I read a good blog post this week by Sarah Emerson from Millward Brown entitled 'Stop Pretending PR is Worth the Same as Advertising Space' (the comments thread is also definitely worth a look).
This blog post is not meant to be derogatory to Sarah's article. Hers is a good piece and well worth reading. Please do so :)
No, my post rant has its origins in the fact Sarah felt the need to write such a post.
Surely - now we are coming up to a decade on from the turn of the century - the whole notion of measuring editorial exposure by comparing it to equivalent advertising spend (aka AVE) is more than a little outdated? (Again Sarah, this is not having a shot at you).
I'm not going to pad this post with niceties about how significantly the PR industry has changed, or the (obvious) reasons why editorial simply cannot be compared to paid-for advertising. Life's too short. If you don't understand this by now, with all the information available at your fingertips, then perhaps you shouldn't be in marketing?
Two Different Camps
The bigger picture is less about AVEs per se and more to do with the fact the business world is spilling in to two different camps when it comes to PR - those marketers/CEOs/brand professionals who intuitively understand the true value public relations can bring to their organisation (and, accordingly, are willing to employ a range of PR techniques), and those with a blinkered 'column inches' mentality.
In my experience - and through talking to others in the industry - the people (clients) who obsess with equating advertising to editorial in almost all cases tend to also be those who think PR is all about media publicity and nothing more.
On the other hand, those companies and brands that take the time to better understand what strategic public relations is all about and how it can help drive the reputation of an organisation, these are the ones who worry less about AVEs and more about coming up with new ways to increase the intensity of brand connection with the people who matter most to their business.
DISCLOSURE: Like most PR consultants, I've been guilty in the past of compiling AVE stats at the behest of clients. With hand on heart, I pledge I will do everything in my power to never have to do it ever again! Interestingly, when doing such comparisons, we've never been able to put a price on online coverage, this is despite a large proportion of exposure these days being internet based. The mockery of AVEs continues!
Here is what the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) has to say on the matter.
