On Saturday I secured an in-depth interview for Jane Pye from headhunting and executive recruitment practice Ashley Hoyle.

But the perennial PR question that comes up is: “What is the value of such coverage?”

The Guardian boasts:

• A circulation of near 350,000
• A readership of 1.2m
• A very high percentage of ABC1s – not sure what I come under, if indeed I do register as an ABC.  I could be a “q” or “r” if such demarcations exist.

Advertising rates hover around the £50 per square cm, but can go as high as £90.

I would assume that to advertise on a full page is about £20,000 – £25,000, perhaps.

Then as a PR I could argue that editorial is much more valuable than advertising, so times by….

But then again what really counts is how it raises and improves the profile of Ashley Hoyle – very hard to determine.

And then there is the bottom line question: “Did the client get any inquiries or did it make there job easier when approaching a candidate?”

Then, I pitch, show my work and get asked, after a “very impressive” response:  “What was the benefit to the client?”

Thanks to Leo Benedictus for a great article though – intelligent and witty.

Managing expectation can be quite a task.  Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes success in terms of PR.

The PR practitioner has to ensure that unrealistic expectations do not derail a campaign or even lose an account.  It is the job of the PR to guide clients, state a reasonable benchmark and beat it.  Of course this is subjective, and therein lies the problem.

But when I think of managing expectation, it compares as nothing to the level of hope, of anticipation that Barack Obama has generated, both in the US and worldwide.  It is an impossible task already.

Two wars, an economic meltdown, a terrible budget deficit (from a budget surplus under Clinton), health care provision, education to all that are gifted enough to take it and a housing crisis is enough.  But on top of that there will be conflicting hopes – he cannot satisfy everyone.

Now that Barack Obama has won, he now must cool down expectation, if he can do that he will be a very talented politician.  How he does that I have no idea, but if he doesn’t he could derail his own presidency.

Inflation must be having a toll on PR and marketing agencies.

Pressure from employees trying to compensate for the decreasing value of their wages by pay rises, fuel costs rises for the office and transport amongst other things.

But it is hard to ask clients to pay more if they are more cost conscious than for some time and return on investment is key.

One exception seems to be the tracking / cuttings agency I like to use.  Prices have doubled in more than a year.  There are some improvements in service and their suppliers have upped costs, but it is too much.

Businesses have to know what the breaking point is.

Pricing can lose you business, for being too high or underselling your services.  It needs to be tackled with sensitivity or at least thought.  Doubling prices without a strong enough argument (in my view) can be classed, if we are being generous, as “bold.”

I have been given the opportunity to talk about PR on Salford City Radio 94.4 FM today at 2-3pm. Most of the hour is a selection of my tunes based on my superlative taste – no irony intended.

But what are the benefits and how do you measure them?

Well there is RAJAR, which stands for Radio Joint Audience Research Limited. This produces research that shows reach, share of possible reach, average listening time etc.

But being surveyed is not cheap, it can run into the thousands. So many local stations will be a mystery concerning their success.

I was told that previous guests had gained new business as a result of their appearance, including a toast master that secured two new bookings. Perhaps the best measure.

Anyway whatever the result, it is worth going through the process to see what clients go through as I dismissively tell them not to be nervous.

Thanks to Jon Monks of Chapel Street Business Group for settling my nerves and setting up the opportunity.

It is not the name of a new bar that Manchester needs so badly.

But the perennial PR problem: justifying spend.  It all comes from PR being so hard to quantify.  How do you measure raised profile, greater understanding of what your client does, reputation being enhanced?

You can’t unless you have a big research budget, so anything but blue chip clients will be unable to gage the benefits accurately.

There are leads, which is where many businesses judge their PR.  It is wrong to base any judgement solely on this premise.  I have had clients that have more than covered their PR spend with new clients derived from PR.  You also have new clients where PR has played a par, but this has not been identified or noted.

The solution?

Answers on a postcard or in the comments please.