Most of us know there are 3 kinds of media: 1) Paid-for; 2) Owned; 3) Earned.
Paid-for is the one most people care about because, like the name says, it costs money, so media companies and ad agencies get paid.
They make money, so that’s what they’re interested in.
But the other two media are free, which is why clients should be more interested.
These two are media where real creativity comes into it.
‘Owned’ media is every space that you own that you could use: shop fronts, delivery trucks, stationery, clothing and, most important of all, packaging.
Packaging is point-of-sale advertising, it’s the last chance to advertise before the customer makes their choice, the last chance to link all that expensive ‘paid for’ advertising to your brand or product.
That’s why one of my favourite advertising straplines is at the end of the Fram Filters TV ads: “It’s the orange one, numb nuts”.
Even if you can’t remember the name of the product, you just look for the orange pack when you get to the store.
But the final, and most difficult type of media is the third one: ‘Earned’ media.
This is media you don’t pay for and you don’t own, but it’s free if you can earn it.
A great example of how to earn this media was done by a holiday company.
They knew that the period after Christmas is a when people start thinking about their holidays, because there’s usually an upswing in bookings then.
So it was a good opportunity to capitalise on that, but not just with all the usual media.
They wanted to get people talking about it, to create word-of-mouth.
So the question was: what’s the one media that would do that, a media that everyone would believe because you couldn’t buy space in it?
The answer is the News, but how can you get space in that media?
Well, the news media are always on the lookout for newsworthy stories to fill up their airtime.
The holiday company decided to make post-Christmas depression a scientific discovery that would make it sound newsworthy.
So they approached Cliff Arnall who was a Research Associate in Psychology with University Hospital Wales.
They asked him to write a credible-sounding paper on why everyone felt so low at this time of year.
Arnall invented a formula that started by giving each element a letter:
W = Weather. D = Debt minus ability to pay. T = Time since Christmas. Q = Failed New Year’s resolutions. M = Low motivational levels. N = Need to take action.
Then the resulting equation read: W plus D multiplied by TQ divided by M times N.
The product of this formula resulted in the third Monday after New Year.
(Of course it’s nonsense to any real mathematician, but it served its purpose.)
Now there was a scientific formula for ‘Blue Monday’, now it sounded like a genuine discovery and that was newsworthy.
Which is why, on Monday morning January 19th, I was in the bathroom shaving, it was still dark outside, cold and raining, dull and miserable.
Then I heard the news announcer on the radio say:
“If you’re feeling a little low this morning don’t worry it’s natural. It’s called ‘Blue Monday’ and scientists have got definite proof that the third Monday in January is the lowest time of the year. Just the time to think of something to cheer us all up, like your summer holidays.”
As Arnall told The Independent, when he was working with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays, the point was: “to inspire people to take action and make bold life decisions”.
I’ve since seen ‘Blue Monday’ reported as fact on TV and radio, in newspapers, and even online.
It was credible because it wasn’t conventional advertising in conventional media.
They used their brains to get space in a place where you couldn’t buy space.
Earned media is free, but there is one restriction to getting space in it.
It’s only available to people who can use their brains.