Turning paid, earned and owned media upside down
By Carman Pirie: Aug 03, 2010
I really liked something Russell said a while back about revisiting old talks, seeing what he got wrong and where he disagrees with himself. There’s something quite lovely in being so dismissive about the need to be right. Picking up on that, I thought it would be fun to go back through the talk I gave at AIM this year and see where you and I disagree with what I had to say. It’ll likely take a few posts to go though it, so let’s get started.
One of the things I noted at AIM 2010 is that it seems a lot of marketers divide their time, focus, and budgets in the following order of importance:
- Paid Media – Advertising.
- Earned Media – The favorable publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising, so says Wikipedia. i.e. PR, etc.
- Owned Media – The stuff marketers create that they own, can reuse, etc. I suppose that some so-called “traditional” marketing tactics and such would fall somewhat within this ‘definition’, but I tend to think more of websites, content, etc. as well as, say, iPhone apps and the like.
I’m not certain that a simple 1, 2, 3 ordering in this instance truly reflects the extreme emphasis most marketers have placed, and continue to place, on paid media at the expense of either earned or owned media.
Today, I think a lot of brands have a real opportunity to flip this on its head.
In saying that, I mean:
- focusing time, attention and budget on creating owned media that’s interesting or useful to your target (preferably both) and doing so in a way that it’s designed to spread via social media. e.g. Producing a video series that is featured on your website, is easily shareable, and hosted on your YouTube channel as well.
- using the owned media you create to generate earned media (it also helps to think of earned media as more than just traditional media mentions, but that’s not new to most). e.g. Repurposing a blog post into an op-ed piece.
- and, as a result, reducing your dependency on paid media over time
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that this is in some way a magic bullet cure-all for every brand. Then again, neither is advertising. Technology is changing how we connect to each other. For many, this shift can fuel reduced dependency on paid media and a more efficient, sustainable marketing spend.
What do you think?
August 3, 2010
10:18 am
… great brain kick-starting stuff after a long weekend. Just a random question before my second coffee; Would you agree that Owned Media (created in-house), used on an ad-serving platform (eg: Google Adwords) would also be considered Earned Media? If so, then if you are using a paid platform to serve this for CPM, implies that the entire campaign would be considered Paid Media, right? Ultimately, I believe all “advertising” is paid, as there really isn’t a “traditional” media model left. Print ‘should’ work in unison with digital – be it a website, blog, social media, or paid on-line marketing. Did that question/comment make sense – or do I need another coffee?
August 3, 2010
2:50 pm
appreciate the comment.
re: Would you agree that Owned Media (created in-house), used on an ad-serving platform (eg: Google Adwords) would also be considered Earned Media?
Not really. In that instance, the owned media you’re referring to is advertising creative and would be considered paid media. To clarify, I would group the development / mgmt of advertising creative and the planning / buying of media to deliver the ads into paid media. Make sense?
August 3, 2010
3:10 pm
I’ll tell you after my 4th coffee …
August 3, 2010
10:21 am
I agree with you. There is a huge opportunity for writers, artists, photographers, videographers and other creative people to help companies understand and use new media. The surprising thing is how few are doing it.
March 17, 2011
4:37 am
Nice article carman,
There are many big brands who still don’t want to focus on owned media rather than they believe and market though paid media. Being a part of internet marketing industry, i must say that if you go for owned media by combining with paid media, you will really get good result and after few months or years, you can stop investing in paid media once you have done good in owned media.
But the biggest question is; how to make them understand the benefits of owned media?
April 26, 2012
1:42 pm
The debate you are prompting is a little like the ancient argument for owning a house vs renting a house. Whether owned, earned or paid there are costs. For paid media the cost is more of a capital outlay upfront with little or no maintenance costs after the fact. For earned and owned media the upfront cost is still there, often a lesser one. But the killer for on-line marketing is the hidden costs that lie in the time and salaries of web managers, content providers, bloggers, consultants, etc.
Recently the CMO of the GAP announced at an on-line conference in the US that “digital is dead”. His intent was to shock the online community into realizing that the new media will not replace traditional but merely evolve into a new media mix that must be managed with a broader perspective than digital gurus seem to espouse.
So, what % of your time and pay do you allocate to the maintenance of this blog?
April 27, 2012
9:26 am
Appreciate the comment Colin. And I agree, the true cost (staff, production, consultants, etc. — all of it) of any marketing activity should be fully considered… in fact, it must be in order to properly evaluate the program.
re: the CMO of GAP… anyone saying “digital is dead” should be as quickly dismissed as the person saying “traditional is dead”. That said, a nice corporate identity is almost always in style and I sure hope this isn’t the same GAP CEO who approved that colossal embarrassment of a rebrand they did a while back… because, if so, he/she isn’t qualified to speak at their local Rotary Club, much less discuss digital marketing.
As for the % of time / pay dedicated to maintaining this blog the answer is almost always “not as much as we should” and, in fairness, I spend almost zero time on it. 20 minutes a week? Maybe? I spend considerably more time on any given week obsessing over the proper steaming of milk for cappuccino, to put it into some context.