Media coverage builds brands

The budget balancing act between brand building and activation is a perpetual challenge for CMOs. Boston Consulting Group made a powerful argument back in 2023 for investing in brand. Companies that don’t will experience loss of market share, reduction in sales and decline in shareholder value over the longer term. Yet it is tempting to divert a greater percentage of budget to performance marketing, foregoing the long-term payback on brand strength in favour of short-term revenue.

One lever that many brands are not pulling effectively in their brand building efforts is earned media coverage. CMOs have lakes of data to demonstrate the impact of their significant advertising investment. Few have data that quantifies the contribution of media coverage to brand tracking outcomes, including consumer attention, positive and negative buzz, and purchase consideration. Earned media coverage is delivered by the substantially smaller PR budget. This amplifies the effects of advertising and creates a highly efficient approach for keeping the brand top-of-mind.

It’s easy to explain why media coverage helps to build brands. Human recall is inaccurate, and the consumer brain is likely to confuse what was read in the media with advertising content. Plus, we are constantly exposed to media stories about our favourite brands, which shape perceptions and influence responses to brand tracking questions in a way which can be analysed over time.

Marketers actively encourage journalists to write about their latest ad campaign, or their most recent influencer tie-ups. This earned coverage supports the impact of advertising, increasing reach and generating interest. Improved collaboration between advertising and PR is clearly seen in the way supermarket brands seek publicity for their Christmas advertising campaigns. For the rest of the year, strengthening this collaboration could have demonstrable impact on commercial outcomes.

For the first time, it’s possible to measure the relationship between media coverage and brand tracking data, such as YouGov surveys. Brand tracking is designed to measure the impact of advertising on brand health because advertising represents a huge investment that needs justification. However, if CMOs and their C-suite colleagues can see the extent to which brand building and consideration are also influenced by media relations, they will be able to capitalise on PR activity, whose power and utility are currently widely underestimated.

Metricomm is helping global brands connect the dots between media data and business outcomes. To explore the relationship between media coverage and brand tracking get in touch via hello@metricomm.com or by using the form below, and we’ll get straight back to you.