Understanding Media Channels and Their Roles in a Good Media Plan

Author:Texas Creative
Understanding Media Channels and Their Roles in a Good Media Plan

Good brand management consists of making sure there is a sound plan in place to get information into the hands of the consumer. These days, there are many channels that we can use to get information out into the world, and there are three categories that define these channels: Owned, Earned and Paid media. At Texas Creative, we work in all of these spaces with our in-house team of experts. When all three are working in concert together, it provides stronger leverage and support for your paid media efforts. Here's a break down of each channel: 

Owned Media Channels include everything that you have in your complete control; your website, your blog, your email marketing databases, and your organic social media posts. 

At Texas Creative, we utilize Owned Media resources to drive visitors to our website. A major way that we do this is with our weekly agency blog that's posted to our website every Thursday. 9 out of 10 of our top landing pages are blog posts, and that adds up to over 25,000 impressions in the last year from our blogs alone. Another cool fact is that 20,385 of those blog acquisations were from organic searches, not refferals from other sources, so Owned Media certainly brings in great results.  

Paid Media Channels include those tactics that are owned by someone else, but accessed through paid advertising options; digital advertising, traditional TV, radio, print, out of home, and paid social media - like Facebook, Instagram, Yelp and LinkedIn.

We manage Paid Media for our clients as well. The San Antonio River Authority is one our clients that we do this for. We work in-house to develop paid digital media and paid social media campaigns that bring awareness to events that the San Antonio River Authority has coming up throughout the year. We establish the goals and KPI's for the campaigns and report on them weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on what our clients want.  

Earned Media Channels are things that someone else controls, and at their option, they include your brand message for free; press releases, public relations, editorial, influencer marketing and promotions with media outlets or other marketers.

When it comes to Earned Media, never underestimate the power of press releases and public relations when you want to add a layer to your campaign. For example, we recently helped the Aspergers 101 Foundation promote a press conference at the Texas State Capitol to announce the passing of the 'Samuel Allen Law' during the most recent legislative session. This law will save the lives of those with communication challenges, and allows drivers to optionally register their vehicle with a notification of the communication challenge so that interactions with police officers are better for everyone. Those with Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Deafness, Hearing Impairment, PTSD, Parkinson’s disease, Mild Intellectual Disability and more, are able to let police officers know before they approach a car that there is a communication challenge. Groundbreaking legislation!

Our team wrote the press release/request for coverage, and researched a local, state and national list of media, writers and bloggers. We also targeted any beat writer that looked for stories addressing ADA compliance, disability accessibility and autism. We made personal invitation calls to local broadcast media and launched our coverage request to all of the national writers. In just five days, we had over 1,300,000 impressions and we were able to identify the influencers on social media, and the number of impressions is still growing. Within our platform, we also have the ability to measure Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) to establish a value. This one press release effort added $10,900+ in exposure for the Samuel Allen Law in Texas. 

Whether we're working with large complex budgets and marketing challenges, or simple, 'Can you help me with a press release?" situations, we can find ways to leverage a good idea, message or offer. If you're wanting to utilize Earned, Owned and Paid Media within your brand, reach out to our in-house social and digital team. They are certified experts who can help you take your business and brand to the next level.