As public relations professionals, our job is to get the word out for our clients and effectively tell their story to promote brand awareness. With three avenues of media—earned, paid and owned, it’s critical to find the right balance for each client depending on their business objectives and target audiences. While all forms lead to one road – awareness – earned media remains at the heart of public relations. Earned media is the backbone for a brand’s reputation, playing a pivotal role in demonstrating third-party validation and building credibility among target audiences.
Credibility is playing an important role in today’s society and doesn’t come with a price tag. Only 34 percent of consumers trust the brands they purchase. Rather than look to brands, people trust recommendations from highly respected peers to influence their spending habits. With an average person dedicating over six hours on the internet daily, there’s room for brands to capture audiences’ trust and attention as much of their days revolve online.
Global head of training and facilitation at Golin agency, Matt West, recently hosted a webinar within PR Council’s Agency-Ready program, focused on the power of earned media in our modern society. His perspective and examples shed light on the critical function earned media plays for all businesses.
Matt brings this concept to life by looking at the eye-catching car company, Tesla. Founded to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, Tesla has taken earned media to a whole new dimension. For 17 years, the company has spent zero dollars on advertising yet recently became the world’s most valuable automaker. Yep, you read that sentence right! When companies, such as Tesla, have a compelling story or disruptive news, earned media can be its most effective weapon. As Tesla continues to be a fierce competitor, the company focuses on earned media through revolutionary car designs, word of mouth, and publicity stunts to create every company’s dream— an enthusiastic customer base.
Switching gears to another famous car company, General Motors (GM) has estimated spending over $4 billion on advertising in 2019. With a profit of $6.4 billion in last year, GM’s $4 billion advertising expense could have raised profits by over 60 percent if they had the same earned media mentality as Tesla. Tesla’s bold approach to neglect advertising and focus on the creation of luxurious and sustainable automobiles generated an explosion of organic engagement. This key element to Tesla’s success results from a steadfast commitment to create popular and authentic products. True creativity and innovation are presented at every level of Tesla’s product development, with the outcome of automobiles that revolutionize the industry.
The lesson for public relations professionals is to always think bigger, more provocatively and outside the box for clients. Clients come to us prepared for innovative and game-changing work that will yield measurable business outcomes. With great products, it’s up to us to tell the client’s story in a relevant and interesting way to grab the media’s attention. Additionally, we need to clearly understand what’s happening in the industry and our clients’ unique narrative to generate radical results. In a time where people rely on influencers and objective parties to determine what to purchase, earned media is a powerful way to expand audience reach to boost brand awareness.