The Gaming & Gambling Earned Media Playbook 2026: Building Position Before the Market Opens 5W Gaming & Gambling Practice

PR earned media is all about the reputation you build, the word-of-mouth buzz you generate. In this article, we delve into earned media meaning, the concept of earned media, how to get earned media, and explore its distinct benefits. It's the kind of publicity you don't pay for directly, but it's invaluable in building credibility and boosting your brand's visibility. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Your focus will likely be the quality of the story in trade publications rather than reaching the general public. Be sure to also track links to your direct-to-consumer website or retailers.

PESO adds Shared media as a distinct category, recognising that social engagement behaves differently from owned and earned. Utilize Sprout’s Instagram integration to create, schedule, publish and engage with posts. To truly maximize your social media strategy, it’s essential to integrate EMV with other metrics that provide a more complete picture of your efforts. To sum up, earned media value is a useful metric for benchmarking, identifying trends and reporting to stakeholders. As previously mentioned, calculating earned media value does not look the same for everyone. Additionally, with Sprout Social’s reporting, you will find a repertoire of invaluable data tracking and visualization to present your social media ROI to stakeholders.

Also, make it easy for people to actually share your content by placing social share buttons where appropriate. Get people to want to share your content with one another by … Because earned media is owned by third parties, it may seem like it's out of your hands — but that's actually not true. The lines can blur between earned and owned media, as well.

Molly McKinley, founder of Redtail Creative, a marketing and strategic communications consultancy in Raleigh, N.C., pointed out that predictions like Gartner's tend to treat AI adoption as inevitable and uniform. "Keystroke logging and digital-fingerprint tracking as productivity proxies are already in the press, and they read as exactly what they are," he told TechNewsWorld. "Digging through a server, searching old email chains, or waiting for an HR response creates unnecessary friction," she explained. "Employees who report high information overload are 52% less likely to report high intent to continue working at the organization and 30% less likely to report high strategic alignment," Gartner reported. "That said, earned media and PR can do double-duty, building visibility and refining a brand's positioning and identity to give clear signals to the LLMs." There is increasing evidence that LLMs rely on earned media when producing their answers, noted Chris Ferris, SVP of digital strategy at Pierpont Communications, a public relations agency in Houston.

Pros of Earned Media: Trust and Credibility Without Direct Cost

Contacting influencers, journalists, bloggers, industry experts and consumer ratings websites can get them to give you favorable coverage. When they share your brand in a positive light, that’s earned media. Influencer partnerships are usually paid, but they’re still considered a good example of earned media. One proven way to earn social media mentions is to consistently publish high-quality thought leadership blog posts and share that content across all of your social media channels. The good news is that this is one of the easiest earned media examples to leverage. Any time someone organically mentions your brand on social media, that counts as earned media.

The Performance Era

” This consistency creates a powerful sense of familiarity and social proof. For months, local residents might drive past your workspace, watching your process and thinking, “What exactly are they making out there? If that sounds like you, do not worry—whenever you participate in open studio events, art walks, or local pop-ups, much of what we are discussing will still apply to you. If you are producing work in a space with high foot or vehicle traffic, you possess an asset that most businesses would pay thousands of dollars in advertising to replicate. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. "The companies investing in earned media and AI authority right now will pull ahead IMHO," she said.

• Whether you’re a startup, a small business, or an established brand, investing in earned media isn’t just smart, it’s sustainable.
• This trend is reshaping strategies for PR, comms, and marketing teams.
• Then, guests stepped into what was the couples’ “Secret Garden, the two people both said.
• In many cases, your company's visibility inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude is now decided by whether journalists at AI-licensed publications have ever written about you.

With Prowly, you can monitor not only digital media mentions but also traditional ones, including newspapers, radio, TV, and increasingly popular podcasts. Well-fostered relationships can result in more frequent and quality coverage, making your brand a credible source of information. It creates an atmosphere of trust, making it more likely that a journalist will consider your press release when sourcing their stories. Having a strong rapport earned media with journalists can significantly increase the chances of your story getting picked up and featured.

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In 2024, Bieber drove $400 million in earned media value (EMV), with an engagement rate of 3.75%, surpassing the 3.6% industry benchmark, according to influencer marketing platform Lefty. Following the brand’s inception in 2022, Rhode has grown rapidly, thanks to highly shareable product aesthetics, and also cultivated a world beyond products with the lip gloss phone case, traveling photo booth, and pop-ups, alongside the sheer influence of the founder herself. The deal will comprise $800 million in cash and stock, as well as an earn-out consideration of $200 million based on future brand growth over a three-year timeframe. Bieber and the Rhode team disrupted beauty, and I can think of no better brand that also aligns with our vision,” Amin says. She has gone from zero to $212 million in net sales in less than three years, direct-to-consumer only, with only 10 products. She tells Vogue that even before she met with the team, she had admired their marketing campaigns and disruptive strategy within the beauty space.

When it appears across different, high-quality outlets, it all adds up and positions your brand as the industry's top voice. Getting featured by reliable sources (even in niche communities) helps in positioning your brand as an authority. When your product or service is a part of "X best category," you're more likely to reach a new audience — as those posts often get the highest places in Google.