Shared media forms the latest edition of the Paid, Earned and Owned framework completing the acronym ‘PESO’.
It’s a media planning tool that allows marketers to determine the different types of media opportunities that exist for their brands.
What is Shared Media?
Shared media is when brands, individuals or influencers boost and amplify the content of partners and collaborators across their paid, earned and owned platforms.
The Power of Shared Media
They say a problem shared is a problem halved. And what are the biggest problems for marketers right now?
- Customer acquisition costs
- Media fragmentation
Shared media has the ability to help brands solve both of these. By sharing media spaces, you can gain more reach, more buzz, be seen by new audiences and generate advocacy.
The sum of which will lead to new cost effective customer acquisition opportunities, enable you to leverage new media opportunities and open up more creative avenues.
How can you leverage Shared media?
Let’s take a look at a number of examples of how brands have leveraged Shared media.
Brand collaborations and partnerships
There has been a flurry of new brand partnerships that have come on the scene. Typically, partnerships adopted the mantra ‘birds of a feather flock together’, however off late it’s more like ‘opposites attract’.
From partnerships like Gregg’s and Primark to The North Face and Gucci, it appears that when you put two contrasting brands together, magic happens. The buzz on social and press alone is worth the effort, let alone the access to new audiences, new channels and a way to revitalise interest in the brand.
One of the most exciting brand partnership announcements of 2023, has to be between Nike and Tiffany. It zings in so many ways.
It has generated a huge amount of earned media for both brands. It’s been talked about in almost every channel and corner of the world. It enables Nike to move in on a cultural shift towards the high end jewellery space. Whilst Tiffany’s has an opportunity to re-define what ‘bling’ actually is, in a new category.
The best part is the combined firepower will enable them to have a larger media budget and infuse new creative flair into the brands.
Sharing owned space
The owned real estate of certain brands is the envy of so many others. For instance, from Starbucks having one of the largest social media followings to Superdry having millions of unique visitors to their website.
By sharing digital and even physical spaces, can have big advantages for brands to get “free” exposure to new audiences.
A good example is the collaboration between Tony’s Chocoloney and Ben and Jerry’s. They are represented on each other’s websites and it wouldn’t be a far stretch to think they could share physical space to sell complimentary products.
At the heart of this partnership is a shared philosophy and values, which I would argue is fundamental to any shared success.
Influencer Spaces
Tapping into the audiences of influencers can be very valuable. Getting them to talk about you in an authentic way to their audience and even feature or trial you as part of their content can give you real exposure quite like no other.
A good example is the latest crave drink; Prime which is fronted by two of the worlds biggest influencers, KSI and Logan Paul. The earned media attention the drink got was nothing short of astounding given the endorsements of these influencers.
By engaging in this way you have an automatic audience of highly engaged and loyal fans that you can directly speak to.
David and Goliath brands
One of the major benefits of shared media is the ability for David and Goliath brands to team up together for shared benefit.
A David brand benefits from sharing the floor with a behemoth, whilst Goliath benefits from the diehard fans their partner has garnered. They are also seen to be helping local brands and community, which in turn has powerful synergies for their own brand.
A great example of this is when Adidas teamed up with a local Dubai based long standing Pakistani restaurant, Ravi’s. Ravi’s is like an icon in the community so Adidas’ partnership solidified positive brand associations within the community. It also positioned them well as they celebrated community-focused restaurants in cities around the world.
There is an important lesson baked into this. By sharing the stage with Ravi’s, Adidas got themselves associated with an everyday occasion i.e. casual dining. So when people think of going to a restaurant, they just think they will slip on their Adidas shoes and walk over.
Product placements
Another great way to take advantage of shared media is by partnering with media owners, entertainment companies and events organisers. This enables brands to be displayed and play a role in cultural occasions and other exciting things happening that give it exposure to new audiences. From movie releases right through to being a part of national events, present super opportunities for brands to show how relevant they are.
Summary
In summary, there are just so many great opportunity for brands to share spaces, places, identities and forge synergies for mutual benefit. In today’s world where it’s usually the case that ‘better together’, it creates a huge amount of opportunity for brands to collaborate rather than compete.
