“Media” is a broad term, capturing everything from journalists and influencers, to ads, press releases and earned media. And while PR and news traditionally run parallel to one another, there’s more overlap than you might think when using a strategic approach. Paid, owned and earned media are all effective on their own, though using a blend of all three can really amplify a brand in unique ways.
What is paid media?
Paid media is one of the most commonly recognized types of media and is often referred to as “sponsored content” or “spon con.” Typically, it has a high spend behind it, with a tailored or nuanced approach for external audiences and platforms.
Most often, paid media examples are on TV or online, they’re explicit campaigns with the goal of brand recognition or profit, or both. While they appeal to the general consumer, advertisements are typically meant to sell a product or service; and they’re not being shy about it.
What is owned media?
Was it created by your brand, for your brand? Usually without the same dollar spend as “spon con,” owned media lurks somewhere between the other two. Think blog posts, campaign landing pages or social media posts, often including a brand’s key messaging or style.
This approach allows for a long shelf-life or even as a permanent asset on websites or social media pages, though that’s often where the reach ends without additional promotion or engagement.
And most importantly, what is earned media?
Arguably the most difficult, but incredibly powerful, is earned media. Unlike paid or owned media, there is no spend behind the pick-up and the control is left to third parties and publications rather than the brand but it can be seen as one of the most credible ways to build authority. Press releases and news story distribution are two of the most common forms of earned media.
Essentially, the brand must earn recognition organically, through reputation or compelling topics. In order to truly live in the earned media space, there must be no spend behind placements or coverage, and the content needs to be inherently interesting to get the attention of third parties.
The easier part? (When you work with a creative partner like Talker!) Creating unique and mediable content — our team does this day in and day out. The harder part? Getting publishers’ attention and showing them the value of your content, resulting in publishing on their sites, but that’s where we come in.
Because Talker does not pay publishers to take our content, our stories need to be creative, credible, newsworthy and relevant in their own right.
These days, two letters are on everyone’s mind: AI. And as that landscape continues to evolve, Talker is perfectly positioned to aid in that development with our earned media capabilities. Research has revealed that 95% of AI citations come from non-paid media and 89% of that comes from earned media alone. This means that our research-led news stories are not only capturing the attention of readers and publishers, but the earned media coverage that we generate boosts brand visibility in AI search while also helping to shape the future of AI capabilities and search results.
Where does research fit in?
At the intersection of paid, earned and owned media lives market research, a powerful tool that can be used across the board to not only amplify your brand but also boost visibility and authority in your space. While Talker’s specialty is earned media, your brand exposure doesn’t need to stop there.
Talker-created visual assets can be utilized on landing pages, blog posts and across social media to leverage key findings in a digestible and shareable way, venturing into owned media territory. Beyond that, brand teams use the data to create their own assets for social posts and to feature in TikTok videos. But why stop there? Within data sets, there are often many ways to examine the data and pairing a stat with an advertisement can help add credibility to your message.
As an example of how research can be used across these various forms of media: together with our Talker Research team, we partnered with Yubico in 2024 and 2025 for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. By conducting international research and crafting topical and timely news stories from the data, we generated over 170 and 260 earned media mentions for both stories, respectively.
Yubico extended the reach of the research through their owned channels, publishing and leveraging the findings for LinkedIn social posts and blog posts. They also transformed the data into comprehensive white papers, and incorporated the insights into their webinar programming, further amplifying their research findings and extending the reach of their campaign.
Credible, independent research and creative storytelling can extend the reach of a campaign beyond earned media coverage. By leveraging data you can fuel content and activations across the paid, earned and owned media space — elevating your brand messaging in a unique and organic way.
Let’s work together to amplify your brand. Get in touch and we’ll show you how strategic content creation and amplification can boost visibility and credibility.
Livy Beaner
Senior Editorial Account Manager