Get rid of the ad value equivalent?

Performance Measurement of Public Relations Services

Several German PR agencies have newly rejected the ad value equivalent (AVE) as method to measure Public Relations. This resulted in the German PR Magazin survey of 16 service providers. The occasion was the announcement of Ogilvy PR, following the principles of Barcelona to use no longer the AVE for measuring PR results. However, we are not convinced by all the answers. We see things differently and are happy to offer furthermore the AVE to our customers. However, we do not restrict ourselves to this methodology.

The experience of recent years has shown that our customers – regardless of whether they are coming from countries like Germany, the USA and Finland – appreciate the AVE to measure our PR services. To underline the higher quality of achieved editorial publications compared to adverts, we evaluate it in consultation with the customer usually three times the ad value. We also offer a more refined analysis of media coverage, which takes into account such factors as the size and tone of the article, the use of photos, the positioning in the media and so on. The observation of competitors can be included if desired.

However, the AVE also has its limits: it is very well suited for product PR, but meets its limits when it comes to some crisis PR and social media campaigns. Here, other valuation methods are useful to achieve meaningful results.

Follow the discussion in PR Magazin (German language only):

https://www.prmagazin.de/meinung-analyse/hintergrund/anzeigenaequivalenzwert.html