Digital Media and the Branding of Downtowns: Strategies for New Business Development Using Paid, Owned and Earned Media November, 2013 | Page 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We live in a fascinating, yet disruptive time. Digital media is increasingly pushing its way to the front of
the line as the consumer’s first choice for access to news, shopping and social connections. The way we
communicate and receive information has been forever changed by the Web.
Consumers, who were once expected to be content in their role as information receivers, are now able
to talk back, criticizing, enhancing and potentially repeating what they see and read to their friends and
followers. This multi-directional flow of information, enabled through a growing number of digital media
sites, provides opportunities for new relationships and economic growth.
Digital media is not a panacea for bringing new businesses to your downtown, but it plays a part, and
that role is expected to grow as websites, social media and other applications stretch the borders that
once constrained small budgets.
Used strategically, the paid, owned and earned media model can help you create and encourage a
positive atmosphere that is attractive to business prospects and valuable to current businesses.
So What Exactly is Paid, Owned and Earned Media?
If you’re not familiar with the term “paid, owned and earned media (POE)”, you’re not alone. While the
nomenclature is common in trade publications, it’s an unfamiliar term for many marketing professionals.
Simply put, the paid, owned and earned media model is the new, digital version of marketing
communication tools you already know. Here are some examples.

There are two key differences between the online and offline examples: the most obvious, of course, is
that online examples require some sort of electronic communication. Just as important is the realization
that the balance of power has shifted between marketers and consumers.
Because of these new digital communication channels, content consumers are also content producers.
People can easily take to the web to tell their friends and followers about the