It’s been absolutely fascinating presenting recently to PR professionals – first to the MIPAA (motor industry public affairs folk) in June, and a little more recently to a PR Week Forum. Interesting to compare the venues – MIPAA at Audi’s blingworthy showrooms in West London, contrasted to the rather faded (and hot) Grand Hotel in Brighton for PR Week. Whatever the differences in venue, the audiences were equally enthusiastic to hear about better measurement practices…
My presentation was based on AMEC’s replacement guidelines to AVE, which are known informally as the Valid Metrics model. As part of AMEC’s informal mission to create “educated consumers” – something Report has always championed with its clients – I’m reaching as many PR professionals as possible, both here in the UK and internationally.
One striking result from an informal poll I undertook with both audiences was the consistency of use of AVEs. In both audiences, usage of AVE ran at around 90% (I even conducted this part of the poll with the audience’s eyes shut so they wouldn’t feel embarrassed to admit to using AVEs). Not so surprising (though more than a little depressing). What was really surprising, though, was the percentage of the same sample who thought AVE added any value at all to their professional accountability or as a performance metric. In both cases, the answer was one person…
So, the conundrum, and subsequent challenge for measurement and PR experts alike, is to ensure that we bridge this extraordinary cognitive dissonance that allows for universal usage of a universally derided metric.
The problem, in my view, is founded in PR’s acceptance of the crazy notion that it should be measured just in advertising’s terms. In reality, of course, PR performs a totally different, and multi-faceted set of jobs, many of whose goals are very distant from advertising’s key goals of sales and awareness building. Whilst this mindset pervades PR, AVE will continue to be seen as the only game in town, and will remain a central barrier to the development of professional, business-focused, outcomes oriented measurement that actually measures PR’s goals.
Mike
More information on AMEC’s AVE replacement strategy can be found on the AMEC website
