Let’s kickoff our next series by tackling a challenge that every Brand marketer faces daily, internal or agency-side, and is posed most often to us:
How can we generate consistent, on-Brand, top-tier Earned Media coverage in the face of “no news” or company announcements to share?
Unsurprisingly, our path to exploring solutions and identifying the “Earned Media Equation 2 Success” begins by considering things from the reporter’s perspective. Reporters form opinions on Brands over time in many ways (What the brand does and stands for in past actions, how the brand is reported on, etc.) and is combined with how they are approached during pitching. The combined outcome directly shapes how the Brand will be covered in the future.
Identifying and focusing on connecting to that “long game” is a Brand’s best investment. Redirecting team focus to strategically build out ideas that progress the larger brand narrative; successfully achieving desired shared outcomes for Brand and Earned Media target.
Let’s begin our journey by exploring three (3) solutions on how Media Begets Media:
· Utilizing Previous Coverage To Generate New Earned Media Opportunities
· The Importance of a Proactive Reactive Brand Communication Playbook
· Analyzing Competitive Brands
Focusing on the “controllables” in our Earned Media equation, we will dive into the first topic this week.
As Brand marketers, far too often we look at the path to Earned Media success as being binary.
Step 1- A good Idea leads to Step 2- generated placements; then repeat the process on endless loop.
This “one-off” tactical path leads commonly to feast (Common misperception: good pitch idea= good placements) or famine (Common misperception: bad pitch idea= poor results) outcomes, with far more of the latter.
Why not use previously generated on-Brand placements from non-competitive outlets to generate future rounds of coverage?
We already have explored that Reporters classify all material shared from Brand marketers as biased. Converting that challenge into a strength, when the same message is delivered in the form of a quote linked to Third Party news organization, the reporters instantly process that as credible. In our “Earned Media Equation 2 Success,” this strategy eliminates one reporter challenge immediately.
“Earned Media Equation 2 Success” Utilizing Previous Coverage: Previous Coverage + New Audience + New Angle = Success
An important, albeit easily overlooked, tip to keep in mind using this strategy is to consider competition between media outlets. For example, sending a New York Times piece to a TODAY show producer or a PEOPLE link to Good Morning America will help. Also, sending the Wall Street Journal to regional dailies including the Detroit News spurs coverage and sharing trade coverage is also a great way to “build the narrative.” What should be avoided are crossing simple competitive lines like not sending the New York Times to Wall Street Journal; TODAY to GMA; etc.
In Earned Media exclusively, Brand marketers and their reporter targets would both be happier with their respective outcomes if more of yesterday’s coverage was weaved in when creating/presenting future opportunities.
While this solution provides an infinite amount of Earned Media opportunities, there are many more solutions to generate consistent, on-Brand, top-tier Earned Media coverage in the face of “no news” or company announcements. Check in next week for when we will explore our second topic in this three-part series- The importance of having a Proactive Reactive Brand Communication Playbook.