Understanding Travel Media Relations & The evolution of "Earned, Owned, and Paid Media"

To assist our regional stakeholders in promoting key messages and products to the traveling public the CCCTA collaborates with National and Provincial industry partners such as Destination Canada, Destination BC, Indigenous Tourism BC and others.

Part of the Travel Media Relations efforts are focused on sharing information about you with Travel Writers, TV Show Producers, Documentary Film Crews, Social Media Content Creators and others. In some cases we collaborate with partners to bring these people to our region and in other cases we gather and send assets like editorial, images and video content or links to various Travel Media outlets.

In this program area we used to use the term “Unpaid Media” to describe the resulting stories, TV episodes etc. that help promote our stakeholders products and increase our regions profile to the world.

We use the term “unpaid” media to differentiate from traditional media advertising that you would pay for directly i.e. Magazines, Newspapers & TV.

In recent years the term “Unpaid Media” has essentially evolved into “Earned Media” to reflect the relevance of adding Social Media Channels to the marketing mix.

Earned media refers to media exposure you’ve earned through relationships with key media outlets who feature your story or tourism experience as a result of hosting a media trip or pitching a story.

Owned media is content you’re in full control of. Think of content as your company website, your social media accounts and your resources that populate them. Content can take on a variety of forms but the primary goal of content is to provide information to consumers in a controlled but not “overly promotional messages” about your company.

Paid media serves as a method for promoting content and driving exposure. And there are variety of paid techniques you can use to amplify your owned media and help you win more earned media.

There are so many options In today’s media world it may make it difficult to get your company’s message heard organically, but it also brings with it an abundance of methods to promote it.

My dad used to say “A three legged bar stool is always more stable on an un-level floor…”. This statement is still relevant in today’s somewhat bewildering world of marketing options. All three of these methods are part of a whole and all contribute to a balanced marketing strategy.

If you are interested in learning more about Travel Media Programs and possible support please contact Geoff.

In the next Travel Media Newsletter we will go into more detail about how to collaborate with various media outlets to increase your companies profile.