This post was created in partnership with Weber Shandwick
Key takeaways
- Previously disparate teams battling over budget, paid and earned are now learning from each other and benefiting.
- New organizational and communication models can help to unite the two teams.
- AI is enabling both sides, giving earned more visibility and paid more personalized data.
Paid and earned teams have long waged battles over budget and direction, but these silos no longer make sense as impacts and outcomes become more intertwined.
During an ADWEEK House Advertising HQ group chat co-hosted with Weber Shandwick, marketing leaders discussed how bringing earned and paid together as an equal partnership can make both functions stronger while benefiting the brand.
Uniting the different mindsets of media
Joy Farber Kolo, chief innovation and integration officer at Weber Shandwick, began the discussion with a reality check: “I think this is a moment where the media landscape we know has changed,” she said.
“One big factor is that the paid media engine, a crucial engine, is getting more expensive and less effective,” Kolo explained. “And if you take all the things we do in earned and apply that expertise toward paid, you can make it so much more effective.”
Uniting the teams isn’t always simple, unfortunately. Caroline Ingeborn, chief operating officer of Luma AI, shared, “The influencers we work with tell us: ‘If you’re not going to put paid behind the content I’m making, I’m going to work with one of your competitors because they’re going to take me further.’”
And just buying impressions isn’t enough, either. Jonathan Rigby, global chief strategy officer at Omnicom Media, explained, “If they have no meaning, if they have no attention, if they have no receptivity or resonance with the people, then it doesn’t really matter,” he said.
Despite differences in perspective, Rigby expressed that earned and paid teams can lift each other up. “Ultimately, aren’t we all in the business of trying to achieve the same thing?” he asked. “The challenge we have is that we’ve potentially been too driven by the numbers.”
Taryn Brucia, executive director of integrated marketing and home entertainment for Samsung Electronics America, recalled her early relationship with the paid media team as slightly contentious at first as they tried to balance their different mindsets. “Paid media was trying to take all the budget and earned was trying to get a little piece of it, and now we’ve really flipped the script,” she said.
Now, all projects start at the same marketing table from the jump, and everybody writes the brief together, she continued. “We all align and rally around the challenge we’re trying to solve, and we are open-minded in terms of solutions, the levers we pull, and when we pull them. That’s when the best work happens.”
New equitable teamwork models
In some cases, it helps to break down antiquated models of when teams meet and what that looks like. Jenna Dalto, executive director of PR and influencer for MAC Cosmetics, argued for greater connectivity through less formal, more frequent collaboration.
“We’ve turned around massive earned moments in a week’s time, and we needed to make sure that we were updating everyone in that same time frame,” she said. Rather than coordinating a major meeting across both teams, Dalto explained that brief, frequent check-ins with a few key people could keep everyone informed and aligned.
Kelsey Agostinelli, VP of marketing operations for Mars, agreed that getting everyone on board with a more integrated process can be complex. “You have to change the system and the way you plan,” she said.
How? Agostinelli pointed to the strategic use of case studies to bolster the argument. By demonstrating how an integrated process can deliver on shared goals, supported by measurement, teams can build a stronger case for change. But in a global organization with numerous budget owners, she acknowledged that the shift takes time.
Empowering earned and paid media with AI
The conversation turned to AI, which Brucia said is making earned media the star of the show, as that’s what regularly shows up in AI search results. “Now that that’s happening, not only is everyone saying, ‘Ooh, give it to earned,’ but they’re also saying, ‘and let’s line up paid behind them. Let’s all hold hands on a set of terms and some queries and make sure we’re all going at it very consistently,’” she said.
Agostinelli concurred that the trusted, authentic brands once again have the advantage in search. “While we always talk about AI being kind of scary, I think it’s going to make trusted brands stronger, and I’m optimistic about that.”
And the paid side benefits from AI as well, shared Ingeborn. “Personalization has been a buzzword for 15 years, and it’s never truly been possible,” she explained. But AI is getting marketers closer.
“Even just the first instances of this opens up a completely new avenue for paid to be more efficient,” Ingeborn continued. “I think that is the other side of AI I’m seeing that is super exciting.”
Featured Conversation Leaders
- Kelsey Agostinelli, VP, Marketing Operations, Mars
- Taryn Brucia, Executive Director, Integrated Marketing, Home Entertainment, Samsung Electronics America
- Jenna Dalto, Executive Director, PR and Influencer, MAC Cosmetics
- Caroline Ingeborn, Chief Operating Officer, Luma AI
- Joy Farber Kolo, Chief Innovation and Integration Officer, Weber Shandwick
- Jonathan Rigby, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Omnicom Media
- Alison Weissbrot, Executive Editor, ADWEEK
