Product Code Database
Earned media (or free media) is content relating to a person or organization, which is published by a third party without any form of payment to the publisher. It includes articles by Mass media, interviews with the person or representatives of the organization, or bylined Editorial in trade press and other publications. The phrase "earned media" serves as a contrast to the concept of "paid media" or, simply advertising. It may also include social media sharing, unpaid mentions by podcast hosts and guests, or word-of-mouth marketing.
Earned media excludes advertising (paid media) and company brand (owned media).
Sometimes, the categories overlap. For example, paying a social media influencer to promote a product or event is both "social" and "paid" media. If a company is criticized online, and the controversy is described in a news article, that could be both "shared" and "earned" media.
Although earned media is not paid for, it is not entirely cost-free. Generating earned media may require hiring staff, creating content, promoting the brand through paid media, or creating programs (e.g., a contest) that will result earned media. If an advertisement or other paid marketing effort Viral marketing, so that other people and media outlets publish about it without payment, then the additional exposure (but not the original paid media) is earned media.
While marketers can help generate earned media activity, they do not generate it directly. It is earned "through relationships, incredibly newsworthy stories, and targeted messaging", without paying the media outlet. One inherent limitation, compared to paid or owned media, is that the person or organization has to convince journalists, editors, and television news producers to write a story about them, or an editor to publish an outside editorial. While this gatekeeper function serves to filter out lower quality and non-newsworthy content, it may also allow media outlets to act as censors when they do not agree with the source or its message.
Further, because the person or organization does not control the message once it is in the hands of a journalist, the message may not be what they wanted, and may be negative. As one example, while the 2016 Trump political campaign was cited as having obtained billions of dollars in earned media, one study estimated that 23% of earned media mentions were negative.
A Nielsen study in 2013 found that earned media (also described in the report as word-of-mouth) is the most trusted source of information in all countries it surveyed worldwide, and is the channel most likely to stimulate the consumer to action. In a 2019 study by the Institute for Public Relations, participants shown an earned news story, an advertisement, a blog post, and a company blog post found the earned media story the most credible. Readers sought out and paid attention to information such as the independence and credentials of the journalist, the balance of the coverage, and the prestige of the outlet in which the story appeared. Consumers are more likely to trust a voluntary recommendation from someone they know more than a paid advertisement.
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