I’VE been heartened to read in PR Week that the ongoing debate, (or better still, “frustration”), about how to best measure the value of PR continues to debunk the use of Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs).

In fact, more PR agencies – as well as PR Week’s Awards – are now shunning AVEs as a means of measurement.

PR professionals know only too well that the fashion for measuring the success of public relations by simply equating them to the monetary value of a medium’s advertising rates doesn’t do it justice.

Personally, I don’t mind using AVEs as a supporting measurement for clients who want to understand empirical returns on investment.

So, for instance, in recent client metrics I included a 20-second appearance on Channel 4 News, which would command a price tag of about £10,000 if that were translated into a 20-second ad.

But the true financial value of this TV appearance doesn’t stop with its advertising value because that precludes significant variables such as viewing figures (Channel 4 News scores around 850,000) and replays of the programme online, on 4OD and Channel 4 +1.

Then, there’s the value of placing a client on journalists’ radars in the first place, creating opportunities for further media coverage down the line.