by Springfield Lewis, Newsroom Ink
Marketing, PR and communications departments are facing a crisis in successfully combining all forms of media under a single umbrella. Only a few select companies have successfully integrated Paid, Owned and Earned Media (POEM) under the guidance of one department. A small company faces budget constraints to make paid media meaningful, and in larger companies silos are created for each media that minimizes the optimization across all platforms.
Infographic about Shared Media from Facebook.
With the decline of traditional media and rise of social media, the definitions of paid, earned and owned media have been altered and the lines between them blurred. The challenge for a company and its brand is to successfully integrating all three forms of media.
Daniel Goodall first originated the model in 2009 in a post “owned, bought and earned media.”
- Paid is advertising and PR based – ads, paid search, press releases, sponsorship to print, TV and other mediums.
- Owned consists of websites, mobile sites, blogs, brochures, internal communications, speeches, thought leadership articles, blogs and twitter.
- Earned is the ‘sharing, conversation & engagement’ of your owned media that comes from traditional and social media marketing efforts – traditional and social media and the buzz they create.
Paid Media
When a brand pays to leverage a channel it is paid media. Everything done by either an advertising or PR agency is paid media; whether creating an ad, public relations, managing a Facebook Page or blogger outreach – people get paid for work performed. Paid Media is the foundation for building long-tem relationships with potential customers and for earned media.
Owned Media
When a company or brand controls the media channel it is owned. Company web and mobile sites, newsrooms, blogs, photos, speeches, video, thought leadership articles as well as twitter accounts produce company and brand owned media. It becomes the catalyst that creates and feeds earned media.
Earned Media
“Earned media” is an old PR term that meant getting a brand into free media rather than having to pay for advertising. The term has evolved to include the transparent and permanent word-of-mouth campaigns created through social media. It is the buzz created from both traditional and social media that let’s a company and its brand listen and respond. Earned media is most often the result of well executed and coordinated owned and paid media.
The three types of media work best together – especially when budgets are tight.
Graph: Marketing Partners – www.marketing-partners.com
The dynamic online newsroom, staffed by experienced journalists, is the new cost-effective and measureable tool that effectively repurposes Paid, Earned and Owned Media. It successfully breaks down the old silos and creates a news solar system of ownership and a strategic marketing communications model for the social web. It is the one place for advertising, marketing, corporate communications and PR to work together to co-ordinate and repurpose projects.
As more and more consumers join the social media revolution, and more and more advertising, marketing and PR teams work closely together to create cohesive campaigns, generating earned media through social shares will become an even higher priority. Paid and owned media — and the teams that manage each — will need to work closer together to crumble the barriers and silos created by the original POEM model to effectively create and repurpose credible earned media. The online newsroom is the tool that does both.
In this recession, which has cut marketing budgets by more than 20%, the ability to communicate directly with a wide variety of audiences that want to engage with a brand through long-term relationships is invaluable. Having a tool that is measureable is priceless.
Earned media leverages an audience and advocates to help circulate and further promote content. Most important it is all about having content that is worth sharing. The online newsroom is the only tool that can effective repurpose advertising, PR, executive speeches and thought-leadership into credible content that a brand’s audiences want to learn more about and share.
Paid media is not dead, but has evolved into a catalyst. Repurposing paid media into owned and earned media through the online newsroom makes it more cost effective tool driving engagement during a brand’s key periods.
A well thought-out cost-effective approach is essential to where and how a message appears within the new Paid, Owned and Earned Media framework. Marketing, PR and advertising teams need to work closely to establish credible content and establish a single destination for a brands many audiences, both internal and external. The online newsroom gives both the company and it’s brand the cost-effective measureable tool to successfully tie the approach to the executive agenda.
