EXPERIENCEBRANDSTHE OWNED MEDIA OPPORTUNITY

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It is a truth universally acknowledged—if not fully understood—that the most interesting advertising medium around today is people talking.

People talking is what we really mean when we say “social media.” We can now “talk” to our friends, family, colleagues and business contacts—through social networks and ever-evolving technologies—in ways that dramatically broaden the reach and authenticity of brand and product messages, changing marketing forever.

But when we say “social media” we’re framing the conversation in the wrong way. We are so focused on all the ways that people can talk—the channels, the technologies, the networks—that we neglect to focus as much as we should about why people talk in the first place.

WE TALK A LOT ABOUT MEDIA THESE DAYS.

EARNED MEDIA TRUMPS PAID.

BUT WHAT DOES THE

EARNING?

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We believe that instead of talking about social media we should be talking about paid, earned and—most important of all—owned media. We think that owned media at its best inspires people to talk, and that smart brands—experience brands—are putting greater emphasis than ever before not on social media, but on owned media.

That’s what this article is about. Hope you enjoy it, and please share your feedback.

Liz Bigham SVP, Director of Brand Marketing

(If you’d like a definition of what an experience brand is, check out our earlier articles.)

WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT OWNED MEDIA.

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EXPERIENCE BRANDS PRIORITIZE OWNED MEDIA. THEY REAP GREATER BENEFITS FOR LESS MONEY.

2010: THE YEAR OF EXPERIENCE BRANDS

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DEFINITIONS“Owned media” is typically defined as one part of a media trinity comprising paid media, earned media and owned media. If you asked most people, paid media is advertising; earned media is PR; and owned media… well, that’s all that other stuff, right?Sean Corcoran of Forrester does a great job of defining these three media types, largely around the extent to which the brand controls the channel used to deliver a message:

• Owned media: delivered from a company to consumers through channels controlled by

the company

• Paid media: delivered from a company to consumers by paying to leverage a channel

not controlled by the company

• Earned media: passed between consumers as a result of an experience with brand 1

1 Sean Corcoran, “No Media Should Stand Alone,” Forrester online white paper (December 2009).

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OWNED MEDIA IS AN EXPERIENCE PEOPLE WANT TO SHARE.I like the definition provided by Bob Greenberg and Barry Wacksman in a recent Adweek article:

“When a brand creates its own media properties that consumers use over and over again, such as a popular video on YouTube or a popular digital platform like Nike+, this is ‘owned’ media.

When consumers share these media properties with each other— as when one person passes along a viral link to another, or blogs or tweets about a brand, or ‘likes’ a brand on Facebook—this is ‘earned’ media.”2

According to this definition, “owned media” is a story or experience that’s created by the brand, and “earned media” is when people recommend and share that same experience with others.

2 Bob Greenberg and Barry Wacksman, “The Shrinking Pie: How digital has changed mass media’s investment model,” Adweek (June 21, 2010).

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WHEN IT WORKS, OWNED MEDIA INSPIRES THE PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENCE IT TO SHARE IT WITH OTHERS.

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What’s important about owned media isn’t what it looks like or the form it takes. What’s important is how it’s used—to create a brand experience that is so inspiring it’s shared with others.

According to this definition, owned media could be something you see on YouTube—or it could be customer service that’s so great you tell others about it.

And so an owned media Hall of Fame could include a pretty diverse spectrum of experiences: Old Spice Guy… Best Buy’s Twelpforce… How Ace Hotels engage their guests… Samsung’s surprise concert in Times Square… And so many more examples of great brands creating distinctive experiences on platforms they control, that then create buzz that spreads across other channels.

OWNED MEDIA COULD BE

A YOUTUBE VIDEO—OR CUSTOMER

SERVICE THAT’S SO GREAT YOU

TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT.

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The point is, if you create something special, people will talk about it—and so, simply put, owned media begets earned media.It’s really important to note that this isn’t about a takeover or palace coup: owned media isn’t replacing anything. Owned media is inextricably part of that media trinity of owned, paid and earned media, and it’s more effective the better it is thought through and integrated with them. It’s simply becoming more prominent. So what are some of the differences and relative advantages of each?

OWNED MEDIA BEGETS EARNED

MEDIA AND MAKES PAID

MEDIA WORK HARDER.

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NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT OWNED, PAID AND EARNED MEDIA

OWNED MEDIA

Owned/controlled by brand

Brand pays to leverage

People are the channel

• Customer service

• Physical environment

• Packaging

• Proprietary events

• Retail footprint

• Staff/culture

• Brand storytelling/ content

• Twitter/YouTube

• Website

• Advertising

• Paid search

• Seeded viral

• Sponsored events

• Sponsorships

• Grassroots

• PR

• Social media

• Viral

• WOM

• Control

• Delivers brand promise

• Cost

• Scale

• Perceived authenticity

• Insight to market

• Can be hard to build scale

• High cost

• Perceived inauthenticity

• Fragmentation/ effectiveness

• No control

• Hard to measure

• Potential negative WOM

HowWhat Examples Benefits Challenges

PAID MEDIA

EARNED MEDIA

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OWNED MEDIA HAS SOME CLEAR ADVANTAGES.There are two clear advantages to owned media:

1. Control Done right, owned media is not just the ultimate storytelling platform—it’s

a great story. And it’s one where the stage, scenery, characters, costumes, everything has been orchestrated by the brand to position that story in the best way.

Ultimately, it’s a better way to ensure that the experience delivers on the brand promise, because the brand literally controls the media. That is a significant advantage over earned media in which people are the channel in the strictest sense. (Marketers love to be hip to every new trend, but I have a suspicion that secretly they’re more nervous than they let on about relinquishing too much control in the brave new world of social media.)

2. Cost

With owned media, you pay primarily to create content—and you might pay more to create something truly noteworthy that will engage people and inspire them to reach others. But you’re not paying for the media, because you already own it.

The big potential is in investing in truly differentiating owned media, such as customer service so great people talk about it, or a retail experience so unique people come to you because of it. That may require a bigger upfront investment, but the payoff is huge. Ultimately, overall costs will be lower—and owned media (proprietary events, for example) can actually be revenue generating.

THE UPFRONT INVESTMENT IS

IN CONTENT. THE PAYOFF

COMES IN SAVINGS AND

IMPACT.

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CHANGING PRIORITIES

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EXPERIENCE BRANDS BELIEVE IN OWNED MEDIA.

Based on the relative advantages of owned media, earned media and paid media, brands will, inevitably, adjust their priorities. This is most true of experience brands, which we see at the forefront of elevating the importance of owned media in their brand planning and strategy.

Given their emphasis on the experience around their products and services, it’s a natural fit that experience brands would elevate owned media.

This does not mean that paid media will go away—far from it. Paid media (whether paid search or a Superbowl ad) is the fastest way to build scale and generate greater brand exposure.

It does mean that more emphasis will be placed on owned media.

If there’s any lesson we would draw from media fragmentation and consumer control, it’s that exposure isn’t guaranteed by paid media—and certainly not engagement. And if there’s anything we’ve learned from living admidst Twitter and YouTube, it’s that viral success can be sublime but is still supremely unpredictable.

So we see experience brands investing in owned media—which, done right, provides both engagement and exposure, but with a critical focus on delivering the brand promise at its core.

And that’s a shift we welcome and are excited about helping our clients achieve.

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For more information, contact Liz Bigham at liz_bigham@jackmorton.com or 212-401-7212.

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JACK MORTON WORLDWIDE IS A BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY. WE CREATE EXPERIENCES THAT STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BRANDS AND THE PEOPLE WHO MATTER MOST TO THEM—THEREBY HELPING OUR CLIENTS BECOME TALKED-ABOUT EXPERIENCE BRANDS. RATED AMONG THE TOP MARKETING SERVICE AGENCIES WORLDWIDE, WE INTEGRATE LIVE AND ONLINE EXPERIENCES, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA, AND BRANDED 3D ENVIRONMENTS THAT ENGAGE AND INSPIRE CONSUMERS, BUSINESS PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES. OUR STAFF WORK ACROSS THE US, EUROPE AND ASIA-PACIFIC AS PART OF AN IDEAS-LED AGENCY CULTURE.

© Jack Morton Worldwide 2010