Say Hello To Converged Media, The New Paid-Earned-Owned
The folks at the Altimeter Group released their latest report on the state of social-media marketing, and the evolution of Paid, Earned and Owned Media, the combination of which they dub, "Converged Media."
The report is well worth a read, and outlines the current organizational and product-related hurdles facing brands as they attempt to execute Converged Media campaigns. We've got some detailed thoughts below, but if we had to summarize in haiku format (actually senryu if you're going to be nitpicky about it), it would go something like this:
Paid, Earned, Owned is real;
Remains tough to execute.
Networks lead the charge.
Grab a cup of coffee and give it a look:
The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands Must Combine Paid, Owned & Earned Media from Altimeter Group Network on SlideShare
Again, there's certainly plenty to discuss and debate on in the report (again, you should definitely take the time to read it); some additional thoughts and comments from where we sit here at Rallyverse:
In case you needed further convincing that Converged Media is real and can deliver dramatic results for brands, the success we've seen from integrated campaigns here at Rallyverse has been dramatic. For our brands who've run converged Paid and Owned campaigns, organic community growth rates (absent of the fans and followers they picked up via paid campaigns) increased by 4x, and engagement per post increased by 10x. In terms of Earned Media, Viral Impressions increased by 13x and People Talking About This on Facebook increased by 21x. Converged Media isn't just a buzzword. It is real, and it is measurable.
The discussion of a fragmented channel across the ecosystem -- within brands, agencies, and technology vendors -- certainly maps to our experiences here at Rallyverse. While we've focused on delivering Converged Media campaigns for our clients, ones that we execute across Paid and Owned channels, we also realize that very few of our clients are currently capable of consuming these sorts of solutions. Certainly many clients and agencies are moving in this direction, but we're not quite there yet. At the same time, we appreciate that even with our focus on Converged Media campaigns, there are other social media point solutions that offer capabilities that are important to marketers -- and which we don't currently offer. Thus we appreciate and agree with the need to build platforms and technologies that are open and integration-friendly.
Finally, if there was an elephant in the room as we read the report, it was the role of the primary social network operators in driving the move to Converged Media. If a significant portion of the advertising offerings on social networks amounts to "Native Monetization" -- which are essentially content-promotion products -- then taking a Converged Approach as a marketer isn't really a choice. That is, if the ads you buy on Twitter and Facebook are Promoted Tweets and Sponsored Stories, well, how can marketers not take a Converged approach to their social marketing? Do they even really have a choice?
At Rallyverse, we are immersed in this Converged Media world but with a very focused view of this model within the Social Media landscape. We are experiencing the growing pains that the report describes but also the great successes of being early in delivering Converged solutions for marketers. As the report notes, consumers are ready for a Converged experience. So are the network owners. It's just up to the rest of us -- the marketers, the agencies, and the technologies and vendors who work with them -- to make the vision real.