News release issued by the Institute for Public Relations, October 11, 2010 -- “AVE” is Not a Proxy for Measuring the ROI of Public Relations. Outlines the formal position developed by the Institute for PR Measurement Commission. The Commission last year "condemned the name, concept and practice" of advertising value equivalency, which helped lead to development of the Barcelona Principles for PR Measurement in summer 2009.

1. ` News
“AVE” is Not a Proxy for Measuring the ROI of Public Relations
Experts Conclude: There is No Evidence to Suggest that Editorial Space Obtained
through Public Relations and Advertising Hold Equivalent Value
Year-long Inquiry and Debate Yield’s Consensus by the
Institute for Public Relations Commission on Measurement and Evaluation
GAINESVILLE, FL [October 11, 2010] - The Institute for Public Relations Commission on
Measurement and Evaluation has taken a strong stand against using Advertising Value Equivalency
(AVE) as a measure of value in public relations. In the field of communications and media relations, AVE
suggests that the space and time occupied by earned media generated through public relations is
equivalent to the same space and time of paid media when purchased as advertising.
After a year-long inquiry and debate on the topic, IPR Commissioners concluded that there is no
evidence to suggest that advertising and editorial space hold equivalent value. Advertising is purchased
and affords complete control to the advertiser for content, placement and frequency and is almost always
positive. In contrast, publicity, or earned media, is only semi-controllable after ceding the final output to
the medium that may result in positive, neutral or negative messages.
“It’s the right time for a leading voice in public relations research and measurement to reject this
practice,” said Robert W. Grupp, President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. “The use of
AVEs has distracted the industry from more valid measures of public relations’ impact on business goals
and objectives.”
“AVE is not a proxy for measuring the return-on-investment of public relations,” wrote Dr. Brad L.
Rawlins, who chaired an IPR Commission Task Force on the subject. Dr. Rawlins also is chair of the
Department of Communications at Brigham Young University. “Even more problematic is the use of AVE
to represent a public relations outcome, and a meaningful measure to represent a financial return on
investment. This obfuscating practice often prevents or misdirects focus from quantifying the more
meaningful outcomes of public relations.”
The IPR Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation exists to establish
standards and methods for public relations research and measurement and to issue authoritative white
papers on research and best practices. Its members are leaders in public relations research from
universities, research companies and corporations.
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The Commission met on October 8, 2010 at the 8 Summit on Measurement in Portsmouth, NH
and voted unanimously to adopt the Commission Task Force Report against the use of AVE within the
public relations industry. The report is available on the Institute for Public Relations website
www.instituteforpr.org
“In the report, the Commission acknowledges that the use of AVE is a common practice because
calculating AVE is inexpensive and accessible,” said Commission chair Pauline Draper-Watts.
“Nevertheless, this does not justify the practice as appropriate.”

2. IPR Measurement Commission: “AVE” is Not a Proxy for Measuring the ROI of Public Relations
Dr. Rawlins added: “Even more problematic is that advertising cost isn’t a meaningful metric.
Advertisers don’t use the cost of placing their advertisements as an outcome. It’s a cost of achieving the
outcome of increasing sales or brand awareness. So, it makes no sense for public relations to compare
its outcome to the cost of achieving advertising outcomes. Publicity isn’t the outcome, its part of the
process of reaching a more meaningful outcome, such as protecting reputation or increasing awareness
of responsible behaviors.”
The position taken by the IPR Commission supports and aligns with The Barcelona Declaration of
Research Principles, a relatively new set of standards and practices to guide measurement and
evaluation of public relations. The Principles were discussed in Barcelona in June 2010 and adopted by
delegates attending at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement, organized by the International
Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public
Relations (IPR).
First and foremost, the IPR Commission encourages measurement and evaluation practices that
demonstrate the degree to which public relations efforts contribute to organizational goals. Ultimately,
outcome-based measures — such as awareness, understanding, attitudes and behaviours — provide a
better way to demonstrate public relations’ unique impact
Measuring media coverage is one valuable way of evaluating media-focused public relations and
the delivery of intended and unintended messages Whenever possible, the Commission suggests that it
is best to isolate the message generated by public relations and control for other variables in order to
more accurately measure the likelihood of direct impact on the target audience.
The Institute for Public Relations website contains many reference documents including case
studies, white papers and best practices that illustrate and explain how to measure and evaluate the
outcomes of professional public relations. All of the material is available free at www.instituteforpr.org.
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent non-profit headquartered at the University of
Florida. It bridges the academic and professional fields, supporting public relations research and
mainstreaming this knowledge into practice.
Members of the IPR Commission, in addition to Dr. Rawlins, who served on the AVE Task Force
include: Toni Griffin, Director, Public Relations, MetLife; Rebecca Harris, Research and Measurement
Strategist for General Motors; Fraser Likely, President, Likely Communication Strategies Ltd.; Tim
Marklein, Executive Vice President, Measurement & Strategy, Weber Shandwick; and Mark Weiner CEO,
North America, PRIME Research.
Contacts:
For information about the IPR Commission’s AVE Task Force and its conclusions, contact:
Dr. Brad Rawlins, brawlins@byu.edu +1-(801) 422-1697.
For information about the IPR Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation, contact:
Pauline Draper-Watts, pauline.draper@wattsconnect.org +1-312- 371-2297
Information about the Institute for Public Relations is available from Robert Grupp at
rgrupp@instituteforpr.org +1-484-557-8401.