The media landscape is in a constant state of limbo nowadays. With paid, earned and owned media (social can be all three), it can be hard to keep up with the trends. Do not worry, though because we have you covered. We have used our own insights, coupled with outside research to give you a look at the changing media landscape and how you can adjust your strategies to stay ahead of the curve.
Pay-for-Play – More outlets, whether it is local broadcast stations or trade magazines, are switching to the pay-for-play model. This means that the only way to secure coverage in the outlet is to buy and ad or buy an “advertorial,” which is an ad that does not look like an ad. To give you an example, in one market, we went from only one station being pay-for-play to all stations being this format over the course of a few months. The benefit of these is that you have more control over the story since you are paying for it. The downside is the hit to your budget.
Change in Format – Many broadcast stations are switching up the styles of their morning shows. Certain shows that we used to be able to secure for a particular type of segment have either moved those certain types of segments to their weekend broadcasts or have done away with the concept entirely, opting for news, sports and weather instead.
Content Matters – According to research from Pew Research Center, Nielsen and the Financial Times, nearly half of web-using adults reported getting their news from Facebook — and that number is only growing. This means that the content you provide to broadcast, digital or print media will likely be shared across multiple platforms so make sure you are using the best content (pictures, video, etc.) to represent your brand.
Integration is Everything – According to Pew Research Center, 39 of the top 50 digital news websites had more traffic to their sites from mobile devices than desktop. Most likely, users are accessing these sites through social media, which means that all messaging published on your own channels must be consistent across each platform to have the best chance of resonating with your target audience.
The media landscape seems to change on a daily basis with so many different mediums that can be used to reach our target audiences. It is important to continually monitor all forms of media to stay on top of these trends. This snapshot could look completely different a few months from now, so stay tuned!
