Applied Theory of Owned Media | Defining Owned Media
By Taulbee Jackson & Erik Deckers
With all of the recent changes that have happened in media and in consumers' media consumption habits over the last couple of decades, almost everyone in marketing has made an attempt to understand and define the current and future state of affairs in media, particularly online.
The concept of owned media is designed to tie together all of the fast – changing tactics and platforms you've been struggling with and to bring clarity to how brands should:
- think about,
- staff for,
- strategize,
- execute,
Owned media is a brutally simple concept. In fact, it's about a single word: control.
Owned media is the area of marketing dedicated to the platforms or channels your brand owns or controls.
It's a content–driven, audience–centric, platform–agnostic point of view on how to grow and leverage your audience, activate your marketing efforts and turn marketing dollars into a true investment in an asset (an audience). If your brand owns or controls the content , and owns or controls the platform, it is owned media.
Paid vs. Earned Vs. Owned Media
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Owned Media Is Not Like Paid Media
where someone else controls both the content and the platform, and you have to PAY to rent the audience's eyeballs 30 seconds at a time.
Owned Media Is Not Like Earned Media
where someone else controls both the content and the platform, an you have to PRAY that the content creator will create content about your brand in a positive way.
It's Your Content. It's Your Platform. It's Your Audience.
That means it's your responsibility as a marketer to engage, entertain and grow that audience, so you can turn them into customers and advocates.
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Audience = Value
Audience is where the value exists in all three (paid, earned, owned) approaches to media. That is why it is critical to learn how to establish, grow and leverage your own audience, instead of relying on other organizations to do it for us.