Tag: Strategy

The New Media Map: Where Smart Ad Budgets Go Next

Posted on by Ryan

The New Media Map: Where Smart Ad Budgets Go Next

The New Media Map: Where Smart Ad Budgets Go Next
October 13, 2026

The media map is being redrawn

Media planning used to be simple. Social created demand. Search caught intent. Display and online video filled in the gaps, and linear TV did the heavy lifting for brands with big budgets. The names on the invoices changed a little from year to year, but the shape of the plan stayed the same.

That shape is breaking. Two forces are pulling budget away from the classic media mix and toward a new set of channels that most media plans still treat as “test budget” line items.

Search is fragmenting. The Google search box is no longer the only place people look for answers. They ask chatbots, browse maps apps and dig through online communities, and each of those moments now has a paid layer. Ads inside ChatGPT went from launch to a billion-dollar run rate in roughly seven months, and Apple Maps started selling ads in August.

Commerce data is going everywhere. Retailers know what people actually buy, not just what they click. Amazon and Walmart have turned that knowledge into full-funnel ad businesses that reach far beyond their own websites, onto streaming TV, the open web and even the screens inside physical stores. Delivery apps, banks and travel brands are following the same playbook.

This guide is organized around those two shifts. Part 1 covers search: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Apple Maps and Reddit. Part 2 covers retail and commerce media: Amazon DSP, Walmart Connect, the delivery apps and the streaming inventory they sell. After that, we look at how these channels fit a digital marketing strategy across industries, and share a practical framework for testing any new channel without wasting budget. It’s the same playbook we use as a digital marketing agency when clients ask where their next dollar should go.

One caveat: these channels are moving fast. Minimum spends, ad formats, and country availability have changed several times in 2026 alone. Treat the specifics below as a snapshot as of October 2026, and check each platform’s current documentation before you build a plan around it.

Part 1: Search is fragmenting

 

For two decades, “search” meant typing keywords into Google. Today the same intent is spread across LLMs, maps apps and online communities. People ask ChatGPT for advice, open Apple Maps when they’re ready to visit, and add “reddit” to a query when they want real opinions. Each of those moments now has a paid layer, an organic layer, or both. A modern digital marketing strategy has to cover all of them.

ChatGPT: advertising inside the answer

ChatGPT is the fastest-growing new ad channel of 2026, and also the least proven. OpenAI published its ads principles on January 16, 2026 and began running paid ads in the US on February 9. By August 31, the company said ChatGPT Ads had passed a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, was used by tens of thousands of advertisers, and was available in more than 40 countries.

How the ads work

ChatGPT ads appear as a clearly labeled sponsored card that sits beneath the AI’s answer, not inside it. OpenAI matches ads to the topic of the current conversation, and it has publicly committed that advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT gives and that conversations are not shared with advertisers (and, as advertisers on the platform, we can confirm). Ads run only for users on the Free tier and the low-cost Go plan. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users don’t see them, which requires deeper thought and strategy around audience alignment.

Targeting is contextual rather than keyword-based. Instead of bidding on “running shoes,” you’re effectively bidding on conversations about training for a first marathon. The intent signal is richer than a keyword, but it’s also harder to plan against, because there’s no keyword report showing exactly what people typed. A newer format lets brands share product feeds with OpenAI so relevant products can surface in shopping conversations.

What it costs

The price of entry has fallen fast. At launch, OpenAI priced ads at roughly a $60 CPM with commitments around $200,000. In April it launched a self-serve Ads Manager and cut the minimum to $50,000. In May, it added cost-per-click bidding, a measurement pixel and a Conversions API. Ad-tech partners have pushed entry costs lower still.

Why marketers are paying attention

ChatGPT is used by nearly three-quarters of the roughly 153 million US adults who use generative AI, and it accounts for about 70% of AI assistant traffic, according to figures EMARKETER compiled in June. Conversations also reveal intent in a way keywords rarely do. Someone who writes “I have a 12-year-old Honda with 150,000 miles, should I fix the transmission or buy something new?” has told you their budget pressure, timeline and decision stage in one message.

The caveats

Measurement is the weak point. Early advertisers got little beyond impressions. Click pricing, the pixel and a LiveRamp partnership are meant to fix that, but the tooling is months old. Trust is the other risk: a January 2026 Ipsos survey found 63% of US adults said ads in AI search results would make them trust the output less. And EMARKETER expects ads in AI chatbots to stay under $1 billion in total 2026 revenue, a rounding error next to search.

How to approach it

  • Buy on clicks where you can. CPC pricing gives you something to compare against your search benchmarks.
  • Craft careful copy. An ad under an answer competes with the answer. Lead with a specific, useful message, not a brand slogan.
  • Invest in organic visibility. What ChatGPT says about your brand in its unpaid answers probably matters more than any ad today. Earned media clips feed LLMs as credible sources about your brand, making public relations efforts more important than ever.
  • Treat it as learning budget. The goal of a test is to understand the audience and general performance, not to hit a scaled ROAS target. Learn from the campaign before deciding if the channel stays in the mix.
 

Google AI Mode: Google’s answer to the answer engine

ChatGPT isn’t the only answer engine selling ads. Google has been showing ads in AI Overviews for some time, and at Google Marketing Live in May 2026 it introduced new ad formats for AI Mode, its conversational search experience.

  • Conversational Discovery ads use Gemini to write ad copy tailored to the user’s prompt, drawing on a brand’s own site and assets.
  • Highlighted Answers place offers inside AI-generated recommendation lists.
  • AI-powered Shopping ads add short explanations of why a product fits what the shopper asked for.
 

A tool called AI Brief lets advertisers emphasize or remove phrases in the AI-written copy. Google is also testing a Business Agent for Leads, which lets people ask a brand’s AI agent questions directly in search.

The practical difference from ChatGPT is access. You don’t buy AI Mode as a separate channel. Eligibility runs through Performance Max, AI Max for Search, Shopping and broad match campaigns you may already be running. That makes it easy to start but hard to isolate. If you want to know how AI Mode performs, push for placement-level reporting and watch your search term data closely. And because Gemini writes the ad from your materials, clean product data and clear site content matter more than ever.

Apple Maps: paid placement at the moment of the visit

Apple Maps is the most local channel on this list, and for businesses with physical locations it may be the easiest win. After thirteen years without ads, Apple Maps began showing sponsored listings to iPhone and iPad users in the US and Canada in late August 2026, with the rollout ramping through the following weeks.

The move had been coming for a while. Apple rebranded “Apple Search Ads” to simply “Apple Ads” in April 2025, a clear sign it planned to sell inventory beyond the App Store. In March 2026 it announced Apple Business, a single platform that replaced Business Connect, Business Manager and Business Essentials, and confirmed Maps ads would be part of it. Adweek reported that Apple’s ad business was on pace for about $8.5 billion in 2026.

How the ads work

There are two placements. Before someone types anything, a sponsored business can appear at the top of Suggested Places. After they search, a relevant sponsored listing can appear at the top of the results, with only one ad per search. The ads look like ordinary listings with a small blue “Ad” badge, and users can’t turn them off.

Advertisers bid in an auction and pay for outcomes such as views or taps. Any business with a physical location and a claimed Apple Maps listing is eligible. Campaigns can be built through Apple Business with largely automated creative, or through Apple Ads for more control over scheduling and geo-targeting. Apple also offered an introductory 15% credit toward future spend, on up to $1,000 a month during the first year.

Privacy is the defining difference from Google Maps. Apple says a user’s location and ad interactions aren’t tied to their Apple Account, and no data is shared with third parties. Targeting relies on the search, approximate location and map view, not a behavioral profile. Some categories are off limits: home services, bail bonds and crypto ATMs can’t advertise in Maps, and medical services are reviewed case by case.

Why it matters

Every iPhone ships with Apple Maps as the default, and Siri and CarPlay route through it. Local searches are some of the most commercially valuable there are. Someone searching “tire shop” or “sushi” is often deciding on their final destination in minutes. For restaurants, retailers, auto services, gyms, banks and hotels, Maps ads add a second local-search channel while auctions are still thin.

The caveats and how to approach it

The ad load is light by design, and reporting is limited by Apple’s privacy model.

  • Audit your listings first. Claim every location in Apple Business and fix hours, categories, photos and phone numbers. The ad pulls from the listing.
  • Start with visit-driven categories such as food, auto, retail and fitness.
  • Measure with visits and calls. Use store-visit studies and call tracking rather than click attribution.
 

Reddit: where people search for real opinions

Reddit belongs in a conversation about search, not just social. It has become the place people go when they don’t trust polished marketing content, and that behavior shows up in two ways.

People search Reddit directly. Many people add “reddit” to Google queries such as “best running shoes reddit” to find candid opinions from real users. Reddit has also built its own AI search, Reddit Answers, which summarizes community discussions in response to questions.

AI answers draw on Reddit. Both Google and OpenAI have struck data deals with Reddit, and AI tools frequently cite Reddit threads when recommending products or services — on Google, Reddit content accounts for over 21% of all AI Overview citations. A thread comparing three brands of mattresses, or describing a bad experience with a local contractor, can shape what an answer engine tells the next person who asks.

That makes Reddit an organic visibility priority first. Monitor the communities where your category is discussed, answer questions honestly from a clearly identified brand account, and fix real problems people raise. Heavy-handed promotion backfires quickly — Reddit users are quick to call it out.

Paid ads come second. Reddit’s ad products work more like social ads than search ads, but they let you reach people mid-research by targeting specific communities and conversation topics. Promoted posts that read like genuinely useful contributions tend to perform best. For considered purchases, such as tech, finance, travel, healthcare and home services, Reddit ads are a sensible way to show up where people are already comparing options.

Part 2: Commerce data is going everywhere

 

Retail media started as sponsored product listings on a retailer’s own website, evolved into screens at the point of sale, and has since become something much bigger. Companies that know what people actually buy, such as retailers, delivery apps, banks and travel brands, now sell ads against that data across streaming TV, the internet, and other digital placements. The broader term for this is commerce media, and in an IAB survey, advertisers rated it as essential to their plans as often as they rated connected TV.

Two platforms lead the category, and a growing group of challengers is close behind.

Amazon DSP: shopper data, pointed at the whole internet

The Amazon DSP is no longer just a way to retarget people who looked at your product on Amazon. It has become one of the most important programmatic buying platforms in the market, especially for connected TV. Spend on Amazon DSP grew 67% year over year in Q2 2026, up from 41% in Q1, according to Tinuiti’s Q2 2026 benchmark report, which covers more than $4 billion in managed spend. Amazon’s total ad revenue hit $21.3 billion in Q4 2025, up 22%.

A demand-side platform lets you buy ads across many publishers from one place. Amazon’s is different because of the data behind it; it leverages signals from hundreds of millions of shopping, streaming and device interactions, plus the ability to tie ad exposure back to purchases. Three moves in the past two years turned it into a mainstream media platform.

  • Prime Video ads. Making ads the default on Prime Video in 2024 gave Amazon one of the largest ad-supported streaming audiences in the US overnight.
  • Roku. An exclusive 2025 deal lets Amazon DSP recognize logged-in viewers across Roku and Fire TV, reaching an estimated 80 million US connected TV households, more than 80% of the total. Roku said early users reached 40% more unique viewers on the same budget while cutting ad frequency by nearly 30%.
  • Netflix. Since Q4 2025, advertisers can buy Netflix’s ad-supported inventory through Amazon DSP in about a dozen countries. Amazon’s discounted fees on third-party streaming inventory mean it can sometimes be cheaper to buy Netflix this way than directly.
 

The pitch is commerce data meets TV-scale reach. You can build an audience of people who bought a competing product in the last 90 days, show them a Netflix or Prime Video spot, follow up with retargeting, and measure the result in sales. For brands that sell on Amazon, closed-loop reporting connects ads to purchases and new-to-brand customers. For brands that don’t, Amazon Marketing Cloud, its clean room, lets you bring your own first-party data and measure against your own outcomes. That’s why cross-category advertisers now use Amazon DSP, even if their product is not sold on the platform.

Walmart Connect: the store, the screen and the shopping cart

If Amazon DSP is the most mature retail media platform, Walmart Connect is the fastest-growing serious challenger. Walmart’s global ad business reached nearly $6.4 billion in fiscal 2026 (February 2025 to January 2026), up 46%. In fiscal Q2 2027 (May to July 2026), Walmart Connect in the US grew 43% excluding Vizio, and global ad revenue grew 38%.

Walmart’s advantage is the store. Roughly 90% of Americans live within ten miles of a Walmart, and most of its sales still happen in physical locations. That lets Walmart Connect tie ads to in-store purchases, not just online, which matters most for grocery, household goods, health and beauty. The business now spans four layers:

  • Onsite: sponsored search and display across Walmart.com and the app.
  • In-store: digital screens at checkout, in aisles and at entrances.
  • Connected TV: Walmart bought Vizio for $2.3 billion in 2024 and now sells its smart TV home screen and streaming inventory with Walmart shopper data. Vizio ad revenue grew at triple-digit rates in fiscal Q4 2026, and it lets Walmart sell to brands whose products aren’t sold at Walmart at all.
  • Offsite: the Walmart DSP, built with The Trade Desk, buys across the open web and streaming using Walmart audiences.
 

In 2026, Walmart opened its data to more platforms and media. A Yahoo DSP and Magnite partnership marked the first time advertisers could use Walmart’s customer data outside the Walmart DSP. Advertisers can now reach Walmart audiences on Spotify and on live linear TV across Warner Bros. Discovery networks such as TBS, TLC and Food Network, all with closed-loop sales measurement. Walmart is also building ads into its Sparky shopping assistant, though it has said it will favor relevance over ad load.

Walmart also reaches a different shopper from Amazon: typically more suburban, more value-focused, and increasingly higher-income as wealthier households trade down.

Delivery apps: the newest billion-dollar ad businesses

Uber, DoorDash and Instacart have quietly become major ad platforms. Uber Advertising has passed a $2 billion annualized run rate. Instacart reported $286 million in advertising and other revenue in Q1 2026 alone. In June, DoorDash merged its ad operations with Wolt and Deliveroo into one global commerce media platform with more than 400,000 advertisers. EMARKETER expects each of the three to top $1 billion in commerce media revenue this year.

These platforms reach people at the moment of a purchase decision, often with location and time-of-day context that traditional retailers lack. Uber can show an ad on the screen of a rider headed to the airport. Instacart’s Carrot Ads technology powers ads on more than 300 grocery retailers’ sites. For consumer packaged goods, restaurants, alcohol and local services, delivery media can work like a digital end cap.

Other commerce media networks

Almost every company with logged-in customers and transaction data now sells ads. Target (Roundel), Costco, Kroger, Home Depot, Best Buy and Ulta run retail media networks. Banks such as Chase sell ads against card-spending data, and travel brands including United, Marriott and Expedia sell against loyalty profiles.

Programmatic streaming, powered by retail data

Netflix, Disney+, Max, Peacock and Prime Video have all built ad tiers, and nearly all now sell through major DSPs rather than only through upfront deals. Netflix alone had more than 90 million ad-supported subscribers when it announced its Amazon partnership. Amazon and Walmart have become two of the most important ways to buy this inventory, because they pair premium TV with purchase data. For mid-sized brands that were priced out of premium TV, programmatic access, lower minimums and retail audiences make streaming a realistic channel for the first time.

Retail media: the caveats and how to approach it

The same strengths and weaknesses show up across every platform in this group.

Measurement is strongest inside the walled garden. Amazon can prove a sale on Amazon, Walmart a sale at Walmart, Instacart a sale through Instacart. Anything that happens elsewhere relies on modeled attribution or your own data. And every platform that sells the ads also grades them, so self-reported results deserve an independent check.

Fragmentation is real. Each network has its own audience definitions, attribution windows and reporting, which makes it hard to compare them or to avoid paying twice for the same customer.

Prices will rise. As more advertisers pile into the same streaming inventory and retail audiences, costs will climb. Several offerings, especially Walmart’s offsite and CTV partnerships, are still in alpha or beta.

With that in mind:

  • Start with streaming reach. For most brands, the biggest new opportunity is Prime Video, Netflix, Roku and Vizio reach with retail audiences.
  • Pick networks by where your customers buy. Amazon for online-heavy categories, Walmart for in-store and value shoppers, delivery apps for food, grocery and convenience.
  • Bring your own data. Use clean rooms such as Amazon Marketing Cloud to match your CRM and conversion data, so you can measure outcomes that happen off-platform.
  • Prove incrementality. Run a test before scaling. Retail audiences can look great partly because they were going to buy anyway — so conducting an isolated test first can prove results.
  • Consider non-endemic plays. If you don’t sell at a retailer, its streaming and offsite audiences may still fit, such as an insurer targeting new homeowners or an auto brand targeting growing families.

Fitting emerging channels into your digital marketing strategy

 

A good digital marketing strategy starts with the customer journey, not the channel list. Instead of asking “should we be on ChatGPT?”, ask where your customers make decisions, then look at which new channels show up at those moments. Most journeys have three.

When they’re researching

Long, specific questions are where answer engines and communities shine. A homeowner asking what a new water heater should cost, a couple planning a weekend getaway and a parent comparing kid-friendly snack brands are all doing their homework in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Reddit. At this stage, organic visibility usually matters more than ads. Make sure your listings, reviews, product data and site content are accurate and actually answer the questions people ask. Paid tests make sense where each customer is valuable enough to justify early-stage costs, which is why home services and hospitality brands are often the first to try ChatGPT ads.

When they’re choosing

Once people are weighing options, familiarity and timing win. This is where retail media and streaming TV earn their place. Amazon DSP and Walmart Connect let you reach people who have shown real purchase signals, then reinforce your brand on Prime Video, Netflix, Roku or Vizio. For CPG brands, this is the core of a modern digital marketing strategy: reach recent buyers of a competing product, then measure whether they switched. In a digital marketing strategy for hospitality, a resort can reach likely travelers at home in its feeder markets weeks before they book. Home services brands can use retail signals, such as recent purchases of home improvement products or new-mover audiences, to reach homeowners before something breaks.

When they’re ready to act

The final step often happens on a phone, minutes before a visit or purchase. For hospitality, Apple Maps ads capture “near me” searches for restaurants, bars and attractions, and Uber can reach travelers on the way to the airport. For CPG, delivery apps such as Instacart and DoorDash reach people with their cart open, and Walmart’s in-store screens reach shoppers in the aisle. Whatever you sell, this stage is the easiest to measure, because the path from ad to sale is short.

Check the rules before you plan

Every new channel has its own ad policies, and they don’t always match what you’re used to on Google or Meta. Home services are barred from Apple Maps ads entirely. Casinos and gambling-related hospitality brands face restrictions or extra review on most platforms, including AI chatbots. CPG brands selling alcohol need to confirm age-targeting and category rules on each network before launch. Check each platform’s policies early, because a rejected category can reshape the whole plan.

How to test an emerging channel without wasting the budget

New channels fail in predictable ways. The budget is too small to read, the test runs too short, the success metric is whatever the platform reports, and nobody decides in advance what result would justify scaling. A simple framework avoids most of that.

  • Set aside a fixed innovation budget. Many brands use something like 5% to 10% of total media for new channels. Make it a standing line item so tests don’t compete with proven channels every quarter.
  • Pick one question per test. “Does ChatGPT drive incremental sign-ups at a cost we can live with?” is testable. Asking how the channel performs as a whole isn’t.
  • Decide the success metric and threshold up front. Write down the result that would make you scale, hold or stop, before the first dollar is spent. Use your own business metrics, such as new customers, store visits or revenue, not just the platform’s numbers.
  • Spend enough to read the result. A test that can’t reach statistical significance is just an expense. Ensure a proper testing budget to allow the platforms to truly run the campaign.
  • Run long enough. Most new channels need six to twelve weeks: two to four weeks for the platform’s algorithms to learn, then a stable run period.
  • Give creative its own test. A new channel often needs new creative. A sponsored card under an AI answer, a Maps listing and a Netflix spot all call for different approaches, so don’t judge a channel by repurposed assets alone.
  • Document what you learn. Even a failed test teaches you about audiences, costs and creative. Share it widely so the next test starts smarter.
 

Creative for answer engines: your tagline isn’t enough

What is a tagline, in a channel like this? Traditionally it’s the short, memorable line that sums up a brand, like Nike’s “Just Do It” or Apple’s “Think Different.” Brand taglines still matter for TV and outdoor, but a sponsored card under a ChatGPT answer or an AI-generated Google ad needs more than a slogan. Someone asking a detailed question wants a specific, useful answer.

That changes how to write a tagline for emerging channels. Keep the brand line, but build supporting copy around concrete benefits, proof points and offers that an AI system can match to a real question. Many of the best tagline examples today pair a short brand promise with a plain-language explanation of who the product is for. Test both versions in every new channel, and let the data tell you which one earns the click.

Don’t forget organic visibility

The biggest shift in this list isn’t just on paid. As more discovery happens in AI answers, what those tools say about your brand when nobody is paying matters enormously. Keep your product feeds, reviews, structured data and site content accurate and easy for machines to read. Make sure your locations are claimed and correct on Apple, Google and the delivery apps. In an AI-first world, clean data is media.

This is also where public relations has changed the most — earned media efforts now shape the sources AI tools learn from. Answer engines lean on news coverage, expert quotes, review sites and community threads, so earned media directly influences what ChatGPT and Google AI Mode say about you. Modern PR services, such as placing data-driven stories, securing expert commentary and building authoritative links, now double as AI visibility work.

The reverse is true too. A wave of negative reviews or an old crisis story can surface in an AI answer long after it has dropped off page one of Google. Online reputation repair, which means responding to reviews, correcting inaccurate listings and publishing credible new content, protects every paid channel on this list.

The bottom line

The media map isn’t being replaced overnight. Search and social still carry heavy budgets, and they will for years. The edges of the map are where growth is happening. ChatGPT went from zero to a billion-dollar run rate in seven months. Apple has turned its default navigation app into a local ad channel. Amazon and Walmart are using purchase data to sell streaming TV, and delivery apps have each built billion-dollar ad businesses almost without anyone noticing.

None of these channels is a sure thing. Several are still in beta, measurement is uneven, and prices will rise as competition increases. That’s exactly why now is the time to test. The brands that learn how these channels work while auctions are thin and minimums are falling will have a real advantage when they reach full scale.

Start small, measure what matters to your business, and treat every test as a lesson. The marketers who win the next decade will be the ones who were willing to try the channels everyone else was still watching.

Ready to put these channels to work? Whether you’re mapping a testing strategy, launching your first paid media campaigns, building social and creative that fit new formats, earning the press coverage AI tools learn from, or tracking performance against real business goals, our team can help you find where your next dollar should go.

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Don’t Let Good PR Go to Waste: How to Repurpose Earned Media

Posted on by Ryan

Don’t Let Good PR Go to Waste: How to Repurpose Earned Media

Repurposing Earned Media
September 22, 2026

Getting meaningful media coverage is rarely a quick process. It takes research, story development, pitching, relationship building, interviews and follow-up to secure a single placement. 

Yet once the story runs, many companies give it one social media post and move on. 

That is a missed opportunity. 

Earned media can continue working long after an article is published, particularly when companies know how to repurpose earned media across their broader communications and marketing efforts. A strong media placement can provide material for social content, thought leadership, email campaigns, sales materials and future PR outreach. 

The relationship works in the other direction, too. The content a company already owns, from original research to executive insights, can give a PR team stronger material to bring to reporters. 

The result is a more connected approach to communications, where earned and owned media support one another rather than operating as separate efforts.

What Is Earned Media and How Does It Work With Owned Media? 

Earned media is coverage a company receives from an independent third-party source, such as a newspaper, magazine, trade publication, broadcast outlet, podcast or digital news site. Unlike advertising or sponsored content, the company does not control the final story or how the publication presents it. In other words, it’s earned through “reputation, word-of-mouth, and public relations efforts.”

That distinction can make earned media particularly useful for establishing credibility. A reporter, editor or producer has independently determined that a company, executive, trend or issue is worth covering.

Owned media, by comparison, consists of channels a company controls, including its website, blog, email newsletter and social media accounts. 

The two channels serve different purposes, but they can work together. 

Earned media can introduce an organization or executive to a new audience. Owned media gives the company a place to expand on the subject, provide additional information and continue the conversation. 

That creates a cycle: 

Owned content → PR opportunity → Earned media → Repurposed content → Continued engagement 

The objective is not to publish the same message everywhere. It is to take a useful idea and adapt it for the audience and purpose of each channel.

How Do You Repurpose Earned Media? 

The simplest way to start is to look beyond the finished article. 

Ask what made the story interesting in the first place. Was an executive commenting on an industry trend? Did the story include original research or data? Did the interview reveal a question that customers frequently ask? Did the reporter’s questions uncover an issue worth exploring in greater depth? 

Those elements can become the foundation for additional content. 

Expand an Executive’s Point of View 

A reporter may use only one or two sentences from a much longer interview. The rest of the executive’s perspective does not have to disappear when the article is published. 

An executive’s comment in a trade publication could become the starting point for a company blog post, LinkedIn article or other thought leadership. The executive can expand on the original idea, provide additional context or explain what the trend means for customers and other businesses. 

This also creates a connection between media relations and executive thought leadership. 

Rather than treating each interview as an isolated PR activity, companies can look for recurring themes in their executives’ commentary. Those themes can become the foundation for a longer-term thought leadership program. 

This is one way to think about what a PR agency does beyond securing a media placement. The value is not simply in getting an executive quoted. It can also come from identifying the ideas worth developing, positioning the executive around those areas of expertise and finding additional ways to put that expertise to work. 

Turn Coverage Into Social Content 

A media placement does not always need to be promoted with a post that simply says, “We were featured.” 

Instead, identify the most useful takeaway from the coverage. 

If an executive was quoted in a story about a change affecting the industry, a LinkedIn post could highlight the insight, explain why it matters and direct readers to the full article. 

A particularly strong quote could become a social graphic. Several related quotes from different interviews could support a recurring series around an executive’s perspective. 

The media placement provides the third-party validation. The company’s social channels provide the additional context. 

Create Content From the Questions the Story Raises 

Good media coverage often raises questions that the original article does not have room to answer. 

Those questions can become new owned content. 

For example, a story about changing consumer behavior could lead to a deeper article about what businesses should consider next. A story about a new technology could lead to a practical guide addressing common implementation questions. A story based on original research could lead to additional analysis of the findings. 

The goal is not to rewrite the reporter’s story and publish it on the company website. 

Instead, use the coverage as a starting point and give the audience something new. 

That distinction is important. Effective content repurposing adds value rather than simply reproducing information that already exists elsewhere.

How Can You Maximize Earned Media Coverage? 

Repurposing coverage is only one part of a broader earned media strategy. Companies can also make their media efforts more productive by thinking about potential content assets before a story is ever pitched. 

One useful question for PR and marketing teams is: What can we create from this story if we earn the coverage? 

That question can influence how a story is developed from the beginning. 

If an executive is being positioned as an expert on a particular industry trend, for example, the team can identify related data, customer questions, existing blog content and other resources that could support the story. 

Planning this way makes it easier to extend the value of coverage after publication. The value of earned media doesn’t end when the story publishes. Cision outlines several ways organizations can extend the impact of earned coverage, including incorporating it into owned channels and sharing it with customers and prospects.

Start With Original Data 

Reporters need information that helps them explain what is happening in an industry. 

Original surveys, research and company data can provide that information when they reveal a meaningful trend. 

A company does not necessarily need a large national study. A focused survey of customers or analysis of relevant company data may uncover a useful finding, provided the methodology and limitations are clear. 

That finding can then serve two purposes. 

The company can publish the research as an owned asset while the PR team uses the findings as the basis for media outreach. A specific finding gives reporters something more useful than a broad claim about what is happening in the market. 

The resulting media coverage can then point audiences back to the original research, creating another connection between earned and owned media. 

Develop a Clear Executive Point of View 

Original research is not the only owned asset that can support PR. 

An executive who regularly addresses meaningful industry issues through a company blog, LinkedIn or other channels is building a body of thought leadership that a PR team can draw from when identifying media opportunities. 

That matters because a reporter looking for an expert source needs more than a person’s job title. They need a reason to believe the person can contribute something useful to the story. 

Consistent, substantive content can help demonstrate that expertise. 

It can also make PR outreach more specific. Instead of pitching an executive simply as the CEO of a company, a PR team can point to the issues the executive regularly addresses and explain why that perspective is relevant to the reporter’s audience. 

Give Your PR Team More to Work With 

The same principle applies to case studies, company reports, customer insights and other content. 

Not everything will become a media story, and it should not. 

The PR team’s job is to identify what has genuine news value and what is better suited to owned channels. 

That distinction is important. A company’s marketing content should not automatically become a press pitch. But a piece of owned content may contain a statistic, trend or point of view that becomes much more compelling when viewed through a news lens. 

This is where close coordination between marketing and PR can improve both functions. 

Build an Online Newsroom 

An online newsroom can provide a practical home for the connection between earned and owned media. 

A useful newsroom might include recent news releases, media coverage, executive biographies, company background information, photography and other resources relevant to journalists. 

It can also give the company a central place to showcase meaningful media coverage. 

That serves two audiences. 

For journalists, the newsroom creates an accessible source of background information when researching a future story. For customers, prospects and other stakeholders, this page provides an independent record of where the company and its executives have been featured. 

The newsroom does not need to become a comprehensive archive of every mention. Prioritize relevant coverage that demonstrates expertise, highlights significant company news or supports the organization’s broader positioning. 

Make Earned Media Part of Your Digital PR Strategy 

Earned media also has a place within a broader digital PR strategy. 

A media placement may generate referral traffic when a publication links to a company’s website. Coverage can also increase awareness of a company’s name, executives, products or areas of expertise. 

That does not mean every media mention will directly improve search rankings. Earned media should not be treated as an SEO shortcut, and search performance depends on many factors. 

The larger opportunity is to build a consistent digital presence around credible third-party coverage and useful first-party content. 

For example, a company might earn coverage about an emerging industry trend and then publish a more detailed article on its website addressing the issue. This piece can answer related questions, provide additional context and link readers to relevant resources. 

Both media coverage and owned content now serve different purposes while reinforcing the same area of expertise. 

Look for Unlinked Mentions 

PR teams can also monitor coverage that mentions a company without linking to its website. 

When appropriate, the company can contact the publication and ask whether a relevant link can be added. There is no guarantee the publication will make the change, but identifying unlinked mentions can be a useful part of a digital PR program. 

More broadly, monitoring media mentions can help a company understand where it is appearing online and which topics are generating attention. 

That information can also inform future PR and content decisions.

How Do You Turn Earned Media Into Content? 

The answer is not to copy the coverage. 

Instead, break the story down into its component parts and determine what each audience needs. 

A single executive interview, for example, might produce: 

  • A social post focused on the strongest takeaway 
  • A blog article expanding on the executive’s perspective 
  • An email newsletter featuring the media coverage 
  • A sales presentation using the placement as a third-party proof point 
  • A thought leadership article exploring a broader industry issue 
  • An internal communication recognizing the team’s work 

The underlying message can remain consistent, but the format and emphasis should change. 

A reporter needs a newsworthy story. A prospective customer may want practical information. An employee may appreciate recognition. A social audience may respond to a concise observation. 

Repurposing works when the content is adapted to those different needs.

What Does a PR Agency Do After a Story Runs? 

This is where the role of PR can extend well beyond media relations. 

Securing coverage is an important part of the job, but it should not necessarily be the end of the process. 

A PR team can help identify the most useful elements of the coverage, determine where those elements can be repurposed and coordinate with marketing, content and sales teams to put them to work. 

That might include developing follow-up content, identifying additional media angles, connecting an executive’s comments to a broader thought leadership strategy or finding opportunities to extend the conversation through the company’s owned channels. 

In other words, the question should not only be, “Did we get coverage?” 

It should also be, “What can we do with it now?” 

That shift can make PR a more integrated part of a company’s overall communications strategy. 

Measure What Happens After the Coverage Runs 

Traditional PR reporting often emphasizes placements, reach and impressions. Those metrics can help show the scale of a campaign, but they do not tell the entire story. 

If the goal is to maximize the value of earned media, companies should also look at what happens after publication. 

Depending on the campaign, useful measurements may include: 

  • Referral traffic from media placements 
  • Engagement with social posts featuring coverage 
  • Traffic to related owned content 
  • Downloads of reports or other resources 
  • Form submissions and inquiries 
  • Leads that reference a media placement 
  • Sales conversations influenced by coverage 
  • Engagement with executive thought leadership 
  • Searches for the company or executive 

The right measurements depend on the campaign’s objective. 

For instance, a thought leadership effort may be designed primarily to increase visibility and establish an executive as a source. In contrast, lead-generation campaigns may be focused more directly on website traffic or prospect conversion. 

The important thing is to connect media activity to what happens afterward. 

Build a Repeatable Earned Media Strategy 

Companies do not need to reinvent their content strategy every time they earn a media placement. 

A simple process can make repurposing part of the normal PR workflow: 

  • Capture: Save the coverage in a central media library. 
  • Identify: Pull out useful quotes, data, insights and questions. 
  • Adapt: Determine which elements can become social posts, blogs, newsletters, sales materials or thought leadership. 
  • Distribute: Tailor each piece to the audience and channel. 
  • Measure: Track engagement, traffic and other outcomes tied to the campaign. 
  • Refine: Use the results to inform future PR and content efforts. 

This creates a repeatable system rather than relying on someone to remember to share an article after it publishes. 

It also gives marketing teams a clearer view of the content already being generated through PR. 

Make Every Media Placement Work Harder 

Good PR takes time. Companies should get as much value as possible from the coverage they earn. 

That does not mean turning one article into a dozen versions of the same social post. It means looking at the ideas, expertise, data and questions behind the coverage and finding additional ways to make those elements useful. 

The same principle applies before a story ever runs. A company’s existing research, data and thought leadership can give a PR team stronger material to bring to reporters. 

That is ultimately what a connected earned-and-owned media strategy accomplishes. PR generates third-party visibility and validation, while owned channels provide a place to expand the conversation. 

For companies investing in PR agency services or building an internal communications program, the goal should not be simply to count media placements. 

It should be to make those placements work harder. 

When earned media and owned content support one another, one story can become the starting point for many more conversations.

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The Future of TV Advertising: From Buying Ratings to Building Audience-First Strategies

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The Future of TV Advertising: From Buying Ratings to Building Audience-First Strategies

The Future of TV Advertising: From Buying Ratings to Building Audience-First Strategies
August 24, 2026

We are living in the age of innovation. Traditional advertising mediums like linear TV are certainly being impacted, but that doesn’t mean that those mediums are disappearing. How we use them is evolving. 

That was one of the central themes of a recent fireside chat our Media Director, Kristen Carter, participated in with Kevin Maloy, VP of Advanced TV Solutions at Nexxen, during the Las Vegas Innovation Marketing Association’s Digital Technology & Planning Day. 

For agencies and brands, the evolution of video content and how people consume it has fundamentally changed the way we think about television. TV is no longer a one-size-fits-all medium. The future is about understanding who the audience is, how they consume content, and using data and technology to reach them with the right message at the right time – and ultimately understanding how those investments contribute to business results. 

 

TV Has Evolved – So Has the Way We Plan It 

At MassMedia, we still rely on tried-and-true tools to plan linear TV buys. Resources like SQAD help establish market-specific planning costs and negotiate efficient rates, while Nielsen and Comscore help us understand ratings, audience delivery, and forecast reach.  

The introduction of CTV and online video has made audience intelligence tools and client first-party data an absolute necessity, replacing the ratings and demo-based buying strategies of the past. 

First-party data and audience intelligence tools help us understand who a brand’s best customers are, how they behave, what they value, and most importantly, how they consume media. That intelligence is ultimately what determines the media mix. 

 

Determining The Right Video Mix  

Determining the right video mix starts with two questions: Who are we trying to reach, and what business outcome are we trying to achieve? 

Budget is equally important. Linear television can still be cost-prohibitive in certain markets, particularly for advertisers with limited budgets. CTV has made premium television environments much more accessible, allowing brands to enter the video ecosystem without necessarily making the same investment required for a traditional linear schedule. 

But when the audience and budget support it, linear can still be extremely powerful. 

We saw this firsthand with one of our clients, who was focused on growing singular transactions of $25,000 or more. First-party customer profiles showed that these high-value customers tended to be older and more affluent audience that was still consuming linear TV, so we built a strategy around how that audience watched television. The plan combined addressable cable and streaming with linear programming that over-indexed for the target audience, including premium tentpole environments. 

TV was part of a broader marketing ecosystem, but the markets where the strategy ran consistently experienced growth in $25K+ sales. This campaign served as a powerful reminder that innovation doesn’t always mean replacing traditional channels. Sometimes, it means using better data to make traditional channels work harder. 

 

Fragmentation Makes Integrated Media More Important, Not Less 

The proliferation of media platforms has created tremendous opportunity for advertisers, but it has also created one of the industry’s biggest challenges: fragmentation. Consumers don’t think about whether they’re watching “linear TV,” “CTV” or “digital video.” They simply watch content. 

Media planning and measurement, however, often still operate within those individual channel silos. That makes it difficult to understand true unduplicated reach and frequency across screens, and even more difficult to determine how all those exposures ultimately influence a business result. 

The solution isn’t to retreat into the channels that are easiest to measure. It’s to create a full funnel integrated strategy and measure success based on each channel’s role in driving business results – not simply driving impressions.  

A simple case study from a casino partner provides a great example. The brand’s media mix had historically been concentrated in Google and Meta, so we recommended adding CTV and YouTube to build awareness and support the performance of the bottom funnel channels. Since expanding the mix, website sessions and revenue have consistently increased proportionally to the increased paid media investment and channel mix. 

 

Measuring What Matters 

As the media mix becomes more complex, reporting has to evolve with it. 

Rarely is the booking or the purchase the result of a single touchpoint; rather, it’s the cumulative effect of an integrated media strategy. Yet, one of the reasons brands can be hesitant to invest in upper-funnel channels like TV and CTV is that the impact isn’t always as easy to attribute as a click, lead, or booking from a lower-funnel channel. 

That’s why measurement needs to look beyond last-click attribution. We evaluate upper-funnel channels through signals like website traffic, branded search lift, and overall business performance. Our reporting platform brings those insights together, with media performance, website analytics, CRM, sales, bookings and other first-party data in one view to create a more complete picture of media’s impact. 

Reporting is one of the most important ways we demonstrate success to brands.  The goal is never more data – it’s actionable data that helps all parties understand what happened, why it happened and what we should do next. 

 

So Where Does TV Go Next? 

AI and automation will continue to change how agencies plan, buy and optimize television, but technology alone isn’t the strategy. 

The opportunity is using better technology alongside first-party data and audience intelligence to make smarter decisions about who to reach, where to reach them and how each channel contributes to the business objective. 

The future of television isn’t linear versus streaming. It’s an audience-first video strategy where every channel has a role, and success is ultimately measured by business impact, not impressions.

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Influencer Partnerships That Go Beyond Checking a Box

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Influencer Partnerships That Go Beyond Checking a Box

Thought Leadership - Matthew Swope, Vice President of Public Relations, MassMedia
August 18, 2026

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Las Vegas chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

 

It’s easy to take an order: we need 10 influencers at this next venue launch in two weeks.

Teams mobilize. Ten creators attend. Content goes live over a two-day period. The box has been checked.

But did that approach actually produce the desired outcome? And what was the audience experience—scrolling through a sea of nearly identical content on their For You Page?

As communicators, how can we move PR teams out of being order takers, arms and legs if you will, and into strategic partners, peeling back the layers to get to the heart of the ask—and the real why of it all?

That lesson feels especially relevant in hospitality and food and beverage influencer partnerships today.

Most influencer campaigns follow a familiar checklist: build a creator list, negotiate deliverables, host an event, generate posts and calculate reach. But completing the checklist does not necessarily mean the work moved the needle.

Here’s how to reframe influencer partnerships by asking our favorite question: why?


The Initial Request Is Not Always the Real Objective

Clients or internal leaders may communicate their needs through tactics, asking for an influencer event, a certain number of posts, a TikTok campaign or creators above a specific follower threshold.

But those requests are often only the surface expression of a deeper goal.

Maybe the priority is filling reservations during a slower period, creating momentum around an opening, reaching a younger audience or rebuilding excitement about an already established venue.

Our role is to get beneath the request and understand the outcome behind it.

It typically starts with “why?” and is followed with: What does success actually look like? Can we achieve this by hosting an event or one-offs? What would make leadership feel genuinely excited about the investment? What would make the campaign feel bigger than a collection of contracted posts? How will the wider marketing organization be engaging with and utilizing this content?

Influencer strategies tend to be much stronger once those questions are answered.


Start With the Desired Action & Message

The best influencer content should capture attention and inspire action. Whether that’s by clicking out to make a reservation, attending an event, trying a new menu, booking a stay or reconsidering how someone views the brand.

Not every campaign needs to drive an immediate transaction, and oftentimes they won’t, but every campaign should have a clear purpose.

Once the purpose is identified and agreed upon, communicators can determine who the end target is, which platform makes the most sense, and the appropriate influencer to act as a conduit.


Give Creators the Destination, Not Every Turn

Brands should be clear about the message and desired outcomes, but they should not dictate every creative choice. Creators understand the formats, hooks, humor and storylines that resonate with their audiences. That knowledge is part of what the brand is leveraging by engaging in a paid or trade partnership.

The role of a comms team is to provide the strategic foundation: the audience, objective, key message, required facts and brand guardrails. Their job is to translate these baselines into content people will actually choose to watch and engage with.

Creative freedom does not mean operating without direction. It means trusting the creator to find the strongest route to the intended destination.

And, frankly, it’s time for brands to stop nitpicking every frame of influencer content and allow it to reflect the authentic style and voice of the creator.


Sometimes Less Creates More Impact

More creators do not automatically produce more influence.

When dozens of people attend the same preview, capture the same dishes and publish similar content at the same time, audiences quickly recognize the campaign–and they are calling it out. Instead of creating discovery, the volume can make the experience feel manufactured.

Smaller, more bespoke hostings can often produce stronger results. And influencers more and more are asking for one-off experiences, not only to create higher quality content, but to lean into exclusivity and first-looks.

A thoughtfully curated dinner, bespoke itinerary or meaningful access to a chef, founder or creative leader gives influencers a stronger story to experience and tell. It also gives the creator room to find a distinct POV and theme for their content.

The goal should not be to occupy as much of the feed as possible. It should be to give the right storytellers something meaningful enough that their audiences want to act on it.

Did we merely deliver what was requested, or did we peel back the layers to uncover what the stakeholder truly wanted? Did we generate content, or did we create something capable of changing perceptions and moving people to action?

Going beyond checking boxes does not require a bigger campaign or larger budget. It requires a more intentional one.


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The Biggest Paid Media Takeaways from 2025: A Year of Clarifying Signals

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The Biggest Paid Media Takeaways from 2025: A Year of Clarifying Signals

Social media icons
December 29, 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, paid media seems more like a maturing discipline than a rapidly evolving trend cycle.

We have collaborated with companies in a variety of sectors, platforms, and stages of development over the course of the last year to plan, test, improve, and scale paid media initiatives in real time. The most significant changes weren’t connected to specific platform updates, even though strategies kept changing. They had to do with how brands viewed strategy, creativity, data, and measurement as interconnected systems.

In retrospect, 2025 provided several clarifying indicators. These are the key lessons from paid media that we found most noteworthy in our work, and we think they will continue to influence performance in the future.

1. Platform Growth Invited More Intentional Decision-Making

In 2025, advertisers had more paid media options than ever before. Platforms expanded placements, formats, and discovery surfaces, while retail media networks continued to gain relevance within broader media mixes.

What became increasingly clear is that opportunity alone isn’t the driver of performance. Intentionality is.

Brands saw the most momentum when platform expansion was guided by clear objectives, realistic expectations, and a thoughtful understanding of where the audience already engaged. Rather than feeling pressure to show up everywhere, many teams found success by deepening investment in channels that were already working and expanding selectively when the right conditions were in place. 

2. Creative Emerged as the Most Reliable Performance Signal

Throughout 2025, creative consistently proved to be one of the strongest indicators of paid media success.

As targeting continued to broaden, ads themselves carried more responsibility. Messaging, pacing, format, and authenticity all played a greater role in how campaigns performed. Creative that clearly articulated value, addressed real customer needs, and felt native to the platform often outperformed more polished, but less relevant assets.

Strong creative didn’t come from one perfect concept. It came from building systems that allowed teams to test, learn, and iterate quickly. Over time, these feedback loops became one of the most dependable ways to improve efficiency.

3. First-Party Data Continued to Strengthen Performance Foundations

Another pattern that became increasingly visible in 2025 was the role of first-party data in creating stability and consistency.

Brands that invested in clean data infrastructure—through CRM connections, server-side tracking, and thoughtful event design—gave platforms clearer signals to work with. This didn’t eliminate volatility, but it often made performance more predictable and learning periods more efficient.

At the same time, these investments helped teams better understand their audiences beyond platform dashboards, supporting stronger alignment between paid media, lifecycle marketing, and overall growth strategy.

4. Paid Media Naturally Moved Further Up the Funnel

In 2025, paid media continued to play a broader role across the customer journey.

Many brands observed that conversion-focused campaigns performed best when supported by earlier touchpoints — ads designed to educate, introduce, and build familiarity over time. Rather than viewing awareness and consideration as separate initiatives, teams began to see them as essential inputs to conversion efficiency.

This shift was especially evident on platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, where audiences often discover brands before actively searching for them.

5. Measurement Became More About Direction Than Certainty

Measurement conversations evolved noticeably in 2025.

As attribution remains imperfect, teams spent less time searching for precision and more time looking for consistency and directional insight. Blended metrics, trend analysis, and incrementality testing helped provide context that single-channel reports could not.

This shift encouraged stronger collaboration between marketing, analytics, and leadership—and helped align paid media decisions with broader business outcomes.

6. Rising Costs Reinforced the Importance of Fundamentals

Costs continued to rise across most paid media platforms in 2025, but this trend also brought an important realization into focus: paid media reflects the strength of what it’s built on.

Brands with clear positioning, compelling offers, cohesive messaging, and strong on-site experiences often found that paid media remained an effective growth lever, even in a more competitive environment.

Rather than being a standalone solution, paid media functioned best as an amplifier of solid fundamentals already in place.

Looking Ahead

2025 wasn’t defined by a single platform shift or tactical breakthrough. It was defined by a growing sense of alignment between creative and media, data and strategy, short-term performance and long-term brand building.

As we look toward 2026, the most successful paid media programs will continue to be those built with intention: grounded in strong fundamentals, guided by learning, and flexible enough to evolve alongside changing platforms and consumer behavior.

That’s the lens we bring to our work, and the one we believe will continue to serve brands well in the years ahead.

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A Thankful Look Back: 2025 Trends That Make Us Better Marketers

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A Thankful Look Back: 2025 Trends That Make Us Better Marketers

Trends that make us better marketers
November 26, 2025

A Thankful Look Back: 2025 Trends That Make Us Better Marketers 

Every year brings a new wave of predictions, but 2025 was defined by smarter, more intentional marketing that made stronger connections to audiences. Campaigns were stronger and more thoughtful, and shifted tactics across the board. 

As we wrap up this year, here’s a look at the trends we are grateful for; the ones that raised the bar for brands and made all of us better at what we do. 

Quality over quantity 

There was a time where content was pushed out by the day, or even the hour. Posting for the sake of posting was the standard, even if the content was lower level and not as engaging. It was the routine, and still is on some platforms. Audiences have made it clear throughout 2025 that the days of posting for the sake of posting are over. According to a study on HubSpot, brands that reduced posting and focused on high value content saw… 

  • A 27% increase in engagement when shifting from content volume to the value of content.
  • 62% more saves and shares after reducing weekly posts and increasing depth. 
  • There is a longer post lifespan and healthier audience sentiment overall.
  • Brands that put thought behind what will grab their audience’s attention earned more of it. 

This shift has weight. The production treadmill is easy to step onto, but this allows brands to free themselves from getting tired. 

Attributions got smarter, budgets stronger 

Tools such as Google Analytics, Meta Ads Attribution, and Marketing Mix Modeling platforms grew in their sophistication and processes, meaning that brands could finally see the paths audiences followed to drive outcomes, vs lying on the last click. This showed us marketers that there was purpose being the spend, and decision-making was based on results, not educated guesses. Meta for Business and Nielson noted the following regarding 2025 ROI performance: 

  • There was a 21% improvement in ROAS on brands that used advanced attribution in 2025. 
  • Up to 55% reduction in wasted spend when budgets were adjusted based on insight. 
  • Attribution models offered clear visibility into role-playing across channels. 

AI is meant to support creativity instead of threatening it 

If 2024 was the year everyone was scared of AI, 2025 is the year that marketers made peace with it and learned how to use it for good. While there are still very fine lines between using too much AI (and for the wrong reason) and using it just the right amount, there has been more structure and learnings around using it for the heavy lifting. Adobe showcased that eight to twelve hours a week are saved per week using AI for research, organization, and structuring making campaign timelines 30-40% faster across all workflows. This does not necessarily apply to creative or strategy. AI can guide and offer competitive insights, but the drive is still very much in human hands. 

Communities are leading marketing 

Consumers continued to move away from traditional brand messaging and were drawn to real people, and real experiences. Real is the keyword. While influencers also have blown up exponentially, audiences want to feel like there is a reliability to the content, and person, they are choosing to watch. TikTok and Instagram analytics showcase that community-first content delivered 2-4x stronger engagement, further showing that brands who lean into micro-moments and creator partnerships gained more meaningful reach. The 2025 Instagram trends report noted the following differentiators: 

  • Instagram had a 28% higher share rate for posts that reflect community stories. 
  • On Meta as a whole, community-driven messaging saw a 37% lift in ad recall. 

Cultural knowledge is still an expectation 

There is no recognition for simply “trying” to be tapped into culture in 2025, it’s a requirement. Accurate audience/consumer recognition, language/DMA appropriate content, and cultural understanding are not non-negotiables and have become the differentiators between campaigns that worked, and ones that missed the mark. 

Social listening provides an advantage 

The brands/companies who listened to their audiences took first place. Why? They caught on to needs, they adjusted messaging in real time, and were tapped into the reality of what people were looking for. Sprout Social shared data insights from audience listening tools and found that…

  • Social listening produced 42% more accurate insights than self-reported data. 
  • Brands who responded quickly to community responses saw higher conversion rates AND sentiment, and easily avoided missing the mark. 

We’re grateful 

These shifts we saw in 2025 showcased a maturity in the market. Pushing the industry in the direction of connection, clarity, and building a community of people who genuinely care about the content that is reaching audiences. 

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Keith Lee’s Masterclass in Bringing Back the Focus to Giving (And What Brands Can Learn From It)

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Keith Lee’s Masterclass in Bringing Back the Focus to Giving (And What Brands Can Learn From It)

Bringing back the focus to giving
November 17, 2025

Keith Lee, a food critic and creator known for highlighting small businesses, is no stranger to showing up for his community. But his latest viral video serves as a great reminder to brands about the importance of focusing on what matters most: their own impact within their communities.

When brands hear the word “influencer,” several things often come to mind: their niche, audience size, past brand partnerships, and the level of influence they can bring to a potential campaign.

While all of that information does matter, sometimes in the excitement of potential partnerships, what can get missed is the size of impact by showing up. 

His latest act for his community began with a simple video. He shared his family’s personal experience, explaining how he and his wife relied on SNAP benefits and gift cards to purchase groceries when they were in a different situation. 

He called out a growing trend and flipped it on its head. Instead of making a video asking brands to send PR packages, he asked for brands to commit to helping feed families this holiday season—not through a new creator collaboration or a money-driven partnership, but through actual action and real resources.


Keith’s approach brought attention back to the real needs of families and the real purpose of community-led influence. Watch his call to brands here. 

The video went viral, reaching over 8 million views on TikTok and generating 2.7 million engagements, with brands volunteering in droves to support. He noted that more than 100 brands had committed to helping in this follow up video. 

 

What Brands Can Learn from Keith Lee’s Call to Action:

Keith’s video isn’t just another feel-good story, but a reminder and example of how brands can follow to lean into their own impact through social. 

Show Up for Your Communities (In and Outside of Collaborations):

Brands that consistently appear, even when there’s no campaign or creator ties, build credibility and trust––even showing your brand in action in everyday moments.

Listen to What Your Communities Are Asking For: 

Social is an ongoing feedback loop for your communities – often telling you directly where and how they can have an impact. 

Take the time to listen – whether through social listening tools or evaluating top content related to your brand.

Connect Through Your Personal Experience, Not Just Promotion: 

Find a way to show up through an authentic connection, leveraging your brand values, team experiences, and the needs of your own communities.

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Brand Storytelling That Actually Connects: Humanizing Brands Through Community Moments

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Brand Storytelling That Actually Connects: Humanizing Brands Through Community Moments

Humanizing Brands Through Community Moments
October 27, 2025

At MassMedia, we’ve learned that brand storytelling isn’t a script: it’s a relationship. The stories that stick aren’t the ones only delivered in a perfect 30-second spot. They’re the ones your neighbors retell because they lived them: the Saturday when car-seat technicians lined the elementary school parking lot to help parents, the week a local bank quietly funded a “first jobs” night for teens, or the afternoon a library hosted a low-sensory “connection hour” so families could catch their breath. Those small, human moments are where reputations are built and loyalties are formed. 

When we work with brands, we push them to commit to communities in which they do business. Not only does this allow brands to generate positive media and social coverage, it allows brands to deepen relationships with their communities and play the long game of winning over customers and building a pipeline for future ones.

Why community-centric storytelling works

Trust is local, and it’s earned in the open. Consumers oftentimes believe what they can see and touch, not just what they’re told. It’s the difference between a purpose statement and a purpose you can hold in your hands: a helmet that actually fits, a grocery box that arrives when the pantry’s running low, a scholarship award letter on a kitchen table, a teen who leaves a workshop with a real job lead. 

Small moments, when real, travel farther than big promises. A candid photo of a school nurse crouched beside a minivan, teaching a dad how to secure a car seat, says more about a brand’s values than any “We Care” manifesto ever could. It’s the kind of scene neighbors share without being asked. When that happens, you’re no longer buying attention, you’re being invited into the feed, the group chat, and the parent email thread. That’s a very different kind of reach.

Community also creates continuity. Isolated moments become reliable rhythms: quarterly safety clinics, seasonal park cleanups, back-to-school supply drives, annual “first jobs” workshops  or hiring events in partnership with local employers. That cadence powers PR with a steady drumbeat of meaningful stories and gives communities something to count on. Over time, your brand shifts from occasional benefactor to familiar friend.

Most brands already have messages. What they need are memories, shared experiences that make those messages feel true. That requires a different operating system, one that elevates proximity, humility, and consistency over polish.

Building a culture that sustains the work

Programs like these don’t thrive on intent alone; they require internal alignment. The organizations that succeed tend to do a few things well. They empower local teams to act without waiting for an exhaustive approvals chain. They create simple playbooks, lightweight guardrails rather than rigid scripts, so anyone from HR to field ops knows how to raise a hand and mobilize support. They budget for service the way they budget for media and events, understanding that the return shows up in trust, talent attraction, and long-term loyalty.

They also select partners with care. The best collaborators, schools, libraries, youth sports leagues, neighborhood associations, are already hubs of trust. Rather than reinventing the wheel, brands show up to strengthen what’s working. Over time, these relationships become relational capital. When a crisis hits or a need spikes, you’re not a stranger trying to help, you’re a known quantity, already in the room.

Measurement in this model is both quantitative and deeply human. Yes, track the numbers. But also ask, “What changed because we were there?” Did parents leave more confident? Did teens feel seen? Did a community resource gain new momentum? Those answers don’t fit neatly into a dashboard, but they do shape how people talk about you when you’re not in the room—which is the essence of brand.

Looking ahead

Community-centric storytelling isn’t about turning service into spectacle. It’s about letting service become your story, quietly, consistently, credibly. It recognizes that trust accrues the way compound interest does: slowly at first, then all at once. And it accepts that the most valuable brand impressions will never appear in your ad manager. They happen when a parent says to another parent, “They helped us,” or when a teacher tells a reporter, “We couldn’t have done this without them.”

If you’re building a brand and you want to not only make a difference but drive community good will (and generate some positive coverage for it), in Las Vegas or any city, town or metro, start here. Find one small, real need. Show up with humility. Do it again. Over time, those moments become a reputation, and the reputation becomes your best story.

MassMedia is a Las Vegas-based public relations and integrated marketing agency. If you’re ready to evolve your brand story from messaging to memory-making, we’d love to help you design community moments that matter.

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Could An Integrated Media Strategy Be The Missing Half of Brand Storytelling Today?

Posted on by Ryan

Could An Integrated Media Strategy Be The Missing Half of Brand Storytelling Today?

Integrated Media Strategy
October 10, 2025

For decades, brand storytelling has been rooted in creative brilliance. A single campaign narrative could weave itself into the fabric of our lives and drive mass adoption. Brands like Nike taught us to “just do it,” Coca-Cola became a household staple, and Budweiser became synonymous with true Americana. These narratives worked, not just because they leaned into cultural moments and timeless human values, but because they had the stage all to themselves. There were fewer competing channels and less fragmentation, so one strong creative narrative could dominate consumers’ attention.

In today’s crowded marketplace, storytelling isn’t enough. We are living in the age of the distracted and overstimulated consumer. The average consumer is exposed to anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 ads per day, and adults’ attention spans continue to decline to that of a goldfish or my five-year-old. As if that wasn’t enough, according to E-Marketer, more than 32% of U.S. consumers today use ad blockers. This means that ad fatigue and acute avoidance are real challenges. We aren’t just dealing with more clutter but also needing to navigate sharper audience defenses against ads.

This doesn’t mean that storytelling is any less important for a brand; it just means it is incomplete without a comprehensive and integrated media strategy that ensures it is not just seen but also remembered.

So, what role does media strategy play in today’s cluttered environment? How do brands tell their stories to the right people at the right moment to ensure the message sticks and isn’t just a forgotten scroll?

An integrated approach becomes vital to a brand because media isn’t just about delivering impressions; it’s about engineering attention and recall and getting in front of your audience before they know they need you. A strong media strategy starts with audience intelligence, understanding who your message is for, where they are, and what motivates them to engage. 

This also means a brand must go beyond the bottom funnel. Sure, bottom funnel works for products that prey on impulse buying. But most of the time, buyers aren’t in the market for your product right now.  The most successful brands know that pure reliance on performance media won’t build brand credibility and loyalty. Incorporating top, mid, and bottom funnel tactics allows you to capitalize on mental availability, making your brand the easy choice when it comes time to pull the trigger.

Then it becomes a frequency balancing act. Too little exposure and recall wanes, too much exposure and you risk avoidance and even annoyance. No one wants to see the same progressive commercial 10 times in their one-hour viewing of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’

Really, there is no magic formula. Sometimes you just throw caution to the wind and hope it sticks. But if a brand wants a solid chance at becoming even a fraction of what Coke, Nike, and Budweiser mean to consumers, then ensuring their brand narrative is coupled with an integrated media strategy is non-negotiable.

Remember, a solid integrated strategy starts with these 4 things:

  1. Leverage data-backed audience alignment—don’t waste impressions on someone who will never convert.
  2. Contextual alignment is key to tapping into consumers’ mental availability.
  3. Multi-channel reinforcement is necessary. Search alone won’t create brand loyalty.
  4. Tell your story early and often, but don’t overdo it.

Storytelling will always move people, but in today’s overstimulated, always-on culture, a great story just doesn’t travel far enough. So, is an integrated media strategy the missing half of storytelling? Even the great brands of yesterday know that it’s not about replacing creativity but amplifying it. Stop just interrupting and start connecting to give your story the chance to be more than just a moment.

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Why PR and Earned Media Are Big Drivers in AI Search Results

Posted on by Ryan

Why PR and Earned Media Are Big Drivers in AI Search Results

Why PR and Earned Media Are Big Drivers in AI Search Results
September 29, 2025

In the last two years, the rise of AI -large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude has fundamentally changed how people search for information. Instead of typing keywords into Google, millions of users now ask natural-language questions and receive synthesized, conversational answers. This shift raises a critical question for brands and communicators: how do you show up in LLM search results?

The answer, in large part, is earned media and public relations (PR).

Traditional search engines rely on crawling, indexing, and ranking websites. While backlinks, keywords, and technical SEO still matter, LLMs take a different approach. They don’t simply display a list of websites; they generate an answer trained on massive amounts of text data. These models draw from a wide variety of sources such as published articles, news coverage, press releases, blogs, and even social commentary.

This means a company’s reputation and visibility in editorially controlled sources—journalism, trade media, and authoritative blogs—carry more weight than ever. When a journalist writes about your company, that story becomes part of the information ecosystem that LLMs are trained on or reference through retrieval-augmented search.

In other words, earned media is becoming the new SEO.

Why Earned Media Matters in the LLM Era

  1. Authority and Trust
    LLMs are trained to avoid biased, unreliable, or spammy content. Editorial coverage in credible outlets signals trustworthiness. If your brand is mentioned in The Las Vegas Review- Journal or an influential industry trade, those references can surface in AI-driven answers.
  2. Context Over Keywords
    Unlike Google, which favors exact keyword matches, LLMs thrive on context and narrative. They don’t just look for “best HVAC company Las Vegas.” They evaluate broader associations: who is quoted as an expert, who is linked with industry innovation, who is referenced in thought-leadership content. PR naturally creates this context.
  3. Persistent Digital Footprint
    Press coverage often lives for years online. A single feature article can continue influencing model training and outputs long after it’s published. That persistence means earned media builds cumulative visibility that paid campaigns or fleeting posts rarely achieve.
  4. Third-Party Validation
    Consumers and now, algorithms, value what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. LLMs echo this principle: they draw on independent validation from reporters, analysts, and reviewers rather than relying only on your owned content.

How PR Shapes LLM Answers in Practice

Imagine you’re a regional healthcare provider. If trade media, local news outlets, and national publications cover your innovative programs, that coverage increases the likelihood that when someone asks an LLM: “What hospitals in my area are leaders in patient safety?”-your organization appears in the response.

Or take a consumer brand. When a startup beverage company secures lifestyle press reviews, earned coverage creates authoritative references. Later, if a user asks: “What are trending energy drinks?” an LLM is more likely to cite your brand.

The common thread is this: if you aren’t in the media ecosystem, you risk being invisible in AI-powered search.

Where MassMedia Comes In

At MassMedia, we’ve always believed that PR is more than publicity, it’s positioning. In today’s AI-driven environment, that philosophy is proving more important than ever. Our PR services are designed to make sure your brand is not only seen by people but also recognized by the technologies shaping how people discover information.

  • Media Relationships That Matter
    We secure placements in outlets that LLMs trust and pull from—regional and national press, niche trades, and industry thought-leadership platforms.
  • Storytelling That Drives Context
    Our team doesn’t just pitch stories; we frame narratives that reinforce your authority and credibility. This storytelling creates the associations LLMs depend on when answering complex user questions.
  • Integration With Digital Strategy
    Because we are a fully integrated agency, we don’t stop at press. We amplify coverage across digital, social, and paid channels, ensuring your media presence echoes throughout the content ecosystem that AI relies on.
  • Future-Proofing Visibility
    With LLM search becoming mainstream, our PR campaigns are designed to do more than secure headlines—they build the digital footprint that keeps your brand present in AI-generated answers for years to come.

At MassMedia, we’re helping clients take the lead in this new era of search. If you’re ready to make sure your brand doesn’t just keep up with the future but owns the conversation, let’s talk.

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