• Member Login
  • Contact
  • Resources

Lost your password?

  • English English English en
  • العربية العربية Arabic ar
  • Indonesia Indonesia Indonesian id
  • Melayu Melayu Malay ms
  • Български Български Bulgarian bg
  • hrvatski hrvatski Croatian hr
  • Čeština Čeština Czech cs
  • Dansk Dansk Danish da
  • Suomi Suomi Finnish fi
  • Français Français French fr
  • Deutsch Deutsch German de
  • Ελληνικά Ελληνικά Greek el
  • हिन्दी हिन्दी Hindi hi
  • Italiano Italiano Italian it
  • 简体中文 简体中文 Chinese (Simplified) zh-hans
  • Norsk bokmål Norsk bokmål Norwegian Bokmål no
  • Română Română Romanian ro
  • Русский Русский Russian ru
  • српски српски Serbian sr
  • Slovenčina Slovenčina Slovak sk
  • Slovenščina Slovenščina Slovenian sl
  • Español Español Spanish es
  • Svenska Svenska Swedish sv
  • Tagalog Filipino Tagalog Filipino Tagalog Filipino tgl
  • Tamil Tamil Tamil ta
  • ไทย ไทย Thai th
  • Türkçe Türkçe Turkish tr
  • اردو اردو Urdu ur
  • Tiếng Việt Tiếng Việt Vietnamese vi
  • 日本語 日本語 Japanese ja
AMEC

International association for the measurement and evaluation of communication

  • Education
    • AMEC Online College
      • AMEC Training Opportunities
      • AMEC Academic Scholarship 2023
      • AMEC Foundation in Measurement & Evaluation
        • FAQ’s – AMEC Foundation Course
      • AMEC Certificate in Measurement & Evaluation
        • AMEC Certificate 2023 Alumni
        • FAQs – AMEC Certificate Course
        • Student Testimonials
        • AMEC IEF Tutorial Course
        • Diploma – Coming 2024
      • AMEC Academic Advisory Group
  • Resources
    • Barcelona Principles 3.0
    • Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF)
      • AMEC IEF Tutorial
    • 2023 AMEC Agency White Paper
    • AMEC Planning Resources
    • Measurement Methodology
    • 2023 AMEC APAC Market Insights Paper
    • Videos
    • AMEC Measurement Month
    • Case Studies
    • Find a Speaker
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
      • Upcoming Events
    • Measurement Month
      • 2023 Events
      • 2022 Events
      • All Events
    • Summits
      • All Summits
      • 2023 Regional Summit – Jakarta
      • 2024 Global Summit – Sofia
      • 2023 Global Summit – Miami
      • 2022 Global Summit – Vienna
      • 2021 Global Summit – Virtual
      • 2020 Global Summit – Virtual
      • 2019 Global Summit – Prague
      • 2018 Global Summit – Barcelona
      • 2017 Global Summit – Bangkok
    • AMEC Communication Effectiveness Awards
      • 2023 Awards
      • 2022 Awards Winners
      • 2022 Awards
      • 2021 Awards Winners
      • 2021 Awards
      • Past Award Winners
      • Don Bartholomew Award Winners
  • About
    • Who We Are
      • About AMEC
      • AMEC Board of Directors
      • AMEC Special Interest Groups
      • Partners & Alliances
    • Chapters
      • Asia Pacific Chapter
      • European Chapter
      • Latin America Chapter
      • Middle East and Africa Chapter
      • North American Chapter
  • Insights
  • Membership
    • Join AMEC
      • AMEC Special Interest Groups
      • AMEC Global Chapters
      • Membership Categories
    • Membership Directory
      • See all Members
    • AMEC Board Elections
      • AMEC Elections 2024
      • AMEC Elections 2023 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2022
      • AMEC Elections 2022 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2021
      • AMEC Elections 2021 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2020
      • AMEC Elections 2020 Results
      • AMEC Elections 2019 Results
    • Exclusive for Members
      • AMEC General Webinars (members only on-demand)
      • AMEC NFP SIG “Ask the Experts” Series
      • All Measurement Month Events
      • AMEC Agency Toolkit Series
      • AMEC North America Chapter “Ask the Experts” Series
      • AMEC European Chapter – Hints and Tips
      • AMEC Global Membership Survey
  • Resources
  • Menu Menu

Putting Planning at the Heart of Measurement

You are here: Home » AMEC Member Article » Putting Planning at the Heart of Measurement

Putting Planning at the Heart of Measurement

27th November 2019/in AMEC Member Article, News, Special Interest Groups Andy West. Hotwire Global/by Julie Wilkinson

There’s something pleasingly ironic about November being AMEC Measurement Month 2019. The 11th month on the calendar takes its name from the ninth month of the year because that’s what it used to be. Back before January and February were invented!

Fortunately, we now have consistency in counting the months. But it’s quite another story when it comes to the far more complicated field of comms measurement and evaluation. Which is why Hotwire is proud to be an enthusiastic supporter of AMEC and its admirable efforts to champion best practice in the shape of developments such as the new Integrated Evaluation Framework and ‘Common Ground’ initiative.

As an agency, Hotwire is avidly anti bean counting. What do I mean by this? Well, far too many agencies and clients remain misguidedly obsessed with counting stuff. Whether that be clips, impressions or totally discredited AVEs, they put an undue focus on uninformative vanity metrics.

It’s a hill of beans that rarely helps clients meet their objectives. Even when there are a lot of beans in the hill.

In Hotwire, planning is very much a process that embraces measurement, evaluation and insight. All of which must be conducted systematically to offer genuine focus, purpose and power. Taking such a stance is the only way to transform PR from the poor relation of marketing (and business more widely) into a strategic driver for the organisation.

Let me share a few pointers as to how we go about things.

  • We begin by gaining a clear understanding of the business need. Failure to get to the bottom of organisational objectives leads to woolly thinking and work that, no matter how creative, will be wide of the mark.
  • Once the objectives are clear we move on to strategy development. Defining audience and optimum pathways for reaching it is fundamental here. Data allows us to look at target groups in a meaningful, differentiated way. Some of the technology we utilise helps us understand audiences not just demographically but also psycho-graphically, attitudinally and behaviourally.
  • Insight is a much used and abused term. Many facts and findings held up as insightful lack relevance and obscure more important things. We like to define insights as understanding an audience, including its motivations, problems and frustrations. Especially those frustrations we are in a position to solve.
  • Often we drill beneath the superficial to unearth hidden truths. Understanding the whys and wherefores enables us to plan more effectively, target with precision. As AI continues to develop and learn at great speed, it will improve at harvesting online opinions and reviews that we can analyse to understand motivations behind a purchase or other action. Once hidden truths are revealed, we can feed the resulting insights into the planning process.
  • We are firm believers in establishing some sort of qualitative measure of bravery. Are clients willing to try something a little different or even out-there to distinguish themselves from the crowd? Appreciating a brand’s appetite for risk in a communications context is very useful.
  • Proof points Can the client’s proposed claims be substantiated?
  • More than at any other time in the past we can now easily conduct campaign tracking experiments. We often apply A/B testing to fine tune activity.
  • We are open and honest about what isn’t working as well as we’d hoped. Agencies have the courage not to hide away from aspects of a campaign that fall flat. With dynamic measurement at our disposal, we can make continual improvements

As you can see, what we do is far removed from bean counting. But if that’s nevertheless what you’re after, call Heinz!

Tags: Agencies unite, agencyblog, AMEC Agency Group, AMEC special interest group, AMECagencies, AMECMM, Blog, common ground, Measurement Month
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on X
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://amec.blazedev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/globe-head-travel-SM.jpg 983 1440 Julie Wilkinson https://amec.blazedev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AMEC-25.png Julie Wilkinson2019-11-27 21:08:152019-11-27 21:08:15Putting Planning at the Heart of Measurement

News and Spotlights

#AMECMM

Embracing the transformative power of AI

1st November 2023

AMEC Member Article

AMEC Innovation Hub Series: Using Generative AI in Measurement & Analytics: Pitfalls & Opportunities

7th September 2023

See more News Stories
View Measurement Month Events
Visit the AMEC Resource Centre
Amec News

Keep up to date with the latest news and trends



By clicking Submit, you have read and agreed to receive emails from AMEC. You can find more in our Privacy Policy.

Connect with AMEC

Quick Resources

  • M3- Measurement Maturity Mapper
  • Integrated Evaluation Framework
  • PR’s Guide to Measurement
  • Events Calendar
  • Measurement Month
  • Speakers Bureau
  • Resources

Member Areas

  • AMEC Global Membership Survey
  • Membership Directory
  • Exclusive for Members
  • Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions
  • Sitemap
  • Resources
Copyright © 2025 AMEC. All Rights Reserved. All Trademarks Acknowledged. - Website by Blaze Concepts
PRIMER: Introduction to PR Planning, launched during Measurement Month 2019AMEC Measurement Month 2019PR Week3 takeaways from PR Week’s Measurement Conference 2019
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies including non-essential cookies.

Accept settingsView our Privacy Policy

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions
Accept settingsHide notification only
This is a Development or Staging site for AMEC by Blaze Concepts!
This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site. Switch to a production site key to remove this banner.