Rebecca Brownhill, associate director, Pulse Communications, discusses how earned media shouldn’t be about PR-ing ads, and is rising to the fore of integrated campaigns.
TCC: Why is earned so important in today’s integrated campaign plans?
RB: Earned is not simply PR for an ad. We take the heart of the campaign, the key insights and turn them into stories or news that matter to consumers.
TCC: How difficult is it to develop and execute an effective earned campaign?
RB: Earned should be integrated at the briefing stage, and then developed hand in hand with the rest of the marketing plan.
TCC: Is a different planning approach required when it comes to earned communications compared with paid and owned?
RB: We also develop insight-led creative ideas and use similar methods and approaches to paid and owned planning. Many agencies, like Pulse, have strategic planners and knowledge analysts to help shape and inform the insights.
TCC: What role does earned play in fuelling a wider integrated campaign?
RB: Great ideas can come from any discipline, and more and more we are seeing integrated campaigns led by earned media. The model for above the line may be different from the past, but there are many ways paid media can amplify great earned ideas.
TCC: What should you avoid when developing/executing an earned campaign?
RB: We often get asked to PR an ad, and this is rarely a successful approach to earned. Bring us in at the beginning, so we can help develop a story that will be newsworthy
TCC: Is there a different approach to measuring the success of an earned campaign compared with paid and owned?
RB: Putting a dollar figure to earned (AVEs) is a very outdated method of measuring success. There are many measurement tools for measuring earned, which consider other metrics like share of voice, sentiment and reach, not just the size of the coverage multiplied by the rate card.