(Reprint of original post) 

PR measurement... Oxymoron? ... perhaps.

To others, and to quote Rowan Atkinson, the act (or, dare I say, art) of measuring PR might be akin to being  "...a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat... that isn't there."

Outputs. Outtakes. Outcomes. AVEs. MRPs. ROI. ROE. Traditional media. Social media. Qualitative. Quantitative. Reputation capital. Mud. What's a flack to do?

In the case of H&K Canada, you hire the best and brightest. You put a stake in the ground that (shamelessly) hammers home the message to all who believe the status quo is good enough, and cry out to each and all (in the immortal words of Motley Crue): "Don't go away mad. Just go away."

Which is why, given my personal interest in this space (and the fact that I've also tended to blather on a fair bit about measurement in past posts), I'm stoked about Alan Chumley, formerly of Cormex, joining the H&K Canada family as director responsible for measurement. Who is Alan? You can read his blog here. And you can soon listen to an upcoming podcast featuring Alan on Connected Conversations here.

Alan's mandate is not only to challenge us at H&K, but to challenge our clients, and to challenge the industry to continue to push the bar on effectively demonstrating the real value and impact of PR in a rapidly changing media environment.

Welcome aboard. It's been a long journey from our first meeting so many years ago.