Last week, Ogilvy PR announced it will stop using the repeatedly-denounced measurement technique Advertising Value Equivalency. Measurement pros have praised the move. Wrapping itself in a cloak of “Spin is Dead” and a promise to roll out new measurement techniques, the agency appears to have successfully directed attention away from why it was using the long-known-to-be-bogus technique in the first place.
AVEs have been denounced by all major industry organizations, most recently at the Lisbon European Summit on Measurement. Now that Ogilvy is first out of the gate, we predict that the rush will be on for more agencies to breathlessly announce they are done with AVEs for good. The longer they wait -- and yes we are talking to you, Ketchum, Kantar, and Hill & Knowlton -- the less credit they will get for taking a stand. (We single out those three agencies because they all offer AVE measurement, and they all had representation at the Lisbon Summit.)
As readers of this blog know, our publisher Katie Delahaye Paine has been a long-time critic of AVEs. (Last year she advocated a boycott of firms who use them.) It's nice to know her crying in the wilderness has at last been heeded. (That's Katie's face in the mash-up image to the right, but otherwise the illustration is inaccurate. As far as I know, she has never worn a watch like that.)
--Bill Paarlberg is editor of The Measurement Standard blog and newsletter, and of Katie Paine's new book Measure What Matters. The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.
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