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International association for the measurement and evaluation of communication
Leading international communication and public relations academics have welcomed and supported the “Say No to AVEs” call by AMEC to end the use of advertising value equivalents (AVEs) as a purported measure of editorial media publicity. The Academic Advisory Group to AMEC, comprised of Professor Anne Gregory, University of Huddersfield, UK; Professor Jim Macnamara, University of Technology Sydney (Chair); Dr Tina McCorkindale, President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR); Professor Brad Rawlins, Arkansas State University; Professor Don Stacks, University of Miami; Emeritus Professor Tom Watson, Bournemouth University, UK; and Professor Ansgar Zerfass, University of Leipzig stated: “Industry research studies indicate that so-called ‘advertising value equivalents’ (AVEs), also referred to ‘equivalent advertising value’, are still used by up to a third of PR and corporate communication practitioners worldwide despite irrefutable evidence that the calculation is invalid and misleading. “AVEs, which equate the value of editorial media coverage with the cost of an equivalent amount of advertising, have been discredited as an evaluation method by a number of research studies on the grounds that:
AMEC (the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication), has issued a statement detailing 22 reasons that AVEs are a flawed method of evaluation for PR, which further explains why AVEs are invalid and misleading. Also, the Barcelona Principles supported by professional PR and communication industry bodies worldwide state that AVEs are not the value of PR or communication. Communication and PR academics recommend that industry professionals use valid social science research methods for evaluation.