Understanding the PESO Model

Friends, Thank you very much for taking out time from your busy schedule to read my blog(s). Sharing knowledge with you has become my passion now. I feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comments column. Friends’ Everything I do or say is PR.

Friends’ I’m delighted to share 121^st Blog titled ‘Understanding the PESO Model’. Friends’ aim of this blog is to make you understand different aspects of Gini Dietrich’s “PESO Model”. After reading the article you can gain knowledge about the uniqueness of this Model and how it can be beneficial in making your communication more effective. But before discussing the PESO Model, it’s imperative to discuss PR and IMC in brief.

 

Understanding PR…..

Friends there are many definitions of PR that it is hard to say which one is more relevant than the other. Sharing few key definitions of PR with you…..

ü  PR is a fundamental attitude of mind, philosophy of management which deliberately places the broad interests of the public at first in every decision attracting the operation of a business.

ü  PR is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

ü  The fundamental purpose of PR is to establish a two way of mutual understanding based on Truth, Knowledge, and full information.

ü  PR is an attempt by information, persuasion, and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.

ü  PR consists of all forms of planned communication, outwards and inwards, between an organization and its publics for the purpose of achieving specific objectives concerning mutual understanding.

ü  PR is a management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an Individual or an organization with public interest, plan and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.

 

Friends Profession of PR is deeply rooted in ethics, strategic planning and evaluation.

 

Understanding IMC…..

 

ü  IMC is a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.

ü  IMC is both a theory and a set of business practices that facilitate consistent messaging across channels and produce a unified brand experience for customers.

ü  IMC is an organizational approach to unify marketing communication elements in order to create a seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand.

ü  IMC is a strategic advancement at how communication tools can be utilized by organizations to coordinate their marketing efforts across multiple communication channels. 

ü  IMC offers a smooth, customer-focused experience by incorporating all marketing communication elements, including public relations, social media, and advertising. It implies that the message should have a unified look, feel, and tone across all channels of communications.

ü  IMC is a results-driven practice of planning and coordinating different communication disciplines, such as public relations, advertising, audience analytics, media relations, and social media, in order to achieve maximum communication impact.

ü  An effective IMC will outline a core message, highlight your competitive advantage, address the appropriate target market, and tailor the message to fit supportive media channels. Essentially, the message remains consistent, but the method of delivery will vary across platforms.

 

Friends IMC provides consistency wherever customers choose to interact with a company. Without an apt IMC strategy, there could be a risk of delivering mixed messages or communicating in a disconnected voice.

 

Understanding PESO Model…..

 

After 30 years of the 4 PR models outlined in “Managing Public Relations” authored by T. Grunig and Hunt in the year 1984, PESO Model was officially launched in the year 2014 with the publication of the Book: Spin Sucks, authored by Gini Dietrich, Founder & CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago, USA, based Integrated Marketing Communication firm.  In her book, Gini Dietrich established a solid framework for implementing and embracing PESO model that has become widespread in the PR & communication industry.

P stands for Paid, E for Earned, S for Shared, and O for Owned and that’s PESO Model. The model combines paid, earned, shared and owned digital mediums of communication in an apt manner to ensure achieving the desired reach of a very well planned and executed communication program.

Understanding Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned Media…..

Paid Media refers to social media advertising, sponsored content, and email marketing. Typically centered on pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Google or a newspaper or magazine website, paid media tactics now rely largely on native advertising. Native advertising is a form of paid advertising in which the ads match the look, feel and function of the media format where they appear. They fit “natively” and seamlessly on the web page. Unlike banner or display ads, native ads don't really look like ads, so they don't disrupt the user's interaction with the page.

 

Earned Media refers to articles, write-ups and interviews in a newspaper, magazine, trade journal, electronic media and digital media channels using media relations. The additional advantage of earned media in digital scenario is SEO i.e. Search Engine Optimization. Traditionally, earned media is a PR pitch sent to a journalist who may include the brand in a featured story or mention it in an article in some way. Earned media is all about relationship building. Today, besides journalists PR pros are also pitching bloggers and social media influencers with large followings who trust the influencer’s recommendations. In addition, they’re sending pitches to editors and webmasters of relevant websites inquiring about including a backlink to a piece of owned content or to contribute a guest post which usually includes a link or two back to the brand’s website. This enhances the authority and credibility of a business in the minds of its target audiences and to Google, which rewards backlinks by boosting the rank of content in Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Shared Media refers to the stories or curated content shared on social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp and TikTok etc. Digital media experts like yours truly and most of the organizations globally have started using Shared Media as their main source of communications with their external and internal target audiences as well. Many people, like yours truly, are doing FBLive, InstaLive and LinkedIn Live to connect and communicate with their target audiences. It’s like putting the social back in social media by creating engagement and community, however, each social platform is unique and has its own characteristics that require different content and campaigns.

Owned media refers to something one owns, and it lives on their website or blog. One can have control over the content and tell the story the way they wish it to be told. One can use blogging websites like Blogger.Com, WordPress, Tumblr, and Medium to write their story as yours truly writes blogs on PR on Blogger.Com – www.sureshgaurprguru.blogspot.com. Also, any content, from eBooks to podcasts, to videos are considered owned media. Owned media serve as the foundation to make all of our paid, earned and shared channels work. One cannot launch a campaign without telling a story or sharing a message.

Friends, Paid media prime focus is “Advertising”. Earned media prime focus is “Media or Press Relations” (PR).  Shared media and owned media prime focus is engagement with the target community.  PESO, a media model strategy, is a great way to organize thoughts and efforts to include all aspects of communication and must be used to ensure success of a well crafted and executed communication plan.

Creator of PESO Model Gini Dietrich invites users to think of the model as a pyramid with four corners. Without a corner, the pyramid or program collapses. She has suggested to start with owned, add shared, then earned and then paid. By organizing efforts into all four Media, one can balance the weaknesses of one media with the strengths of another.

Friends PESO Model, which was officially launched in 2014 in SPIN SUCKS, was updated in March 2020 with the following changes;

• An increased focus on strategy versus tactics
• Google+ and Vine (an American short-form video hosting service) removed from shared media
• Email marketing now placed between paid and owned media
• Addition of lead generation, SEO, distribution and promotion, and marketing communications

 

In January 2023, Gini Dietrich had shared some thoughts on how the PESO Model can continue to help PR professionals today. She explained that while the world has changed, the importance of PR has not wavered. As per her, PR is marketing and sales and customer service and the value is tangible, not just with unmeasurable awareness, but in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like leads and revenue. Gini Dietrich urged the companies to stop thinking of PR “only a brand enhancer and not a business driver” and that’s where the PESO Model comes in.

 

To conclude,

Friends precise and tactical  planning is the key to deliver a consistent and effective message across all media platforms to make sure that the right message reaches the right audience at the right time.  And when the PESO Model is working at its best, it can help you establish authority. Authority leads to thought leadership. Thought leadership leads to credibility and expertise. Others see you as an expert; even your competitors, and Google links to you on the first page of results because it also sees you as an expert. If you have enough authority that both Google and your competitors see you as the expert, you win the human and the SEO game. (Ref: spinsucks.com)  You’re welcome to verify the above statement “Google links to you on the first page of results and see you as an expert”; Search – P R Guru in India or P R Guru in World.  

 

Thank you for reading the blog.

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