Let’s talk about product marketing, specifically different types of media coverage.
In the tool media industry, just about every type of tool-related content can be described as being either earned media, owned media, or paid media.
This includes tool reviews, blog posts, magazine articles, news stories, YouTube videos, Instagram posts, TikToks, and other forms of tool-related content.
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The medium isn’t important here, as earned, owned, and paid media can be found in print, social media, videos, and other content formats.
It is also important to note that all three types of media typically refer to product, brand, or retailer-related content. This also applies to creative works; showing off your new woodworking project could be considered your owned media.
Here is how I (unofficially) define the three types of media, simplified for relevancy:
Earned Media: Organic content, such as news stories, blog posts, professional reviews, user reviews, and other free publicity.
Owned Media: Content created by a brand or company, such as email newsletters, product listings, their own blog posts, or social media activity on branded channels.
Paid Media: Advertising, sponsored content, or other promotional efforts that are paid for.
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The differentiation is fairly straight forward. Free press coverage? Earned media. Paid partnership content? Paid media. A brand’s new tool announcements on social media? Owned media.
Changing Trends
I founded ToolGuyd in 2008, and so I have been a content creator – or blogger if you prefer – for a long time now. I learned much about press and media relations from brand and retailer contacts and marketing professionals who were still primarily used to working with magazines and journalists.
Things are very different today.
There have been significant shifts in all three types of media over the past few years. Many brands have launched or expanded paid media efforts, usually involving sponsored influencers, and most have also increased their owned media efforts with direct-to-consumer email communications and social media posts.
The best PR, media, and marketing professionals and teams have adapted with the times and learned how to balance their efforts to support all of the different types of media.
However, too many have expanded their owned and paid media efforts at the expense of earned media.
Increasingly, and this is a big part of what prompted this post, too many marketing professionals don’t quite know how to support earned media anymore. I spoke to a “social media marketing specialist” today that apparently didn’t know what “earned media” even meant. Granted, earned media is somewhat of a technical term, but one I assume marketing professionals would be familiar with.
Some brands moved to prioritize owned media, forgoing traditional PR outreach to make their own product announcements via social media and direct-to-consumer email newsletters. That’s their prerogative, but it’s frustrating how many times I’ll be asked to insert marketing statements into posts I had zero press or media support for. Some brands prioritize paid influencers and try the same.
If a brand wants certain details or insights made available to me or ToolGuyd for earned media coverage, they need to provide it before I am left to independently source product launch details from whatever social media and consumer marketing materials I can find.
Corrections, product details, or specs updates are always welcome. But to ask me to add marketing messages to posts I didn’t receive a press release, courtesy fact sheet announcement, or test samples for? The kicker is that brands I have great relationships with never ask this of me, it’s only the ones that seem to have abandoned earned media PR efforts that try to get me to add marketing blurbs to published posts.
A brand recently expressed interest in working with me/ToolGuyd again, and it sounded like they simply wanted to submit a fact sheet and test sample for news or review consideration. I have never had anything other than a press/media relationship with this brand, and I assumed they were simply misusing the term “partnership.”
I asked if this would be an earned media campaign, and they seemed confused by this.
No, they sent over contracts that stated the hand tool they wanted featured would be “in lieu of cash compensation.” The tool in question has a ~$45 retail value, and so we’re not talking about workshop equipment or a higher valued product that might require special consideration.
I learned a few lessons the hard way over the years, but “tools as compensation” is something I have always been opposed to. Tools as payment doesn’t work for earned or paid media.
Earned media also doesn’t involve contracts or “partnership” labels.
What’s left if brands’ efforts towards earned media support is further cannibalized by their owned and paid media marketing strategies? Paid media?
Don’t get me wrong, I am open to and appreciative of sponsorship opportunities when interests and ethics align, but ToolGuyd’s everyday content is unsponsored. Many modern marketing efforts are clearly skewed towards social media and influencers, and such approaches don’t work well to provide the deeper insights I seek or support the content I produce.
I try to understand that marketing trends are a product of the times and how popular social media has become, and so I don’t take things too personally anymore.
Still, too many PR and marketing teams have all but abandoned earned media efforts in recent years.
On the bright side, I spoke today with a tool brand that recently set up a new in-house PR and marketing team, and they seem committed to providing detailed and timely media resources and press information. A major brand also recently greatly improved their press release distribution efforts, making good on the promises one of their outgoing managers made a year or two ago.
Things are never going back to how they were, but there are signs that marketers are adjusting towards a new balance between earned, owned, and paid media. I sure hope so, and that this isn’t just wishful thinking.
Pete
I thought it was just me realizing that a lot cannot distinguish between Earned, Paid and Owned media. My observation is that Paid and Owned media channels have become the overwhelming majority as completion in the industry intensifies and also the objective of many “influencers” is not helping the consumer but as to how they can be compensated either monetary or in form of tool samples. On the flip side consumers are struggling to find an Earned media channel they can trust for honest news and reviews that are not biased or influenced by external factors.
We are at a point that it’s easy to believe that Earned media will be extinct soon but when reading “TopTen reviews” on this or that and the author of the reviews has to justify as to why his review is legit and why he is an authority on the subject then I skip reading and move on.
I think Owned media serves a purpose if a tool company wishes to do so and do it right. However the Paid media acts like a pendulum. Right now is on the far away position but eventually will settle in the neutral position – somewhere in the middle.
In the mean time keep doing what you were doing Stuart – though it’s difficult – and we will continue (at least me) to filter out the paid media, influencers, fake reviews on Amazon etc.
In the end everything works out in its own mysterious way.
Stuart
I don’t even know what the many “top ten” and “best of 2022…” affiliate content can be considered. A lot of it is just unauthoritative and uninsightful noise.
Owned media has its place, but for larger brands, especially those that used to be a lot better about PR, it shouldn’t be their only tool.
One brand in the last year or so asked me to agree to an embargo, but then they officially announced the new product through their own channels, and this was also after retailers posted early preorder listings. It seems they wanted an exclusivity period for owned media, which is not what media embargos are for.
I am very capable of sourcing product news and details on my own, and with the occasional appreciated help from readers. But, it’s usually beneficial to have useful PR folks to lean on for deeper insights and explanations. I’m an “ask questions about nearly every tool” kind of person.
I try to avoid feeling entitled to traditional press/media relationship benefits, but I also don’t want to be walked all over, such as with embargoes seemingly intended to suppress my content to benefit a brand’s owned media efforts. Or, “[you had to scrape together a new tool post from fluffy social media posts and incomplete retail listings but] can you update your post with a couple of our marketing statements?”
Luckily, many brands continue to support earned media with competent PR, marketing, and communications efforts. But, there used to be a lot more.
Robert
Stuart, please explain embargo in this context. I still don’t get it after rereading your post.
Stuart
A media embargo is similar to an NDA but specifically refers to content publication timing.
An embargo is usually used for significant announcements (or reviews) in order to give media organizations more time to prep coverage ahead of time.
In the video game industry, reviewers usually receive early copies for testing and play-through purposes, with embargoes set to lift/end the day the games are released.
Let’s say a product is being announced on July 1st. Media organizations might receive advanced information that is embargoed until a certain date and time – perhaps July 1st at 9am ET for this example.
Some brands request signed embargo/NDA forms.
In what I complained about in the post, a company provided early info under embargo, but the embargo put me at a disadvantage since they started spreading news themselves earlier. Most embargoes have a clause about being lifted early, but this one was unusually strict.
Embargoes are used to improve earned media coverage, and not suppress it. “Even though the info is now out there, you cannot post about it until the embargo lifts.” I figured that (at best) the agency wasn’t experienced enough in earned media to know what they were doing. I don’t think they did anything on purpose, but I’m also not signing anything with them ever again.
Robert
Stuart, thanks for the explanation. What a different world. Marketers almost make me long for a centrally commanded economy.
Jared
That’s nuts. Without signing their “embargo” you would be free to source information from their owned media endeavors. Instead they offered information early, but only as a trick so they could keep you silent until after they could release the information themselves?
I hope that was an accident because otherwise it’s pretty greasy!
That’s a tricky situation too because you won’t have much negotiating power. E.g. you could ask for a clause that prevents them from releasing the information through some channels and not others, but I bet they aren’t in the habit of tailoring these for each media outlet.
I suppose you could refuse to provide coverage, but that also harms you as a source for product news.
I don’t like it!
Stuart
@Jared, Exactly. I protested but the stuck with it. I absolutely do have a lot of power in that instance – I don’t have to provide coverage at all.
A great majority of embargoes went smoothly.
When you look at more formal press releases, many will traditionally say “for immediate release,” which I always took to mean that embargoes used to be a lot more common.
Stuart
In my many experiences, there are some very excellent marketers out there.
And then there are the very bad ones, such as those who think it’s okay to refuse to answer press/media questions and then leave shill comments under fake names to hype up products.
The best marketing and communications professionals make me feel good about the business. There are many that fit all the bad stereotypes and generalizations, but not everyone fits the same mold.
mattd
I think there will always be some earned media, precisely because there will always be someone who is sick of not finding any. one prime example is youtube channels like project farm.
MM
Earned media might always exist, but that doesn’t mean it’s trustworthy. I have very little experience with Project Farm videos so perhaps my experience is an outlier, but that which I have seen was so far from scientific that I’d trust a dice roll more than I’d trust Project Farm’s conclusions.
JoeM
For the most part, I narrow everything down to two categories amidst all the “Influencer” culture… There’s ToolGuyd… and there’s Crazy People… ToolGuyd does the actual work, Crazy People don’t. And I am crazy enough, thank you very much, I’m not listening to more Crazy for advice on what is going on with things I’m interested in.
If companies aren’t willing to step back to keep me, that’s fine. I’ll tune them out, block them, or otherwise ignore them until I need something from them. Then I get what I want, after extensive research on my own, when I choose to buy it, and when “Surveyed” about the experience, I trash the company from stem to stern, breaking down every flaw and dishonest thing they’ve done. Leaving only one thing: My Choice.
Maybe that makes me a bad person, but hey… I trust ToolGuyd to actually do a lot of the work for me when I need them, and Stuart is a genuine expert in many of the things I check. Therefore… Influencers will lose as long as I’m alive, and I don’t care if that upsets anyone.
fred
Before the Internet, we used to get barraged by “trade journals.” They also might have been sorted into 3 categories: 1) Refereed Journals from Professional Organizations, 2) Magazines with both Editorial Content and Advertising pages 3) Trade “rags” with most (if not all) content placed by manufacturers/vendors (i.e. advertising disguised as articles.) Early in my career I read all of them – but soon learned how to sort out the garbage. The Internet has just made it easier for those who would barrage us with trash.
Paul C
Paid media CAN be a source of information but it depends on how they are paid. It’s similar to product placement in TV shows. Think of how many times This Old House promoted a product. TOH as an example built a reputation and have their own TOH brand to protect so they don’t support bad products intentionally. They make money on advertising, not payment from PBS, so they are the extreme paid content!although they might get sponsored by say a window company for the season while promoting a plumbing product on a show. There is no doubt the influence TOH has had over the years. And it’s the fact that they have their own brand to protect that puts them ahead of what can only be called a pure marketing company even if it’s just a one man band making YouTube videos mostly paid with tools and YouTube generic ads. That sort of person is actually the example of bad paid advertising.
In owned content we have the infomercial as one bad extreme and pretty much every car commercial as another. At one time everyone “had” to have a web page. It took a while to recognize that a page with an address is like paying for bold print in the Yellow Pages. Content is where is matters. This is where owned content, especially with a complicated or innovative product, makes a huge difference in marketing.
Earned content used to be Amazon reviews. But those have become suspect. Finding “honest” and relevant information is still hard. How many “bad” and often blatantly obvious hotel reviews are postings from staff at competitors next door?
Also though often marketing people cater to other marketing people because they go with their views. They fail to sell to their actual market.
MM
Random customer reviews are generally terrible, and always have been, in my experience. There’s the more recent problem you mentioned with finding honest reviews among the paid-for-positive reviews or negative shilling coming from competitors. But there’s also the fact that most people are simply terrible reviewers:
People will rate a product even though they have no experience with any of its competitors.
People will rate a product even though their review makes it clear they were mis-using the product.
People allow unrelated feelings to creep into the review. I.e. “The food at this restaurant was great, but traffic sucked, my boss kept texting me, and my boyfriend was rude the whole time. 2/5 stars”.
People will rate the “durability” or “reliability” of a product even though they have only owned it for a single day.
“I haven’t used it yet, but it looks great!” 5/5 stars in every category!
….or just general idiocy. My personal favorite was a review for a cookbook which read something like “I bought this for my husband because he LOVES Thai food and everyone says this book has the MOST AUTHENTIC recipes. But you can’t get any of these ingredients at wal-mart!!!?!? Two stars.”
With a video–be it something like TOH or just a single dude doing reviews on YT–we get more information to help filter out the BS.
Maps Bam
There are so many shills on Facebook. Some companies even give tools to channels with not many subscribers in exchange for a positive review.
Stuart
You should see some of the comments I’ve seen on social media – people with less than 100 followers telling brands how much their audience would appreciate a review if only they could get a free sample.
Dominic S
Thanks for being one of the real ones, Stuart! Can always count on ToolGuyd to give us the skinny without the BS. Someone out there has to tell the truth.
Stuart
This isn’t really about truth, but information and insights.
We’re in a world now where many brands break product news via social media but aren’t capable of answering any press questions, even simple ones about price and availability. I have adapted to this, but it’s not pretty, as I tend to make it very clear when missing details or informational holes in posts aren’t due to a lack of effort on my part.
Charles
Unfortunately, many sites that started out as “somewhat impartial” test sites have, over the years, morphed into what appears to be paid shills for manufacturers – in some cases, the “reviews” are (not even well) disguised press releases.
Years ago, one of my favorite sites was “the-gadgeteer” where items that were purchased by the site owners were reviewed. Then, we started seeing more reviewers and items that were submitted for review by manufacturers. Now, they often mirror the other weird sites and none of the items have bad ratings – even when the Amazon link for the product has a 2 or 3 star rating.
Jason. W
i have tried other tool blogs or websites but was always left feeling a bit untrusting of what was posted. Was it real honest feedback or just a paid review? Toolguyd is the only one i trust and continue to come back to. I believe that what ever i read here is real honest feedback. Your own opinion is clearly stated and your sponserships are out in the open.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate it!