MetricsMan

CHAPTER 6

The Deadly Sins of Advertising Value Equivalents

I’ll never forget the first time I met Don; he blasted me over lunch about AVE and I still have scars on my rear end! But we ended up good friends—of course, I gave up AVE, too.

—Angela Jeffrey, Vice President Brand Manager at Advertising Benchmark Index

This chapter includes:

• The dangerous notion of advertising value equivalents (AVEs)

• The harm AVEs have brought to the public relations profession

• Top reasons for AVEs to be abandoned in public relations measurement

AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalents) Revisited

(December 24, 2007)

Generally speaking, advertising delivers a lower return on investment (ROI) than public relations. So why do we want to compare our results to those of an ...