The PR report from AI, which values publications in PLN, is an old mistake in a new package

In short

• Why this number is tempting: It is simple, large, and looks nice in a presentation for the management.
• Why doesn't he say anything about business: They estimate the surface area, not the result. The board wants to know whether someone changed their mind or bought, and not how much advertising would cost. Negative publicity also „works" in this method.
• What to measure instead: Distinguish four things that are confused in reports: Outputs: what we did and how much of it was done. Outtakes: what the recipients remembered and how they evaluated it. Outcomes: what they did,…
• Our position: AI is great at collecting and organizing data.

More and more AI tools generate PR reports with just one click. Many of them end up with the same number: „value of publication: so many PLN.” This is an equivalent of advertising (AVE, that is, the valuation of a publication as if it were purchased advertising). The industry standard for measuring PR has been rejecting it for years.

Why this number is tempting

It is simple, large, and looks nice in a presentation for the management. The machine counts it effortlessly.

Why doesn’t he say anything about business?

• They estimate the surface area, not the result. The board wants to know if someone changed their mind or bought it, and not how much the advertisement would cost.
• A negative publication also „makes money” in this method. This shows that numbers do not measure value.
• It cannot be defended by asking „how do you know that?”.

What to measure instead

Distinguish four things that are mistaken in the reports:

1. Outputs: what we did and how much of it was done.
2. Outtakes: what the recipients remembered and how they evaluated it.
3. Outcomes: what they did, e.g., they asked for an offer, asked to have a conversation.
4. Impact: what it changed in the company.

For each increase, record what you did to verify that it was your action that caused it, and not a coincidence (comparative group, baseline period).

Our position

AI is great at collecting and organizing data. But the method determines what constitutes value, not the model. A report without this chapter is just pretty graphics.

Would you like to see what a PR report based on evidence looks like? Free call: [email protected], tel. 665 379 071.

Where did the advertising equivalent come from?

The advertising equivalent (AVE) was created when PR departments needed a simple way to show management that the publications were „worth something”. They calculated how much an advertisement of the same size or time slot would cost, and that number was included in the report. It was understandable for the management, so it was accepted.

The industry has moved away from it because it measures the cost of the space, not what the publication has changed in the audience. Measurement standards, including the Barcelona rules, outright discourage its use as a measure of PR value. This is a sector-specific decision, not our opinion.

Why AI reinforces this error

The report generator gives you what is easy to calculate. It collects publications, reach and views, and then multiplies them by the bid. The result looks professional: a table, a graph, a number at the end. No one asks where the bid came from, because the report was „calculated by the machine”.

The second problem arises. When a report is created with a single click, the question of why we’re creating it disappears. And it’s from this question that depends what’s actually worth measuring.

How to check if a report is honest

1. Does the report break down the activities, the reception, the results and the impact on the outcome?
2. Is it written with every increase that it was checked to ensure that this is not a coincidence?
3. Are there reference points (a state before the action) and a period to compare with?
4. Is it recorded what is fact and what is an interpretation?
5. Could anyone reproduce the result from the source data?

If the answer to any of the questions is „no”, the report is an illustration, not proof.

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See also

Related articles: PR measurement without advertising equivalent. If you need support, take a look at the offer: Public Relations.

Editorial position of Commplace. Material prepared with the participation of AI and verified by a human.