AVE Metrics, No P&L: How APAC Comms Lost the C-Suite

The op-ed was published on May 6. A regional public affairs leader writes that communications keeps getting "brought in after strategy is set," tasked with announcing decisions rather than shaping them. The argument is tight. The framing is urgent. The genre is 18 years old.

Huda Ismail's piece in Campaign Middle East is the latest entry in a category that has outlasted two recessions, a pandemic, and the entire influencer economy: the communications-deserves-a-strategic-seat manifesto. It is well argued. It is also evidence of its own failure.

If the argument had worked, it would not need to be written again.

The Numbers Don't Lie, But the Industry Does

Edelman's 2023 Future of Corporate Communications study, drawn from more than 200 C-level executives at Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 1000 companies, found that only 52% of communications functions are considered "value creators" by their own organizations. That is up from 35% in 2021. Progress. Also: nearly half of all communications teams are still seen as reactive or overhead, after two years of the same argument being made at every industry conference.

The same study found that 44% of communications leaders do not feel their CEO understands the resources the function needs. That is not a CEO awareness problem. That is a metrics problem.

What APAC's Boardrooms Are Actually Seeing

In Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, and Bangkok, a significant share of communications reports still land in C-suites with AVE (advertising value equivalency) as the headline metric. The Conference Board has called AVE discredited. AMEC's Barcelona Principles have banned it from legitimate measurement since 2010, with updates through 2025. Southeast Asian clients keep requesting it anyway, according to analysis from EloQ Asia, because that is what agencies keep delivering.

A metric that converts press coverage into a fictional ad price tells a CEO one thing: this function does not speak my language.

Publicis Groupe Asia-Pacific created a dedicated CCO role in 2025. Naomi Michael was named to the position, based in Singapore, reporting to APAC CEO Jane Lin-Baden. The role was framed around "brand positioning and connecting with key audiences." Not P&L accountability. Not risk governance. Brand positioning.

That is the tell.

Counsel Is Not the Same as Structure

Cision and PRWeek's 2024 Global Comms Report found that 41% of the most senior communications leaders now report directly to the CEO. It also found that 92% say the C-suite sought their counsel more than in prior years. Both statistics are cited as wins. Neither addresses whether that counsel changed a decision, shifted a budget, or appeared in a board paper.

PayPal Appoints Transformation Veteran Lucio as CMO as Lores Races to Reposition Crumbling Empire

PayPal appoints transformation veteran Antonio Lucio as CMO amid sweeping organizational restructuring under CEO Enrique Lores, bringing 40 years of Fortune 500 brand leadership from HP, Meta, Visa, and PepsiCo.

Mission MediaMission Media

Edelman's data adds a wrinkle: CCOs spend roughly 18% of their working time advising CEOs on topics outside of communications. One full day per week. That proximity is personal, not structural. When the CCO changes roles, it evaporates.

Ismail's piece gets this right without quite saying it: "A seat that does not come with the meeting invite." The seat requires operationalizing, she writes. For communications leaders, that means moving from execution into advisory territory.

What it also requires, but does not say: abandoning the measurement frameworks that make the function look like a cost center. Advisory credibility built on impression counts and media coverage value does not survive a budget conversation with a CFO.

The Fix Is Not Another Op-Ed

Stephen Waddington outlined in April 2026 what management teams now actually expect from communications: risk advisory, input on capital allocation, governance counsel, crisis readiness, and stakeholder mapping for M&A. That is a job description. The "seat at the table" genre is a job application letter.

Until communications leaders in APAC replace AVE with business-outcome KPIs, and replace manifestos with governance frameworks, the seat will remain aspirational. The invite will keep not coming.