Communications associations are taking a tough stance against advertising value equivalencies as a metric for PR analytics, including threats of disciplinary actions against members.
AMEC, the international association for communications measurement, announced plans to completely eliminate AVEs and all its derivatives from public relations. AMEC will focus mainly on educating communicators and their clients. It will also forbid campaigns using AVEs from receiving awards.
“It’s time AVEs stopped being a talking point in our industry. We will be investing significant time and resource to kill off finally this derided metric,” stated Richard Bagnall, CEO of Prime Research UK. “The final death of AVEs will only be achieved when all relevant parties work together.”
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) based in the UK is taking an even more aggressive stance. New CIPR guidelines due this fall will give members who now use AVEs one year to transition to valid metrics. Members using AVEs after that period may be subject to disciplinary actions. The new rules will be presented to the CIPR council in September.
Assertive Efforts Questioned
The aggressive plans to eradicate AVEs, especially plans for disciplinary actions, prompted a good deal of skepticism from PR veterans. While some praised the associations on Twitter, others called plans for disciplinary actions extreme.
@wadds @TBoneGallagher @PRCA_UK it’s not us! I’ve no desire to ‘discipline’ a third of our members…
— Francis Ingham (@PRCAIngham) May 19, 2017
Some questioned if the associations will be successful. Measurement experts have railed against AVEs for years, yet the metric refuses to fade away, mostly because some clients request or require AVE as their primary metric.
In comments on LinkedIn, Mark Weiner, CEO and Senior Consultant PRIME Research, said PR faces more pressing ethics issues. “AVEs are the straw man for PR associations to distract from much more challenging issues like representing bad guys, unverifiable hyperbole and outright lying. #AMEC does it right by educating on the issue and helping practitioners evolve rather than shaming people,” he said. “Are AVEs good? Not really. Will outlawing them really make PR more professional? Not hardly.”
Why AVEs Persist
Many alternatives to AVEs are available. Quality media monitoring and measurement services offer superior alternative metrics. Some measurement vendors including Glean.info can also create customized metrics for clients.
AVEs persist because clients demand them. They are easy for PR to report and easy for clients to understand. Some PR professionals have grown tired of the obsession to eliminate AVEs. Trying to convince AVE adherents to abandon the metric is a waste of time and PR should move on to more fruitful endeavors, they say.
“At the end of the day, it is the marketplace that will drive AVEs out, not our arguments, no matter how rational and persuasive they are. We have better things to do than argue with closed minds,” contended David Geddes, principal of Geddes Analytics LLC, in a previous article.
AMEC Initiatives
New AMEC initiatives to eliminate AVEs include:
Creation of a global online educational resource center to show why the metric is invalid.
All AMEC members will agree not to provide AVEs by default to any client. Any client that requests AVEs will receive standard educational material explaining why the metric is invalid and should not be used. They will be offered alternative metrics.
Further improvements to the Integrated Evaluation Framework to make it even easier to use and choose replacement metrics.
Increased funding of AMEC’s education to instruct PR and communications professionals in best practice measurement techniques.
Working with PR Award organizers around the world to introduce a zero-scoring policy if awards entries include AVEs as a metric. AMEC members will not provide an AVE as a metric for any award competition entry.
Working closely with academics and PR practitioners to help them help AMEC kill off the demand for the metric.
Bottom Line: Aggressive efforts to eradicate advertising value equivalencies as a communications metric is controversial among PR professionals. While they don’t argue that AVEs are a valid metric, some say disciplinary actions aimed at those who use AVEs as a metric is going too far. Education for both PR agencies and clients is a better strategy.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
