By Darren Gilbert

Dr. David Rockland, Ketchum partner, who led the original discussion five years ago, explained the reasons behind the new-look principles – referred to as The Barcelona Principles 2.0 – at an event produced by AMEC in association with Gorkana and Ketchum in London today. He was joined by Jeremy Thompson, managing director at Gorkana and AMEC chairperson.

“The original goal was straightforward: provide guidelines to measure efficacy of communication campaigns; provide a basis to enable the replacement of outdated program measurement models and ultimately to end years of debate as to whether metrics such as AVEs and multipliers should be used,” he said. However, communications have since evolved. And since the adoption of the original set of principles, more PR firms, companies and organisations have adopted them.

This was never the original intention though, says Rockland. The Barcelona Principles were never meant to be a final or complete solution. Instead, they were meant to be the starting point for something more.

Thus, the new principles are simply the result of the need to refresh the framework to reflect current communications practice. And to build on what is already available. “[The] Barcelona Principles are an evolution, not a reinvention,” explains Rockland. “If the original set of Principles focused more on ‘what not to do’, the updated Barcelona Principles of 2015 provide more guidance on ‘what to do’, in order to unite the ever-expanding media landscape into a transparent, reliable, and consistent measurement and evaluation framework.”

There is a need for integration on multiple levels across media, geographies and communication disciplines. There is a need for a better balance of qualitative and quantitative methods. There is a need for a distinction between measurement and evaluation. The Barcelona Principles 2.0 aims to provide all this and more.

“As a set of professional measurement guidelines and practices, our goal is to ensure that The Barcelona Principles continue to act as a baseline that professionals can use today and in the future,” concludes Rockland. This is the first step to ensure that happens.

For more information on AMEC and the updates Barcelona Principles, visit www.amecorg.com. Alternatively, join the conversation on Twitter using the #AMECMM and #BarcelonaPrinciples hashtags.