Advertising and public relations are not the same thing.
Public relations (PR) is the shaping of public opinion through media coverage. Unlike advertising, which is paid for and controlled by the sponsor, the media decides on whether and cover your organization. There are several public relations metrics, but only one--advertising value equivalency--puts a dollar value on the media coverage.
Instructions
Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)
1. Measure the column inches for print and the seconds for radio and television of media coverage. A newspaper column inch is one column wide by 1 inch high. Newspaper pages are usually divided into four to six columns.
2. Multiply these figures by the respective medium's advertising rates to get the advertising value equivalency. AVE indicates what it would have cost to place an ad of that size or length in that medium. For example, if a newspaper charges $100 for a one-column-by-4-inch ad and there were 10 similar-sized columns about your organization in the paper over a month, then the AVE for that particular coverage is $1,000 (100*10).
3. Calculate the AVE ratio, which equals advertising value equivalency divided by PR costs. Use the AVE ratio to track the relative effectiveness of different PR campaigns such as trade shows, media tours and investor conferences. For example, if you organize a media tour of your facilities, then costs could include lunch, transportation and the time of company staff. If these costs were $1,000 and the AVE of the resulting print and television coverage was $2,000, then the AVE ratio equals 2 (2,000/1,000).
Other Measures
4. Count clippings. Usually the simplest form of measuring public relations value, it involves counting news items and feature stories mentioning your organization or your products and services on different media platforms.
5. Estimate the number of media impressions. For each, start with the outlet's circulation, viewership or membership. To get the total number of impressions, multiply it by a pass-along rate, which is an estimate of how many people besides the purchaser or subscriber might see or hear the coverage. For example, if a story appears on a newspaper with a daily circulation of 100,000 and the paper's pass-along rate estimate is 2.5, then media impressions equals 250,000. Note that this represents the maximum possible because not everybody will see or read the coverage.
6. Analyze the accuracy of coverage, meaning assess whether reporters have understood your message and are conveying it fairly. The process includes reading the coverage, identifying the absence or presence of core messages and recording inaccuracies. You can do this in house or hire professional media analysis services.
