'EAV a heart

Paul Miller’s passionate argument about the eradication of EAV’s featured in PR Business (6th July 2006) offered a valuable insight into the dangers of adopting this measure. In so much of what he said I found myself in unstinting agreement with and in an ideal world we would have closed the book and moved on a decade ago.

But that is not the case and public relations sits alongside advertising within marketing departments. In the same way that people are said not to be able to resist chewing a Fruit Pastel (never my favourite), so I believe many in public relations will not be able to resist the temptation of dipping into that extensive range of frequently updated advertising value data to justify themselves.

I don’t necessarily support their use, but I am not in denial about their application. In a single measure, EAV’s can factor in the number of times something has been featured, the space on page it accounts for and an audited value for the media outlet. In the years I have been involved in this industry I have not found a methodology so universally encompassing. In many ways it is a shame they are so poorly applied and misinterpreted. Rather than fight their use, maybe we should be thinking about promoting a universal methodology and dataset, supported by defendable research?