What is Converged Media?
Have you ever watched a news segment on the Internet? Or flipped through a digital magazine on your tablet? You were benefiting from media convergence–the blending of multiple media forms and technologies into one dynamic experience.
Chances are your company has used converged media to connect consumers to your content. Maybe you placed a paid ad on Facebook. Maybe you posted a blog on your website, then saw it tweeted, retweeted, and finally picked up by a journalist or reposted by a news outlet.
Paid, owned and earned media are becoming increasingly integrated, and that’s where converged media impacts you most.
Why You Need a Converged Media Strategy
There is a surplus of content being pumped into every channel, every minute of the day. Consumers are over-saturated, and attention spans are dwindling. It’s only getting harder to cut through the noise with your message.
It’s no longer enough to have a corporate blog, Facebook page, and monthly press releases. Marketing and PR professionals need to share interactive stories across a variety of platforms, using text, graphics, and video. This convergence of paid, owned, and earned media enables you to reach customers they way they want to be reached, so they’re more likely to pay attention.
Sounds great, right? It might also sound like a lot of work. That’s why you need to develop a clear and targeted converged media strategy that can grow with you.
Still need convincing?
- According to Michael Briton, author of Your Brand: The Next Media Company, most people need to encounter your message 3-5 times before they begin to trust and take note.
- Research published by the Altimeter Group reveals that “the average person sees 3,000 brand impressions everyday.”
- Worldwide, people actively use between 2 and 4 social media accounts, and the number only continues to grow.
- This non-exhaustive Wikipedia page lists about 200 existing social networks
If you’re not bolstering your PR efforts with multiple media channels, you’re missing out on whole segments of your audience. Even if a consumer sees your message on one platform, they’ll likely forget it until it crops up on another platform (or two, or three…).
Integration: Getting More Out of Individual Marketing Channels
To take advantage of converged media, you need to integrate several channels into a single campaign. You want your message to be consistent and recognizable in each place it appears. The format might change–from a video to a tweet to an infographic–but the story is the same.
Think of your integrated campaign as a finely tuned barbershop quartet. Each member sings their part — tenor, bass or baritone — to create a richly harmonized song. The effect is a big, resonating sound that’s greater than the individual parts.
Blending various forms of media puts you at a distinct advantage into today’s fragmented market. When you start leveraging converged media, you still get to orchestrate the look, feel and tone of your message, and reach consumers where, when and how they want to be reached. And when they bounce from one platform or device to the next, you remain a stand-out on their rapid, over-saturated journey. The perfect confluence of paid, earned and owned media.