Hike #6: Media Planning and PESO: in small businesses, performance metrics and Spotify X Fc Barcelona

Hello dear readers, welcome back to your weekly marketing hike that elevates your knowledge about diverse marketing topics. In this weeks edition, we are going to talk about media planning and PESO. Now, the term Media Planning might sound familiar to the majority of you, but it might very well be possible that PESO does not really ring a bell. So before diving into the topic any further, I'll provide you with a brief overview of both terms and what exactly they pertain.

So, the essence of media planning is about conveying a message. To be more specific, it's about developing a plan in order to convey this message. As you want to be sure that the message that your company puts out is seen by the right people, at the right time and with the right frequency. In order to get the message across properly, we can make use of the PESO model. The core function of the PESO model is essentially about deciding with tools or channels you are going to use in order to get the message to the intended public. To illustrate this I´ll explain the acronym to you first.

• Paid Media: Paid placement of your message (broadcast, digital, print)

• Earned Media: Content created by someone else about your company (word- of-mouth, blogger/influencer outreach, interviews and press releases, Investor relations)

• Shared Media: Communication via social networks

that is shared between your brand and someone else.

• Owned Media: Content you create and manage on your own (website, videos, social media pages, podcasts, webinars)

The most successful way to get your message across properly is by using all four of the media types. Returning to the concept of media planning, there are a few steps that are involved in the creation of a media plan. Which are:

• Determining Media Objectives: Clearly worded statements that outline what the media plan should accomplish

  
  

• Determining Media Strategy: Determination of how the intended media objectives will be achieved by deciding on which media platforms will be used

  
  

• Select Media Execution Tactics: The stage in which the media strategy will be fine-tuned and translated into specific action plans

  
  

• Media Evaluation: The evaluation of the effectiveness of the media strategies by benchmarking them to SMART objectives, conducting post buy analyses, using real-time tracking of effectiveness and recognition and recall tests.

Other aspects that should be taken into consideration when creating a media plan are the reach, frequency and continuity of the media used, as well as the intended engagement, coverage and timing of your media platforms.

PESO in small businesses: Wise investment or Wasted Money? A critical reflection:

It can definitely be argued that applying the PESO-model in small businesses can be useful as it still assists the business in becoming a more established entity in the world of media and creating brand awareness, and possibly a lasting impression in the minds of consumers. However, the main issue with the application of PESO in small businesses, is the fact that their budget is usually fairly limited (Media Planning - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia, n.d.). Therefore making it harder to effectively implement all four media types mentioned in the PESO-model. The effect of this could be that these businesses will have to make choices in which media types to invest in. Therefore, the possibility remains that a full integration of the PESO-model might not be achieved at all and the benefits will never be felt. One of the media types that is especially hard to gain as a small business, is earned media. As earned media is about voluntary media coverage by means of mentions, reviews, influencer endorsements and so forth. In order to receive this type of media coverage, it would mean that people would initially need to know about your company and what type of product/service you offer. Being a small business, this might be very challenging to achieve initially. So what could businesses do to limit the effects of this problem?

There are a few possible approaches that small businesses could consider to effectively integrate the PESO-model into their media strategies. First of all, in small businesses it is key to consider which media-type is currently the most important and therefore deserves the most funds. The type of media that creates the most value for the company in the context of the PESO-model would be the owned media, as the other media channels originate from, or are being amplified by this media-channel type (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2024).

Other key-aspects, that are especially important for small businesses is determining the Media Objectives and Media Strategy in the context of cost-effectiveness and intended target market. This is due to the fact that the target market needs to be more specific for small businesses as they cannot afford being ineffective with their marketing budget. Within this process, they also need to be cost-effective as budgets are limited. So this would call for the need of considering factors like cost per thousand, the media budget, as well as absolute- and the relative cost of the media strategy. If all of these factors are taken into consideration, implementing PESO-model can very well be effective. As heavily investing into owned media will help you to establish your brand identity first, which allows you to gain exposure and be recognized as your company continues to grow. When the owned media of the small business has become established, shared and earned media can start to flow from this organically. And paid media can become more meaningful as the brand has established a narrative and an identity already. If applied in successfully, this could lead to the full integration of the PESO-model for the small business and eventually contribute to increased brand awareness, authority and trust in the brand among consumers (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2024). Meaning that PESO is worth the investment, even for small businesses.

Measuring Success in PESO-applications

In order to make sure that your PESO-efforts don't go to waste, it would be useful to know how to measure which media applications are effective and which ones are not. Therefore there are a few useful metrics that can be applied in order to ensure a successful usage of their media channels. The metrics of success can be different for each brand, but the bottom line that each brand should keep in mind is that they convey a message to the right target audience, at the right time, with the right frequency.

#1 Metrics for Paid Media:

• Click-trough rates, cost per click, and conversion rates. These metrics will assist you in determining the return on investment of your media channels and if you are reaching the audience you want (Dietrich, 2023).

  
  

• Landing pages and A/B testing: Apply software solutions to create various landing pages and the usage of A/B testing. The process of A/B testing is about putting out different versions of a website, page or ad to see which one the customers prefer. While doing this, you can collect data from customers that are already interested in your product or service and determine their preferences. In this way, you can determine what works and what doesn't for your clientele (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2020).

#2 Metrics for Earned Media:

• Media mentions, website traffic, and social media engagement. By means of these metrics you can determine whether your media efforts are effective (Dietrich, 2023).

  
  

• Media blogger and influencer scoring: Determine the which influencer, blogger or media platform is the most useful for your brand to create more sales. For example, an influencer with 500,000 followers might boost purchase intentions with 1% whereas an influencer with 50000 might increase purchase intentions with 10%. It's about determining which blogger, influencer or other platform can truly help your business rather than solely focusing on the amount of followers an influencer has (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2020).

  
  
  
  

#3 Metrics for Shared Media:

• Social media reach, engagement rates, and influencer metrics. These can help you identify the social media strategy's effectiveness and your influencer marketing efforts (Dietrich, 2023)

• Usage of unique items linked to your brand: For example, the degree to which unique URLs, landing pages, coupons, discount codes and phone numbers are used on your shared media platforms (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2020)

  
  

#4 Metrics for Owned Media:

• Website traffic, bounce rates, and time on site. Helps you determine the effectiveness of your media strategy and if you truly engage your intended target market (Dietrich, 2023).

• Social Media Shares: Serves a social proof of the quality of certain content. For example, if you are looking at the content of a brand and you notice that there are no social media shares, it signals that there must be something wrong with the content. Even if you initially liked the content (Dietrich & Dietrich, 2020).

Running multiple campaigns all at once, can it be done?

Source: Spotify

Companies preferably will want to utilize all the platforms mentioned in the PESO-model. If companies have the funds to do so, they might actually be able to run multiple campaigns, or applications at once. An example of a company who managed to do so successfully, is Spotify. This can be found in the fact that Spotify invested in a sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona regarding their paid media-efforts. This has generated massive amounts of exposure for Spotify as their logo is now visible on the players' jerseys as well as in the Barcelona's famous stadium. The deal has even integrated Spotify's name into the name of the stadium 'Spotify Camp Nou' (FC Barcelona, n.d.). In terms of earned media, Spotify has established itself by means of artists sharing their listener numbers and users sharing their their most-played songs. When looking at shared media, it seems that Spotify runs a very active social media page which enables other followers to interact and share the content that Spotify has put out. Also contributing to increase brand awareness. Lastly, Spotify runs a newsroom and community blog as part of their owned media which is update regularly, independent of user engagement (Storozhuk, 2024). So it can be concluded that has been able to run multiple campaigns alongside each other. On the one hand they run the FC Barcelona x Spotify campaign but on the other hand they actively invest in their owned media channels to increase their user engagement, which can be seen as a separate campaign. However, sometimes these campaigns overlap as the Barcelona campaign is also promoted on their owned, shared and earned media.

Source: FC Barcelona

Key Takeaways:

As discussed in this article, it can be noticed that media planning and the usage of the PESO- model can be invaluable in order to gain enough exposure for your brand. In order to do so successfully however, you must be completely aware of who you are trying to target and the media channels that you intend to use for this. The right timing and the frequency of sending your messages via the chosen media channels are also important parts of the media plan. The PESO-model provides companies with a tool to decide which media channels they are going to use for their campaigns, or the ones they aim to use in the future. Applications of the PESO-model are the most effective when all four media channels are utilized. This might not always be feasible for small businesses, but can be attained when businesses grow. This is shown in the example of Spotify, in which they managed to integrate all four media channels mentioned in the PESO-model. Which enabled them to run multiple campaigns simultaneously.

Until next hike!

Dennis

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References:

·        Dietrich, G., & Dietrich, G. (2020c, June 10). 15 key PR Metrics to measure in a PESO model Program - spin sucks. Spin Sucks - Professional Development for PR and Marketing Pros. https://spinsucks.com/communication/pr-metrics-peso-model-program/

·        Dietrich, G., & Dietrich, G. (2024, May 28). The PESO Model: A 2024 Comprehensive Guide. Spin Sucks - Professional Development for PR and Marketing Pros. https://spinsucks.com/communication/peso-model-comprehensive-guide/

·        Dietrich, G. (2023, May 25). The PESO model: a comprehensive framework for agencies. AgencyAnalytics. https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/peso-model

·        Media Planning - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/media-planning

·        Spotify — Spotify x FC Barcelona. (2023, November 17). Spotify. https://newsroom.spotify.com/spotify-x-fc-barcelona

·        Storozhuk, A. (2024, August 13). The PESO model turns 10: How to apply it in your communication strategies. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/07/09/the-peso-model-turns-10-how-to-apply-it-in-your-communication-strategies/

·        Understanding the PESO model to support your small business. (n.d.). My Big Day. https://www.mybigdaycompany.com/my-big-day-blog/understanding-the-peso-model-to-support-your-small-business