Public Relation Evalution Method: AVES AND AE'S

AVE’S, or AE’s are forms of evaluation Public Relations, known as advertising value equivalents or Ad Equivalency, they are conducted to measure publicity as advertising.

“AVE’S are calculated by measuring the centimetres in of columns in a print publication or the seconds of air time in a television or radio broadcast and then multiply these figures by the mediums rate of advertising. The numbers that you are left with is what you would have paid to place an advertisement. (Jeffries-Fox, 2003). We then multiply our answer by 3.5 because real AVE’S are 3.5 times more expensive because PR practioners often argue that editorials are more powerful and influential then an advert in a newspaper. (Madigan, 2016)

For Example:

An Irish Independent article from the 19^th of OCTOBER.

Headline: Irish Water left with €123m hole in finances-Coveney

  

Height of columns=22cm x2 columns=44

  

The prices of a SCC in colour =€98.35

AE= 44X€98.35=€4,327.40

AVE=€4327.40X3.5=€15,145.90

But AVE’S are not all as they seem, it can be said that AVE’S are not the correct way to measure publicity for a client.

The problems with using AVE’S is that it compares a news story to an advertisement of equal size and assumes that the news story has “equal Impacts” to the advertisement.(Jeffries-fox,2008)

Another point to notice is that over the years the “credibility of news” (Jeffries-fox, 2008) has been depleting, now more than ever more entertainment topics enter the newsphere. This is referred as a “credibility crisis” (Jeffries-fox, 2008)

Studies undertaken suggest the credibility of news a variable from one topic to another (Jefferies-fox, 2008), so assuming you could measure credibility of news stories and advertising as the same would be highly incorrect.

The biggest problems with AVE’S lies in the differences in the “nature” of advertising and news stories. (Jeffires-fox,2008) Advertisements are purposely positive, attractive and biased, so you know only good news will be read from it.

 And after being repeatedly exposed to and advertisement, it will have an effect on the consumer, where as a news story can be a one of story, or if it’s a national breaking story can be written in different angles, depending on the political stance in the newspaper, it could be biased or loosely use the truth, while others maybe hard hitting and factual. Because of this it can be very difficult to try and measure the equality of both news stories and advertising when they have very little values and written styles in common. (Jeffries-fox, 2008)

It is in my opinion, that using AVE’S is not recommendable in public relations, not only because it can be misleading, but also because of the immense differences between News articles and advertisements. You cannot base publicity on how much it would of cost you to get your clients name out in the public eye. Because you can control advertisement but you cannot control bad press or a bad name given to your company from a bad article. You also cannot see how the public reacts to what message or image you perceive to them or from news stories  by not conducting proper evaluation methods, and AVE’S is not one of the correct methods.

 As you can evaluating Public Relations can be quite a headful, But bare with me as this knowledge will serve you in your future PR adventures, 

Until Next Time Friends

Stay Social Media Minded.

Sources:

 Meme:

 https://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mememaker.net%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fmemes%2F4350321.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mememaker.net%2Fmeme%2Fevaluation%2F&docid=Cg7rV4Y9QggkbM&tbnid=VIaRzWtdWqz1uM%3A&vet=1&w=430&h=356&client=firefox-b-ab&bih=733&biw=1440&ved=0ahUKEwj10Li92qrQAhVLJcAKHbujCUQQMwg9KBowGg&iact=mrc&uact=8

Jeffries-fox,B(2003),Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE). The Institute for Public Relations commissions on PR Measurement and Evaluation [Online] (2007), available: http://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2003_AVE1.pdf. [accessed  4/11/2016]

Madigan,P. (2006) Pyramid of Evaluation Model, (CW_BHCPR_B) Y2: Public Relations, Institute of Technology Carlow, Department of  Sports, Media and Marketing, unpublished.