Earned media is by its very nature - and as its name suggests - hard work. We have to earn the right to people’s attention spans, conversations, thoughts and coverage. 

But in today’s world - where consumer trust in advertising is at an all-time low - being able to reach audiences with any kind of tangible impact is becoming increasingly difficult. We’re at a time where competition for time and attention has never been more difficult, and this only looks set to become more complicated as we approach 2023 and a cookieless future.

If we want real cultural relevance, that means we have to get back to basics and focus on credibility, authenticity, and relatability - not endless KPIs. But more than anything, it means having strong creative and strategic foundations that enable a brand to show up in the spaces where its audience actually hangs out.

It’s harder for brands to earn the right to people’s attention, as there’s an inherent lack of trust from the moment people assume they are being sold something. So how do brands stand out in a world where pay to play doesn’t work anymore? 

What’s the “rule book” - is there one?  Ironically, to define its future, we must first learn from the past: this means going back to the basics of brand building. Secondly, we must learn from the present: how do those influential people manage to still earn a space in our lives at a point in time where social media allows a much closer proximity than ever before?

Remembering the basics of brand strategy 

Earned media doesn’t start once you’re at the campaign stage. The most powerful brands bake their marketing into their product from the very start, in the most human way possible.  To this day, Virgin remains one of the best examples of this in action: a brand built around an aim “to make a difference in people’s lives”, through developing products that market themselves.  

In the early days of Virgin Atlantic, they sought ways with which to improve the customer experience. A standout example: Virgin asked themselves how they could transform the standard act of watching a movie on a flight into a real ‘cinema experience’. The strategy? Find a way to serve ice cream on board at a point in time when it hadn’t been done before. And the result? A moment that was documented, talked about, shared, and became highly anticipated; setting the stage for what to expect on board a Virgin Atlantic flight.

The airline continued to shake up the category both in flight and on the ground, being the first airline to offer putting greens, manicures, and haircuts in its airport lounges. On a simpler level, Virgin Trains wanted to encourage people not to flush anything other than toilet paper down the toilet. Instead of a basic, boring sign, they too did it “the Virgin way”, with a sign that became widely shared on social media.