When reviewing the multiple PR tactics, I feel that paid is definitely the most important for various reasons. Other tactics like earned, shared, and owned are also important but are not as critical so succeed in as paid. When you pay for an advertisement or advertising space you have created a risk for the brand and product. If the advertisement were to flop and not connect as well as anticipated with the audience, it could cause damage to the brands image. With paid media you are taking your value and putting it on display for potentially millions of people to see and judge. That is why I believe paid media is the most critical tactic public relations professionals could use. A great example of this was the Coinbase commercial used in the 2023 Super Bowl. The Ad itself was very simple, it was a black background with QR code that was flashing changing colors. The QR code led viewers to the Coinbase website where they offered free bitcoin. The AD brought in around 20 million viewers and cost Coinbase a whopping 14 million dollars to televise.
Tactic Examples
Earned media in my opinion is out of control of a company or brand to influence. Earned media comes after you have already created your product and shown/given it to the masses. An example of earned media is a shoutout that someone gives on their personal platform praising the need or service a business provided. I think that shared media is successful for a company to have once they have their roots deep in a community with a strong niche for sharing their content. I think that Spotify does an amazing job of this each year. They give their customers the ability to share their listened to music with their communities which in return unites people around the Spotify app. Owned media I think is also very critical for a company to have going for them because it allows their fans/customers to see more than just the product they are buying. I think a great example of this is Red Bull, the energy drink company. At face value they are just a company that sells energy drinks in cans across the world. But behind the scenes they are an extreme sports sponsor for athletes all around the world in various sports such as skateboarding, motocross, skiing, snowboarding, BMX, etc. They use this owned media by posting it to YouTube for their supporters to watch. This is very critical for a company or brand to use because it adds a layer of depth to the personality a company needs to be ultimately successful long term.
Keywords Social media, Community, Engagement, Strategy. References:
USA Today Sports. (2024, February 13). Coinbase Superbowl Commerical. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIUD_NE1BDo
Web player: Music for everyone. Spotify. (n.d.). https://open.spotify.com/
YouTube. (n.d.). Red Bull. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/redbull