurate measurement
of PR results - and also known for its incomparable bank of media measuring data -
has been selected by CPRS to provide the reach numbers.
It is a subscriber-based online system which has a range of subscription plans to suit the
sole practitioner, midsize or large corporate enterprise. The system will be available for public use on April 21, 2006.
The system has been designed to allow you to easily create your media report and will automatically inserted reach data
as soon as the user types in the media outlet, ensuring that all users have a standardized set
of reach numbers.
News Canada has developed great relationships with leading industry suppliers and is
sourcing reach numbers from:
- BBM for broadcast coverage
- Combase for community newspapers
- NadBank for the dailies
- PMB for magazines
- News Canada for: URL data, community newspapers (not in Combase), trade publications.
We believe this system will work well with integrated advertising campaigns, because
these are the same sources the advertising industry uses.
Each supplier provides the most accurate data available and updates are provided on
each individual's schedule which ranges from four times a year to once a year.
BBM tracks broadcast reach differently for television and radio. For TV the reach
is calculated on the average daily reach for a particular program; for radio it is the
average quarter hour reach within a day part (four hour time period).
This initiative was conceived by a group of leading PR professionals and is
officially supported by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) and
IABC (International Association of Business Communicators). The web site and database that provides
the reach numbers was developed by News Canada.
Any PR practitioner, from a large agency in Vancouver to a sole practitioner in
Halifax can use this system to evaluate editorial coverage.
It has been tested for two years by some of Canada's most respected agencies and
leading corporations including:
- Bank of Montreal
- Cara Operations (Harvey's, Second Cup, Swiss Chalet)
- Coca-Cola Ltd.
- GLAD
- Jamieson Laboratories
- Johnson & Johnson
- Visa Canada
The web site and database was beta-tested by Committee members prior to launch.
The data is only available with a subscription to MRPdata.com, but the templates are
available for free and can be downloaded at www.mrpdata.com.
The MRP™ system can also be used to measure crisis communications and unplanned media
attention.
The Canadian Public Relations Society and the International Association of Business
Communicators support the MRP™ system.
Currently the MRP™ system is not a prerequisite to enter any of the PR awards in
Canada.
Both the template and the data are meant to be used together. This ensures that everyone is using the same data, thus making the MRP™ system (like GRPs) the industry standard.
The MRP™ subscription service allows you to build your media report and export the data in many different formats; thus allowing you to import the data into proprietary measurement systems.
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