Marketers often think of their communication plan as three distinct types of media: Paid (buying ads), Owned (creating branded content), and Earned (social and word of mouth) Media.
This P.O.E.M. model can be a handy way to think about marketing. But in practice, there are increasingly blurred lines between Paid, Owned, and Earned Media. And marketers sometimes act as if there’s a captive audience waiting to receive their message.
Marketing is largely a battle for attention. Whether Paid, Owned, or Earned, most Media gets completely ignored. There’s never been a greater glut of Media and the audience is less captive than ever. Increasingly all attention has to be earned.
I saw an interesting presentation with Snapchat last week about the ways that brands are advertising on their platform. One of the things that struck me is their idea of measuring “play time” as an ad metric. On average, Snapchat users “play” with a Sponsored Lens for a full 20 seconds before sending to friends. Some ads like their Sponsored Lens Gatorade are played with much longer. These Snapchat ads are Paid, Owned, and Earned Media all at the same time.
I like the idea of marketing that is so compelling that people choose to “play” with it. I think “play time” is an interesting way to think about marketing. What would our marketing plans look like if we tried to maximize “play time” rather than impressions?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Here’s another cartoon I drew a few years ago on Paid and Earned media.
Tom says
“Play time” sounds a lot like another form of “engagement” related to the platform.
Fiona Green says
It’s like any type of interaction – where there’s something of value for the user, they’ll stay engaged. We call it the “value exchange” – I’ll give you this cool gizmo to play with if you give me your attention (or your data, or your permission…..etc).
The challenge is coming up with new and unique ways to offer that playtime….at a cost-effective level, i.e. ensuring what we get out of the play is more than (or at least equal to) what we paid to provide it.
Rick Berzle says
It isn’t one or the other. Content is developed to maximize “play time”, but you don’t always get it right. A combined metric that combines impressions and play time would be useful to measure overall effectiveness.
Rob says
Paid, Earned or Social – only as good as the targeting. If not relevant/valuable its likely a waste…
Allen Roberts says
More insightful brilliance.
Thanks Tom
Asit Gupta says
Engaging deeper is the only way to leave a real impression on any one. Counting an opportunity to see as an impression or counting someone who took 5s to like your FB page as a “fan”, is how clever naming of metrics has messed up marketing as a discipline. The sooner we can align on a depth metric the better it will be for the whole profession. Depth can create reach, reach cannot create depth.