The Earned Media

You don't need to be an advertising expert to deliver result worth Rs.10 after spending the same amount. The challenge is to earn that extra bit which adds to the final effectiveness equation. The clients' money can be used either to buy media or create 'owned' media. However, an effective advertising campaign generates 'Earned Media' or in simplistic terms 'Word-of-mouth' which differs it from other vanilla campaigns.

Putting it mathematically,

Earned Media = K x (Bought Media + Owned Media)

However, it is necessary to keep in mind that this word of mouth or Earned Media doesn't come for free. The initial push required to create that talk value needs money to be spent judiciously. The best example of Earned Media that I have ever seen is the all time bollywood classic 'Sholay'. The movie made using a lavish budget of Rs.2crore (in 1975) was trashed by the critics as soon as it hit the theaters. In fact, it was labeled as 'Choley'. What led to this movie becoming one of the all-time grosser was a strong word-of-mouth. Thirty Three years down, Sholay has already earned more than Rs.400crore (adjusted to inflation).

The foundation of any advertising campaign is a media neutral branding idea which cuts across any given medium. A good branding idea generates a good amount of word-of-mouth. In fact, this could be used as a yard stick to gauge the effectiveness of the branding idea. However, quantifying word-of-mouth is still a long shot.