Measuring PR Value

This is an age-old dilemma, how do we measure the value of PR against other disciplines, such as marketing?

In the past, the most common “measurement” was Ad Value Equivalencies (AVE). I remember that Bacon’s used to serve them up with our clips and we dutifully reported them to the board.

However, no one in their right mind uses these values any more because they are seen as the equivalent of snake oil. They are not meaningful and may be downright misleading.

Recently, Katie Paine, one of the the measurement gurus of PR, wrote in her blog about a new formula that she developed for one of her top clients called the PR Value Ratio (PRV).

You only count earned articles that ran in publications that:
1. Go to key audiences and,
2. That include key messages of the campaign.

Once you have these clips, you can easily calculate the audited circulation of those publications. You can then compare your reach to, say, that of the marketing department. You can also calculate the cost per thousand (by looking at the PR versus advertising budget) to reach those audiences and compare that to the cost of running ads, for instance.

Pretty simple.

UPDATE: Hold the Presses, there's a controversy. It seems that Shel Holz agrees that this might be a cool tool and John Wagner thinks its a bomb