Earlier this week, I stumbled across an interesting debate about the use of research in ‘PR’ stories. In the blue corner, Ben Goldacre from The Guardian wrote a piece on his blog questioning the use of PR-led research to validate stories about health related products. His particular grumble was about the validity of conclusions drawn from research by OnePoll, the prevalence of such stories and the impact this has on advertising revenues.
In the red corner, Harriet from 72 Point, the PR agency linked to OnePoll defended the use of such research. Harriet claims that “if done properly, a survey story can be interesting, entertaining and frankly a welcome respite to all the misery.” I am sure this is true. But as PRs, should we not be thinking about the benefit to our clients? There is no doubt that some fantastic research can give clients a platform to speak about topics relevant to their business – it can result in great exposure. But how useful is a namecheck in The Sun? Clients who have previously used services such as those provided by 72 Point agreed the national coverage was nice to have but didn’t particularly drive any traffic to their websites, result in sign-ups or sales.
My conclusion would be that really good research can be a nice PR tool but your communications strategy should be so much more than that. A quick poll, press release to OnePoll journo friends and a few namechecks isn’t going to do it for most. Tis a one-night stand when you are looking for a deep and meaningful relationship.
