7 ways the revised Barcelona Principles can fix PR’s past mistakes

The guidelines can serve to correct erroneous measurement beliefs and ineffective communications strategies and tactics. Here’s how they’ve changed.

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In 2010, roughly 140 PR practitioners from more than 40 countries gathered in Catalonia, Spain for a meeting hosted by the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication—the world’s largest trade body representing communications research, measurement and insights.

The result of that conference was the first draft of the Barcelona Principles: seven core principles aimed at righting the PR industry’s prior mistakes.

These new voluntary guidelines were to be used for measuring and evaluating communications and PR campaigns. Early adopters of the Barcelona Principles included Edelman, FleishmanHillard, Ketchum and StrategyOne.

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In the five years that followed, the guidelines’ adoption has been patchy across the industry. The wording of each principle has been debated and fine-tuned, ultimately resulting in the Barcelona Principles Mark II, agreed at the AMEC summit in 2015.

Here are the revised principles:

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