What Is Your Most Important Media?
Deciding Between Investing In Earned, Owned or Paid Media
St. Louis, MO – November 29, 2022 –
If you want to see marketing and communications professionals have a heated debate, be sure to ask them what takes priority between earned, owned and paid media when it comes to investing your media dollars.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve watched my colleagues debate it. Most experts will tell you that a solid marketing and communications strategy includes a mix of all three. The debate comes in what is the exact mix.
Don’t let the terminology fool you. I see business owners make this mistake too often. There is no such thing as “free” in any of these three.
Here is a quick primer:
Earned Media is sometimes referred to as “free” media. Earned media is traditional news media coverage of your brand. As a former PR guy, I have a lot of experience in generating “earned” media. Make no mistake, it costs money to earn media coverage.
The average press release costs between $400 and $2000 to send. And that is simply the price to distribute a press release. Having someone write it and handle the follow up costs you additional money. When I was handling PR, I did a lot of media relations work trying to get “free” coverage of my client.
At the St. Louis Cardinals, my biggest success came from inviting the media to broadcast live from the ballpark on Opening Day. We would host a media day a week or so in advance of Opening Day to spoon feed media stories we wanted to share. Then they would be at the ballpark for all the morning shows. I would convince my colleagues to get up early to be on TV to talk about each of their areas of expertise (food, ticket sales, the team etc.).
The coverage we received was phenomenal. It was worth every penny of our combined effort. All that said, most businesses don’t have that sort of platform. Earned media is great if you get it, but let’s be honest it is diminishing in real value as audiences shrink with traditional media.
In addition to traditional media audiences shrinking, you have to navigate “pay walls” and public attitudes about “fake news”. If you get a story placed, it likely isn’t the whole apple. You may only get a bit of your message through. And then it is one and done, unless you can share it yourself using your media channels (email, social media, your website, direct mail etc.). Pay walls make sharing electronically difficult. Copyright laws also come into play as you don’t own the media you want to share even though it is about you.
The best thing about “earned” media is it is credible validation of your brand in front of a built-in audience. If the local newspaper wrote a glowing story, you reached a sizeable audience and it is viewed for the most part by many as objective news coverage.
While you don’t own the coverage on the news, it could have a huge impact on shaping public opinion about your brand. Big brands invest heavily in PR to get great earned media coverage. You can take it to the bank that most of the morning news shows topics are driven by PR folks pitching stories to producers. It is how the whole ecosystem of media coverage works.
Paid media is advertising. Most business owners are familiar with this. It could be digital advertising, TV, radio or print. It can get very expensive very fast. But it can be the difference maker that drives sales.
The final category is owned media which is essentially any media you create as your own brand. You own it and you share it. The truth is that this is by far the most important media you should be investing in as brand.
The problem with paid and earned media is you don’t own the copyright on the content. Typically, the advertiser and the media outlet own the content. If you want your advertisement to be seen, you need to pay a 3rd party to ensure it is seen.
On the earned media side, it is natural for you to want to share a great story carried by a news outlet. If the New York Times wrote a great story, you want to share it. Maybe even pay to boost it so people see it. The challenge comes when you have to pay the New York Times to allow you to share it. They own the copyright on the story, you don’t. It is their “owned” media. Not yours.
Owned media is the most important because of how media is shared today. Your brand is essentially a media outlet if you have a website and social media. You can share your content for “free” and your audience will find it thanks to search & through sharing.
If I share a video on Facebook and a friend likes it, then it is seen by their friends. That is how media goes viral. If you share a video with a blog post about a topic someone is searching, SEO algorithms drive that traffic to you.
The fact that more media is produced by the masses than mass media today is a reality that you need to accept and take advantage of by investing in the most important media today – owned media. #OwnYourStory
About STORYSMART
You have a story to bring to the screen, but you don't have the time or resources to do it yourself. Telling your story well with video can be hard. And let’s be brutally honest. No app will turn you into a great filmmaker. Few are capable of producing a do-it-yourself (DIY) video or film we actually want to watch, much less remember.
To do justice to your story on screen, you need the right skills and equipment, not to mention time, money and talent.
That is why STORYSMART developed our premium video storytelling as a service. We help clients tell their story in the amazing way they deserve with a proprietary done-for-you video storytelling service unlike any other.
STORYSMART provides a nationwide premium video storytelling service that empowers individuals, families, celebrities, small businesses and other organizations to have their stories told professionally while retaining their intellectual property rights as though they did it themselves.
STORYSMART provides clients an experienced television reporter or journalist filmmaker to help them tell their story following our proprietary high-integrity brand journalism system. Our transparently priced premium services for businesses and families ensures that each client gets an authentic, high-quality story they own the intellectual property rights on forever.
About Ron Watermon
Ron Watermon is the founder and CEO of STORYSMART, a premium video storytelling technology startup that empowers anyone to have their stories told professionally while ensuring they retain the intellectual property rights on their productions.
A creative and innovative communications leader with nearly three decades of experience, prior to founding STORYSMART, Ron was responsible for modernizing the St. Louis Cardinals communications by leading the team’s investment in video storytelling, brand journalism, fan engagement and social media.
