Public affairs and communications management

"That's the message from last night's CIPR Excellence Awards. Whether it's public affairs, reputation management, internal communications or a consumer campaign, goals must be set, reviewed and measured against predetermined outcomes.

Of course, evaluation is not new to the communications industry. It has driven the sector's professionalization in the last decade. But last night the great and the good of the PR sector rammed the point home: with business and the economy still in the doldrums, now more than ever communications professionals need to show how they impact on bottom-line.

No surprise then that we are finding more chief execs and directors of comms wanting upfront research to set realistic, business-focused objectives for their public affairs programmes and to establish from the outset what the benchmarks of achievement will be.

We find that research offers clients a win-win situation. Not only does it give them the right aims; it also provides a focus that ensures they are communicating with the right people, at the right time and about the right things to make a real difference to their business."