Be accountable - make sure you show your value

When I first started my career I worked for a global company who had huge budgets for luxury events, sponsorship and PR. We organised some fantastic activities that were well attended by journalists and key stakeholders such as big buyers from the nation's biggest supermarkets and wholesalers. One day we got a new director. He asked me to present our activities to him. While very impressed with our activities, his main questions were:

What value are we adding?
What is the return on investment?
How do we measure the success of our campaigns?

I was embarrased. We'd spent thousands. And yes they were great activities but what was the impact on the bottom line?

Many companies are run by financial leaders. So you have to make sure you speak their language when presenting your PR strategy to them. You need to present the value you add to your company. If you don't prove the value of your work then it could be seen as "non-essential". Common sense tells you that "non-essential" work is likely to be cut during difficult times, like recessions.