The Thoughtful Thud Revisited

AVES - we moved on years ago!

 

 
AMEC has worked closely with the PR industry on an international basis to educate PR and communications professionals about the business value of communications measurement – and that AVEs have no part in modern PR practice.

We will not stand idly by and see this work undermined.

Robert Wynne has the formidable platform of Forbes for his thinking. He is of course entitled to his views. However his White Paper for Meltwater is at risk of setting the industry back in making the surprising argument for the validity of AVEs. I am baffled that such a knowledgeable professional takes such exception to a fundamental principle of the Barcelona Principles that AVEs do not measure the value of public relations.

The Meltwater White Paper is is as surprising as it is unwelcome. It makes me wonder “Meltwater – where have you been?” Are you not aware of the industry debate led by AMEC; have you not heard prominent industry leaders from PR and from leading trade associations; have you not noticed that the major Awards schemes clearly state that they will give zero marks to entries using AVEs as the only source of measurement.

AMEC has moved on. We do not acknowledge AVEs. We do not discuss AVEs any more. There is nothing to debate.

Our mission is to educate about measurement best practice. To make sure no one thinks of PR measurement as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a critical business activity. We believe that more accurate measurement of PR value tied to business results will help our clients plan and manage their campaigns better. At the same time, it will also support in-house communications professionals in their need to show the value and role of communications in driving profitable business growth in front of their top managers.

AMEC is realistic. Barcelona Principles 2.0 is not the complete solution but it is a valued piece of work endorsed by The Global Alliance; Public Relations Society of America; Institute for Public Relations; The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO); Public Relations Consultants Association and the AMEC membership community.

What is clear is that with the help of PR professionals internationally we have now seen measurement minus AVES established at the heart of public relations.

As Andy West, of AMEC member, Hotwire, said in his blog “The longer we push outdated views around AVEs, the longer we’ll be having conversations with clients about this discredited and ultimately ineffective method of measurement.”

Barry Leggetter is a Fellow of the PRCA and CIPR, who following an extensive consultancy career in global PR consultancy is now CEO of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), the global trade body for the measurement of communications.

French newspaper plan deserves careful scrutiny

 

I’ve written before that despite the rise - and the relevance of online communications and explosive growth of sites like Twitter in particular - we should not give up on the printed word.

My own idea was for the UK newspaper industry to join together to put out a PR Brief to see if it was possible to make newspapers relevant – and cool – to the influential target younger target age group who have none of the familiarity and buying habits of their parents?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has gone a big stepfurther. He is giving 600million euros in emergency aid to the French newspaper industry so that every 18 year old in France can get a year’s free subscription to a newspaper of their choice. The French view is that the “habit” of buying a newspaper takes root at a very early age.

It is an experiment which will be watched with interest everywhere.