If brand awareness is the leading KPI for CMO’s, increasing share of media audience matters. 

New research from Censuswide reveals that CMOs now consider brand awareness to be the most important metric. 62% now track brand awareness metrics as the best indicator of marketing activation success – up from 42% in 2024. This puts brand building ahead of sales-related metrics and new customer acquisition among CMO priorities.

It’s not just about spending more on advertising than your competitors. Media coverage also plays an important role in setting the stage for deeper brand interactions. It maintains brand presence, particularly in the online world where news coverage remains visible over long periods of time to influence customer choice. Earned media content amplifies and supports paid activities by developing brand strength through familiarity, along with clarity of proposition and values.

We know this from our work combining Metricomm’s media audience data with YouGov BrandIndex data. This analysis shows how the size of audience for media coverage impacts real-world consumer perceptions and likely behaviour, right through to purchase intent.

In particular, brands which have a higher share of media audience within their sector tend to have a higher share of advertising awareness. Media works hand in hand with advertising to generate levels of awareness that can fuel better commercial performance.  In one sector, the contribution of media coverage to ad awareness levels for the two brands with the largest media audiences was more than twice as high as the next closest competitor. Not surprisingly, they also have the highest UK revenues compared to industry rivals.

Gone are the days, though, when we can simply assert that PR generates awareness without backing it up with firm evidence that holds water in the boardroom. That means providing hard numbers to prove how awareness at the top of the funnel filters down into other measurable indicators of brand engagement and propensity to purchase.

YouGov and Metricomm are doing exactly that, joining the dots using audience-centric insights. Together, we help clients understand when, why and how the awareness generated by media coverage builds and protects brands by influencing not only what the world thinks, but how it buys.