AMEC Communication Measurement and Evaluation Summit 2024 best highlights

The AMEC Communication Measurement and Evaluation Summit 2024 provided lots of food for thought, as well as the opportunity to sample the culinary delights of Sofia. As with last year in Miami I attended with my Purposeful Relations co-founder Tim Bailey.

There were so many excellent presentations that it’s impossible to cover them all so I’ve picked what’s hopefully a diverse selection of highlights.

The main three reasons I like the AMEC summit are:

1. Hearing from senior in-house communications leaders about the approach to communications, strategy and measurement. It’s valuable for us as a consultancy to be able to name companies and organisations that are already using ideas similar to those in our recommendations. We can say well this is what the UN, World Bank, Shell, McDonald’s, NATO etc does.
2. Reinforcing what we already know. I don’t often learn much at AMEC as often speakers have already shared their knowledge in books, blog posts, articles, podcasts, videos etc. However, what I do massively benefit from is increased confidence that the counsel we’re providing to clients is the right advice. It makes me double down on persuading clients to accept challenging advice.
3. Networking. Every year I catch up with old friends and colleagues, as well as making new ones.

So with the caveat that I’ve missed writing about some great presentations these are some of the highlights of the AMEC Communication Measurement and Evaluation Summit 2024.

LinkedIn on aligning communications and business objectives

The first keynote was Nicole Moreo, Director, Customer Insights North America, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. If you thought a measurement conference was mainly people presenting lots of numbers, you’d be wrong as it’s far more about vision, purpose, strategy, ideas and creativity. However, for the diehard number lovers Nicole’s presentation didn’t disappoint.

She shared some new (and some old) research and metrics from LinkedIn and other sources about how communications, marketing and sales can be, and need to be, better aligned.

UNDP harnesses the Weather Kids to combat climate change

Next on stage were three people I already know well – Rob Morbin (Executive Director) and Andras Sztaniszlav (Interim CEO) of ICCO; and Raina Lazarova, Co-Founder and COO of Ruepoint. They were on stage with Dylan Lowthian, Head of Media Relations at the UN Development Programme.

They gave a fascinating presentation on a huge UNDP global communications campaign focused on combatting climate change. Take a look at Weather Kids to see what it was all about and sign the pledge (you have to scroll down a long way). ICCO and AMEC partnered to activate a network of global partners to provide pro bono support for the campaign.

Global best practice from Indonesia

Elmeirillia Lonna, Head of Communications Management System & Partnership at PT Astra International then spoke about implementing a new AMEC compliant measurement framework across the entire Astra group which consists of more than 200 companies across multiple sectors including automotive, financial services, heavy equipment and mining, agriculture, infrastructure, logistics and information technology.

We created a similar communication and measurement framework for a $12 billion conglomerate with subsidiaries ranging from steel mills and coal mines to supermarkets and TV stations. It’s a big challenge to create a communciations measurement framework and playbook that is both robust and flexible enough to not only work in so many different industry sectors but across all communications disciplines from consumer facing digital comms to crisis communications and public affairs.

Building great reputations

I’ve worked extensively in India and met some amazingly talented public relations professionals. One of these is Amith Prabhu, who is the Founding Dean at the School of Communications & Reputation and the co-founder of one of the world’s biggest PR conferences – PRAXIS. He is also on the board of Global Alliance and a member of Purposeful Relations’ Global Advisory Board.

Amith spoke about an issue that I’m passionate about – the need to focus on much broader and more holistic metrics that properly encompass the importance to a business of reputations and relationships rather than just marketing communications related sales metrics.

The great reputations is how Amith referenced the objective of reputation building to gain Goodwill, command Respect, increase Engagement, build Affinity and earn Trust.

Reputation or brand at McDonald’s

The theme continued with a presentation about how McDonald’s developed and implements its reputation measurement using its Global Reputation & Impact Tracker. We’ve worked on a similar project for a global FMCG company so it’s interesting to identify similarities and differences to help us improve measurement strategies for our clients.

The tracker is a multi-stakeholder research program that assesses reputational health and informs decision making across McDonald’s Global Impact functions, including communications, government relations, public policy, sustainability and social impact.

The presentation had a strong focus on the difference between reputation and brand and therefore why it’s essential to ensure why broader reputations and relationships aren’t sacrificed to brand or marketing communications.

Creating value in the communications value chain

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manilla has to have a communications management system that will work in a highly complex environment. Andrew Perrin, a strategic and corporate communications advisor to ADB’s head of communications, gave a great presentation on the “communication journey from vanity to value”.

Lots of useful content about how to do it, but potentially the most valuable insight was how integral communications is to ADB’s primary purpose of development.

One-third of a PhD in evaluation in less than one hour

The most intriguingly titled presentation was by Distinguished Professor Dr Jim Macnamara from the University of Technolgy Sydney (UTS). As usual Jim didn’t disappoint. His presentation was accompanied with two new resources – the MEL Manual and a new taxonomy of metrics and indicators.

The thrust of the new ‘revolutionary’ approach wasn’t actually revolutionary in that it wasn’t new, it’s simply that most PR and communications professionals don’t do it well, if at all. The approach is to ‘think backwards’ from the result you want to achieve and use this to work out the steps you need to achieve the result.

When we work to create a communications measurement framework for clients, we don’t start with the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF) but with a program logic model. That’s what the IEF actually is so starting from the original model enables us to create more robust and effective custom frameworks for clients.

The most interesting part of Jim’s presentation was how he approached thinking about the result first and then working out the steps. Traditionally the approach is the first step is to start with SMART organisational objectives as these enable the definition of SMART communications objectives.

Professor Macnamara introduced another model before the programme logic model as a way to focus and explain that vital first step. This is the theory of change model.

To help implement this approach Jim also shared an updated taxonomy of metrics and indicators which looks at channel, metrics and indicators, methodology, method and stage.

Measurement at Phillips, Booking.com and Tata Steel

Given that my favourite presentations at the AMEC summit are senior in-house communicators sharing examples of their approach then André Manning didn’t disappoint. He shared examples from three different companies where he has headed communications.

I’ve known André since he was at Phillips so I’ve often cited him as a reference to clients or when I’ve been training or teaching. In this presentation he gave practical examples from Phillips, Booking.com and Tata Steel where he had used data, analytics and measurement to improve communications. It enabled him to be listened to in the boardroom and secure investment in communications.

Data for disruption – how teams can use data to disrupt and grow the business

After delegates have had a gala dinner and boozy night in the bar the first morning session is a daunting prospect for all but the hardiest of speakers. Golin’s Jonny Bentwood succeeded in shaking the audience from their stupor with an engaging and enlightening presentation. As usual he focused on some of the tools we can use, but more importantly on the importance of data storytelling.

Johnny shared some great case studies and examples of what a one-page measurement report could look like. One of the memorable case studies was Rick Astley (yes, he did play it) rerecording his greatest hit for Specsavers. Except this time, it was the version with the misheard lyrics. The campaign drove a 128% increase in searches for hearing loss with ‘hearing aid’ becoming the number one trending topic on Google searches.

If you’re looking for another great perspective on the AMEC Summit then take a look at Jonny’s LinkedIn post where he identifies his “pivotal insights” as:

1) AI’s Role in Efficiency

2) AI as an Enabler

3) The Power of Storytelling

4) The Value of Partnerships

Combatting disinformation in an increasingly polarised society

The presentation by Tina McCorkindale, president and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations, was already going to be particularly relevant in this year of multiple elections in many of the world’s democracies. For those of us in the UK it became even more so as the evening before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the general election for the 4 July.

Tina shared insights from latest Institute for Public Relations annual disinformation study which provides a critical examination of the impact of disinformation in organizations and in society. Despite its US focus it is still useful to us in the rest of the world.

I’ve led national political communication campaigns and have always learnt so much from the experience that I use to improve how we do corporate communications or consumer PR campaigns.

Often UK political parties learn new techniques, tips and tactics from US election campaigns. This year it could well be the other way round as US political campaigners for November watch to see what they can learn from UK political campaigners running the July general election

Using data to navigate the media landscape

There were so many fantastic presentations it’s impossible to do justice to them all. Some of the other highlights included:

AMEC’s new chair –

The other big news of the summit was Aseem Sood standing down after two years as chair. His newly elected successor is Raina Lazarova, cofounder and COO of Ruepoint. I’m looking forward to working with Raina and the team.

Measurement briefing?

If you want a skills briefing for your team then we’re updating our workshops to include the latest trends, tools, techniques and case studies from the summit. The short version is ideal if you run ‘lunch and learn’ or similar sessions. Let me know if you want to know more.