Have you ever had to compile an ad equivalency report? Do you even know what one is? It’s pretty simple, actually. An ad equivalency report attempts to compare the value a brand received from a PR campaign – media coverage, etc. – with the value the brand could have received spending the same money on advertising. Not only do they not work, they can be misleading, many PR measurement experts say.

“…with the rise of social media, AVEs have little meaning when the value of the most traditional media is dropping daily, and the power of individual blogs, many of which don’t accept advertising, is growing exponentially,” wrote Katie Paine in a Ragan.com op-ed today.

Paine has been in the measurement game for a while and is happy to announce that the Institute for Public Relations’ Measurement Commission recently voted 19 to 2 to ‘reject AVEs (ad value equivalency), the concept and the practice.’”