Here at The Measurement Standard we have long argued against the use of AVEs, as has our publisher Katie Delahaye Paine. See these articles about AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalency) if you'd like to review the controversy. (Especially "AVEs Are Porn for PR.")
Now, after a year of deliberation, a task force of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) has released a report denouncing the use of AVEs: "The IPR Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation voted to reject the term, concept and practice of Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)..."
You can read the entire AVE report over on Katie Paine's blog. And also read what she thinks about it.
I say it's great progress. But AVEs -- fast, cheap, and flashy as they are -- are still going to be sold and used by people who don't know any better. Only when fast and easy alternatives are available will AVEs cease to be a temptation. And for more on that see this summary of a session on AVE alternatives at the recent IPR Measurement Summit.
--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.
You defintely hit the nail on the head when you said, "Only when fast and easy alternatives are available will AVEs cease to be a temptation." AVEs provide a simple, effective soundbite, and soundbites may be all you get with senior managment to justify your budget. As a PR practitioner, I know I provide value through stakeholder relations, building postive relationships with outside organziations and media, getting the organizations' messages heard and accepted. We are moving more towards social media, and again there are a number of both qualitative and quantitative metrics that are available. I can provide a slew of metrics of how our efforts add value, but often the opportunity is not there to expound on these value added activities. When executives look for budget cuts, they look at sales numbers, sales leads generated, impressions and insertions for advertising, etc. What is the new 'budget line' that can be inserted for PR? Impression numbers are as problematic as AEVs. Although we know that AEVs are evil, no simple replacement exhists.
Posted by: Patricia Pytel | October 21, 2010 at 11:18 AM
You make a very good point, Patricia. PR would benefit greatly from an easy way to demonstrate its value, especially when in competition for budgets and resources. Is it possible to sum up what PR does in a simple metric or two? Do we need to invent some metric(s) specifically for the purpose of communicating the value of PR to the C suite? Most measurement thinkers would say that PR measurement should be used as a tool to improve performance, rather than to justify existence. But if you don't justify your existence, you might get cut out of the budget. --Bill Paarlberg, The Measurement Standard
Posted by: Bill Paarlberg | October 27, 2010 at 07:06 PM