The PESO Model: What’s Next for PR Agencies?

Marketing and public relations models continue to integrate. The PESO model (paid, earned, shared, owned) continues to evolve in which pillars carry the most weight. While each branch of the model remains important and adds value to brands, their stories, and their stakeholders, the role each pillar plays is beginning to shift.

Looking deeper, there are a few things that are clear:

Paid and Owned Rise to the Top

While earned media continues to be vital – with local news continuing to build interest this year – complementing earned content with owned, shared and paid pieces in a cohesive ‘campaign-style’ approach is part of a cohesive program. The once-clear division between “public relations” and “marketing” is (or, should be) a truly integrated approach with top to bottom of funnel elements and a range of awareness and lead generation goals.

Shared Media Evolves

With uncertainty around Twitter and security concerns around TikTok, brands will be navigating murkier waters on the shared front this year. While leading platforms are still used for sharing news and key messages, the typical ‘Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn’ publishing approach will likely shift based on enhanced audience targeting and the state of the platforms themselves. Shared platforms will vary in value depending on the brand and its target audiences; evaluating where to best reach stakeholders will help inform the shared media portion of an integrated communications program.

Paid Becomes Hyper-Targeted

While paid media efforts are always strategic, budgets are shifting and businesses are even more focused on reaching their target audience(s) with a greater ROI. This will come into play when it comes to getting increased site traffic and lead generation through different sponsorships and display ad buys – industry publications and publications that provide customized audience targeting will be the most effective partners.

Owned On the Rise

Newsletters, owned blogs, research studies and white papers will be major players this year, building on the ‘campaign-style’ to host key assets on an organization’s website with supporting materials, while conducting earned media outreach on a parallel path. Misinformation continues to be a challenge and uncertainty over shared platforms paves the way in 2023 for owned content to be the greatest opportunity to control the message through great storytelling. It also provides an integrated marketing opportunity to lead generation and more mid-funnel interaction between organizations and their stakeholders.

The PESO model, at its core, will remain prevalent. Its allocation and surrounding strategies will be what shifts – putting the onus on communicators to be strategic and mindful of value to best achieve clients’ business goals. It all circles back to the need for high-quality content and storytelling; strong content and messaging will always be king. The evolution of the PESO model provides new creative, effective ways to share it and maximize its impact with the right audience.