OTD Communications Team Develops and Institutes New media Measuring Tools

OTD has developed and launched the Maryland Media Measurement tool, or M3, to better evaluate the effectiveness of media relations efforts. “With M3, we can look at a year of data and see which of our programs are resonating and then tailor our efforts to maximize our impact,” says Leslie Troy, who co-developed M3 with Connie Yingling, both communications specialists with OTD. M3 gives OTD a tool for measuring the value of internet reach and appearances on non-ad based programing, both of which are ignored by traditional ad valuation tools.

As one of the first DMOs in the nation to launch a second-wave marketing measurement tool, OTD’s industry leadership is already paying dividends. Current thinking in the industry, for instance, says that press releases are no longer a useful tool, but by utilizing evidence-based marketing data, M3 has shown just the opposite. “Some of our biggest successes over the last year have come from press releases,” says Troy. “Without M3, we would have no way to show that,” agrees Yingling. “This allows us to work smarter.”