For an Airbus Communications Academy workshop, Echo Research executives discussed with participants how the media operate, drawing on Echo's large battery of observational data on journalist behavior and media analysis.

Echo staff members answered questions such as, "What do the media want" and "How should I pitch a story to the most skeptical journalists." They reviewed the highest-powered communications tools best suited to particular situations. Echo dealt in detail with what journalists expect of first-class press releases and VPRs (pressrooms on the Web), as well as the needs of the media in crises.

Echo especially focused on the damage that newspapers and broadcasters can do to corporate reputations. Airbus' chief press officer rounded out the session with a "warts and all" look at the challenges facing communicators. Echo lent particular authority to the workshop because of its many journalist audits and research into success and failure factors for media relations.

British Gas has come a long way since it was privatized. It offers a wide range of products and services for the home beyond its traditional supply of gas. The PR department is in the spotlight to justify its contribution and act as custodians of the brand reputation. It has been working closely with Echo for over seven years, raising the PR game and winning industry awards in recognition of its innovative approaches. In the words of Dominic Cheetham, Director of Corporate Communications:

• Reputation-enhancing PR helps keep British Gas customers loyal and helps recruit and retain the best talent. Echo's measurement tools help British Gas to be more efficient and effective in its PR efforts, and demonstrate to management the inroads being made for the business.

• We can be more efficient with our journalist contact program because the media landscape is mapped out for us. It's been hugely helpful to understand what drives the trends, spikes and dips in our media coverage and to be more efficient in the way we develop and seed our messages for, and to, the media.

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) enable us to evaluate how well our communications are helping to shape attitudes and behaviors around the new British Gas brand. This has served to re-affirm the role PR can play in laying the foundations for the re-branding of British Gas as a home services brand. PR is demonstrably stretching the marcoms budget, helping us derive maximum value from our contact with customers.

• The measurement has also given us benchmarks around which our internal targets are set. These targets are given to the PR team and bonuses are staked on their delivery. But also, as the 'natural radar' of management is to focus on negatives, we have used the evaluation to show up the positive work we have done in the context of business improvement.

• The research has changed how we apologize to customers and directed our search for opportunities to pull the internal team into the broader picture, such as by getting staff members to contribute case studies and provide customer feedback.

• By integrating our Echo results, we can demonstrate that PR really does change consumer attitudes. The research has identified how far we can go before we loose the audience on the issue of 'Trust in the Home'. The findings go back into the redevelopment of our strategy and new creative plans, right down to how we structure our press releases, key messages and activities. Measurement has become the 'dashboard' for all our activities.

• The presence of campaign-specific messages in media coverage was tracked through media analysis, while focus groups and an omnibus survey were conducted to test the relevance and recall of these messages, as well as the impact of media stories on the general public.