In this episode, we sit down with Evan Escobedo, a PR innovator who developed the Media Impact Scoring Model at Western Union and now is the founder of measuredPR. Evan shares his approach to redefining PR metrics, blending prominence, salience, and other factors to align efforts with business goals. He also discusses balancing AI tools with human insights to capture nuance and drive meaningful impact, offering practical ways to move from “So what?” to “Now what?” and enhance reputation.
Below is just a snippet of the conversation. For more episodes, check out the Spotify channel to listen or the YouTube channel. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
"There is a balance between [...] human expertise, to understand the nuance of the conversation of the mentions, and AI to create what I would consider a richer, more comprehensive view of brand perception and brand reputation." - Evan Escobedo, measuredPR.
Evan Escobedo: It's actually an interesting moment that we find ourselves in in corporate communications and PR measurement. It's this intersection of, obviously, this little thing called AI, but I think, from my perspective, with now the up-and-coming technology of AI.
I think there's a gap still that exists, and I think we've kind of over-indexed on [the idea that] AI is going to solve everything [from] world hunger to understanding true brand reputation. Let's maybe step back a little bit and say, 'AI is a wonderful thing, and we should certainly leverage AI, but it only gets us that far.'
My hypothesis with measured PR is there is a balance between human analysis, that human expertise to understand the nuance of the conversation of the mentions, and AI to create what I would consider a richer, more comprehensive view of brand perception and brand reputation. That is kind of where I'm taking measuredPR in that it's a unique value proposition to combine not just AI but human analysis. They create this true, more comprehensive view of a brand.
Dan Gaynor: Walk me through how the founding story came together. Were there reflections or things you built at Western Union that you're really proud of that you're looking to take to the next level?
EE: We created back at Western Union, this idea of brand impact score. It's what I would consider a true brand reputation score. With the tools that we were using back at the time [....] you have a monthly report that looks at volume and reach and sentiment. And then you kind of have this monthly graph over time to look at high-reaching articles and the syndications and what was owned mentions of a press release versus earned mentions.
The executives I was serving at the time were basically telling me, okay, to be blunt, 'so what?' I mean, what is an impression worth? I don't know what an impression is worth. So that's where I introduced this idea of a media impact scoring model, which I now have labeled as my own PR score - a trademark methodology that goes beyond volume, reach, and sentiment to include things like prominence and salience. Some other unique scoring factors create this, what I would consider a unique PR score that I think is hopefully gearing towards a somewhat unique industry score.
"The point is certainly to go beyond traditional metrics. My approach [...] is to have that alignment to real business strategy." - Evan Escobedo, measuredPR.
[....] I think the point of that is certainly to go beyond traditional metrics. I think that's key. My approach, I think, may be similar to others, is to have that alignment to real business strategy.
So here's an exercise that I take my clients through to say, 'Okay, well, let's think through from not just a corporate communications objective standpoint, but from an overall company brand standpoint, what are your top five initiatives from a company?' And really aligning to those, and then when you have those clearly defined, you're now able to truly measure the impact of outputs from a public relations and corporate communications team.
DG: You wrote something on LinkedIn recently... and there was a quote I just want to bring to the fore. It said, "By consistently offering data-driven insights and demonstrating how communications impact the business, from brand perception to crisis, PR leaders can secure a seat at the executive table." [...] Everybody I talk to is grounded in these old-school metrics like advertising equivalent value and impressions, which we all know are sort of bullshit, but we don't necessarily know how to escape beyond it. So I'd be interested, whether at Western Union or in your nascent stages at measuredPR, do you have any reflections, any lessons learned for listeners in terms of how they can best take a score, something proprietary, like your PR impact score and gather around a table with the marketing folks, the sales folks, the HR folks, the IR folks to say 'This metric stands toe to toe with the other ways that you're demonstrating how you're driving value'?
EE: Absolutely, [this is] so so critical because if you think of PR and corporate communications, it really touches across the board, internal, external, what that corporate narrative is, how that supports being an employer of choice, how that supports driving your overall marketing strategy to influence and ultimately gain new customers and consumers, right?
"Having a quantifiable score allows you to show exactly what your worth is to the organization, which can drive perception and reputation." - Evan Escobedo, measuredPR.
So tapping into that, I completely agree, Dan, that when it comes to PR, public relations, corporate communications, and the ability to measure against yourself across the organization, when you're able to show that data and the outputs that you have, and it's not just, again, that press release and seeing how many syndications it gets, but understanding that that press release drives or corporate narrative to then drives earned coverage, which then drives where you want to be seen right from a target source standpoint publication standpoint. So all of that work you're able to quantify with this, whether it's a something up a score that you use or with measured PR score, you're able to show the impact of public relations.
And I think that's key because, in my experience, you don't just get the questions from executives to say, okay, so what? What's an impression worth? You also get the comments from, okay, well, why not just do a Google search on, you know, or I have Google Alerts set up? [....] When you're having that conversation, you're actually trying to justify your worth to the organization, and with having a quantifiable score, like a PR score, you're able to show exactly what your worth is to the organization to drive perception, to drive reputation. So critical, critical stuff, I think, for corporate communications.
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Signal in the Noise is a podcast dedicated to helping today's business leaders navigate the complexities of decision-making by leveraging data and groundbreaking technology—first and foremost, artificial intelligence (AI). You can also watch the interview on our Signal AI YouTube channel here.