This paper discusses several different approaches to deriving a Return-on-Investment (ROI) for the support provided by media relations publicity efforts within a marketing campaign. The primary questions discussed in the paper are whether it is possible to show that media publicity helped generate sales or other business outcomes, and can a financial return be attributed to the publicity?

Media relations publicity is a part of public relations that is generally included in Marketing Communications or MARCOM, Marketing PR or Media Relations-based Marketing. This paper is not concerned with the ROI of the many other aspects of public relations or their derivatives. The scope of the paper is more narrow and focused specifically on how to show the business value of a story in the media that has been placed as a result of public relations within the marketing campaign mix (print, TV, radio, outdoor, and internet Advertising; direct mail; point-of-purchase; contests, coupons and continuity programs of sales promotion; media relations publicity; etc.). Most practitioners believe that such media placements have a positive effect on eventual sales. Lacking, however, have been clear methods to demonstrate that effect.

This paper is not intended as a be-all and end-all documentation of how to calculate the ROI of media relations publicity as part of a Marketing campaign. Instead, this paper attempts to list various approaches now in use and to provide a critique of their strengths and weaknesses. The paper is from the perspective of three practitioners, each of whom works in a different aspect of the field. Fraser Likely is an independent PR/communication management consultant (Likely Communication Strategies). David Rockland is a partner and research director for a large agency (Ketchum). Mark Weiner is the CEO of a media measurement firm (Delahaye). We hope this paper inspires continued debate and a refinement of the techniques we describe - and that it contributes to the advancement of the field in general. This, then, is a primer - with the intent of encouraging additional studies and papers in the future.