It is no secret that earned media has an undeniable value. Earned media is defined as any publicity or media that is generated organically, such as unpaid coverage about your brand by third-party entities. When more consumers share an advertisement or message, it creates a greater impact at much lower costs. It could bring massive benefits to the brand but also poses a challenge – how do brands get consumers to share? Some content tends to go viral easily while others barely get shared at all.
Read on to find out how maximising your media coverage can help to build awareness and grow your brand.
1. Building Brand Credibility
Customer reviews and testimonials play an important role in driving earned media. A study conducted by Nielsen found that 83% of people completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family. Consumers are more likely to trust your brand when they read or hear about it in the media, rather than learning about it from your website. Additionally, organic mentions allow prospective customers to find legitimacy within the products and services your brand offers.
Learn more about what we did for Yeo’s Mid-Autumn Festival Campaign – where we encouraged the younger audience to share their stories and e-greetings on their platforms, which in turn generated social media awareness for the brand.
2. Activating Emotions in Consumers
It has been proven that emotional marketing is effective in increasing brand awareness and boosting the overall brand health. One possible reason is that emotional valence drives sharing among consumers, research has indeed shown that 90% of emotional experiences are being passed on to others. To evoke greater emotions, brands could look at the elements of storytelling such as including relatable characters and having an engaging plot. Of course, this has to align with your brand’s belief and your target audience.
Delivering Influential Ideas
A study conducted by both Cannes Lion and WARC, which looked at winning campaigns that incorporated both creativity and effectiveness, introduced a new framework – The Creative Effectiveness Ladder. It identifies the six main types of effects that creative marketing produces – which set out a hierarchy from the least to most commercially impactful.
The first level, Influential Ideas refers to the use of creativity to maximise engagement and sharing. One of the winning behaviours that deliver Influential Idea results is to ‘Take the Side of the Consumer and Fight Injustice to Delight and Inspire them’. In other words, using extraordinary creative means to stand up for a social issue.
Take a look into what we did for Nestle Mom & Me Campaign – a fun and innovative social experiment to allow men to have a taste of pregnancy by experiencing daily tasks in a pregnancy suit. As this resonated with many moms, videos of the experiment went viral which created conversations in the community.
Keen to learn more about maximising media value for your brand? Speak to us today!
