In the ‘post-advertising’ era, consumers were no longer only exposed to advertised, controlled information from marketers. Instead, they consume information from diverse and fragmented media types to form opinions. With this comes the integration of marketing communication from brands and cross-functional planning and alignment of organisational, analytical, and communication processes to ensure all brand messages are well-coordinated, measurable, and persuasive. In turn, integrated marketing communication (IMC) help foster long-term relationships between organisations and stakeholders.
There are potentials for PR to make a unique contribution to IMC through its focus on managing multiple stakeholder-organisation relationships through two-way communication. An emerging specialty in PR is media planning that can also be optimised as a form of IMC to deliver a consistent message to a target market and drive sales. Media planning refers to the allocation of media budget and resources across different media types. These include (1) paid media (promotional advertising placements), (2) earned media (editorial publicity generated by journalists), (3) shared media (social media content produced and shared by users), and (4) owned media (channels and content controlled by organisations), which are also known collectively as the PESO model.
However, the literature on integration tends to focus on paid media and has not accounted for the evolving media landscape shaped by increasing shared media on social platforms. Previous research also largely examines IMC adoption in marketing and advertising, but lacks insights from the public relations (PR) perspective on how practitioners adopt integration as a mindset. Addressing these gaps, this study explores 3 research questions that uncover how and why PR practitioners make decisions on an integrated approach to media planning, including the selection of PESO media types, the process of media sequencing and scheduling, and the evaluation of the approach.
Method and sample
A qualitative, interpretive approach was adopted by conducting semi-structured interviews with 25 Australia-based PR practitioners who had experiences in campaign and program planning. The sample was recruited using snowball sampling. These participants had an average of 10.4 years of industry experience, with 10 worked in an in-house department and 15 in an agency. They specialised in different sectors, including public sector, financial PR, consumer PR, and digital marketing communications. The interviews were conducted on the phone for about 30 minutes and was audio-recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis.
Key findings
In determining which PESO media types to use in an integrated media campaign, PR practitioners also consider other factors such as organisation and industry characteristics, the structure within the organisation that influences integration, the budget, the changing media landscape, and moral and ethical implications.
1. Organisation and industry factors: Organisations in the public sector have a risk threshold that requires a risk management plan. For instance, earned media is favoured over shared media in cases of negative public debates due to privacy and ethical risks. Respondents also identified the importance of maintaining relationships with multiple, networked stakeholders (i.e. consumers, government, industry bodies, shareholders, community members). However, there are concerns for potential spillover negative effects to non-customer stakeholder groups, for example, resistance from the health industry to the promotion of chocolate.
2. Structural and integration factors: There are limitations caused by distinct functional roles, making it hard to remove silos within organisations. Respondents emphasised that prioritisation and clarifying the power dynamics between functions are key to coordinating IMC campaigns.
3. Budgetary factors: Practitioners have to make decisions on whether to spread budget across all types of media or to prioritise one type over the other. Typically, more is allocated to paid media since it is easier to track and evaluate results and more effective than earned media when executed strategically with research. Media integration can also become more effective, for example, when paid ads or viral social media content enable more earned news coverage.
4. Changing media landscape: Findings highlight changes to earned media as fewer media outlets and journalists result in more investments in paid media partnerships to gain news coverage.
5. Ethical factors: In social movements such as Black Lives Matter, it is important that PR practitioners carefully analyse the environment and invest in education before executing their IMC strategy and media buying.
Addressing the second research question about sequencing and scheduling media, respondents tend to use bespoke sequencing models tailored to the campaign phase or emphasising one media type based on how their strengths support the campaign goals. For example, earned media can amplify the campaign message, or owned media is low-cost, consistent, and better for search engine optimisation. When it came to scheduling, practitioners would consider not only the campaign structure, stakeholder relationships and trust, but also the environment and related issues that might influence the campaign but are out of the organisation’s control.
The final research question was about evaluation practices in IMC campaigns. Respondents reported different approaches such as measuring the isolated outputs of each media type or conducting a whole-of-campaign evaluation, which emphasises how impact can be achieved through combined effects of multiple platforms. Budget limits were also found to impact evaluation choices, as more complex tracking and measuring of qualitative outcomes like attitudinal and behavioural changes might cost higher. Moreover, practitioners considered value especially in relation to return-on-investment when evaluating paid efforts, and with that they emphasised the importance of setting up milestones to assess and re-assess the value generated during different campaign stages.
Recommendations
This research informs how PR practitioners’ risk and issue management mindset can translate to media planning choices, as they consider the institutional, relational, and social environments altogether to determine how stakeholders other than the targeted might be impacted. Besides, results highlighted the need for practitioners to reflect on emergent and ongoing social issues before reacting to them, which could be embedded into decision-making in media planning processes. Most importantly, this study recognises the value of PR practitioners’ expertise in understanding earned media, the changing landscape, and industry relationships, which is critical for ongoing, interdisciplinary integration.
More information
The detailed research is available on eprints.
Contact the researcher here: Dr Lisa Tam