By Oluwaseyi Lawal

The report, titled “Beyond the Buzz: Examining the Effectiveness of Earned Media”, emphasizes how the rise of digital media and “advertising pollution” has paved the way for Earned Media to become a central force in both creativity and effectiveness.

The white paper’s core finding reveals that culturally relevant creative work vastly outperforms non-culturally salient campaigns in terms of profit, sales, and market share, with such campaigns achieving significantly higher returns on investment (ROIs). The research also shows that culturally resonant campaigns create a “halo effect,” leading to an 11% larger boost in sales for other products in the brand’s portfolio than non-culturally salient efforts.

Brent Nelsen, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Edelman, explains, “Earned Media uses cultural saliency to cut through the noise and drive business effects. Earned’s unique ability to take action in culture—participating in, creating, and changing culture—enables brands to drive greater levels of brand trust through actions that drive greater levels of growth.”

The report explores how the digital transformation of the past 20 years has reshaped how marketers should approach Earned, Paid, and Owned media strategies. It argues that brands need to reconsider their balance across these three channels, with Earned Media acting as a powerful tool to connect more meaningfully with consumers in a fragmented digital world.

WARC’s findings show that social media ad spending is projected to reach $247.3 billion globally by 2024, marking a 14.3% increase year-on-year. Despite the continued value of traditional media outlets like TV, social platforms have now overtaken paid search, becoming the largest advertising channel globally. Additionally, the report notes that the average time users spend on social media has surged to over 2.5 hours per day, a 50% increase since 2014, with user numbers rising by 169% over the same period.

The white paper also highlights the effectiveness of Earned Media in top global marketing campaigns, with data showing that the most creative and effective campaigns heavily relied on Earned tactics. According to WARC’s global rankings, 71% of the world’s top-performing campaigns utilized Earned Media approaches, compared to only 29% of all awarded campaigns. This over-indexing extends to tactics commonly associated with Earned Media, such as Word-of-Mouth marketing and consumer Advocacy.

However, the white paper also warns of what it calls the “Earned Fallacy.” Despite clear evidence of Earned Media’s success in driving significant brand outcomes, many brands still underutilize it in their media mix, often failing to maximize its potential.

Aditya Kishore, Insight Director at WARC, commented, “Earned media offers marketers a way of engaging with their audiences and finding creative ways to stand out in today’s very noisy media landscape. Its ability to participate in cultural trends, and to potentially lead rather than only follow, allows brands unique opportunities to develop connections with their audience.”

The white paper concludes with several key takeaways for marketers, urging them to rethink their approach to Paid, Owned, and Earned Media and to leverage Earned Media to maximize creativity, effectiveness, and cultural relevance.