Do marketing and communications programs actually drive business performance?
As part of our ongoing commitment to position the Rocky Mountain region as a center of excellence in marketing and communications, Westmeath Global Communications initiated a collaborative effort in 2014 to create the Rocky Mountain Performance Barometer.
Reaching ‘across the aisle’ to join forces with several collaborating partners, we designed and implemented the Rocky Mountain Performance Barometer as an effort to gauge the impact that our industry has on driving business performance. Is it time we move beyond impressions, likes and retweet.
Our findings were consistent with the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, indicating that building and retaining trust with stakeholders is a pivotal task for the profession with almost half of all participants admitting it’s a challenge to create enduring relationships in the digital age.
Building trust and engaging stakeholders was noted as one of the top challenges for our profession in 2015, but it was second to the necessity of measuring ROI. Interpreting the impact of our profession quantitatively has always been a big challenge and as channel growth continues, the explosion of data has lead to data analysis being noted as the number one area of growth for the marketing and communications profession.
We recognize the importance of demonstrating our value to a business, but the impact of our work isn’t always so black and white.
If you’re an architect, you don’t have a CFO evaluate whether you built a structurally sound, environmentally responsible and aesthetically appealing building. Architects define their own standards and create their own metrics.
That’s why we created the Rocky Mountain Performance Barometer. As thought-leaders of our practice, we felt it was our responsibility to gauge our impact on business results. We want to determine our strengths, and our weaknesses, and use that information to better our profession. Our hope is that you can use these valuable insights to join us in making a stronger community for ourselves.
Our partners included The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – Colorado Chapter, the Business Marketing Association-Colorado Chapter (BMA), and the Public Relations Society of America-Colorado Chapter (PRSA). These associations all joined forces with us to gather thoughts and opinions of professionals in our region to gain better insights into the dynamics influencing our community and determine the role marketing and communications play in fueling business performance.
For more on the Rocky Mountain Performance Barometer click here!
