Tracking earned media is essential for PR pros, communications experts and marketers because it can help them to amplify brand awareness and build strategies for the future. In today’s digital age, earned media can take many different forms. Here are four examples of earned media that have had a huge impact on different industries and movements this year.
1. Hamilton, Twitter Watch Party
The original stage cast of Hamilton hosted a “Twitter watch party” when the movie version of the hit musical was released in July on Disney+. Thousands of people tuned in to chat with the cast on Twitter as they watched the show for the first time. Not only did this give fans a unique experience while watching, but they also generated buzz for Disney’s new streaming service. Disney+ now has over 2.7 million views for Hamilton on its streaming platform.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The release date for this highly anticipated game came right as the pandemic was sweeping across the nation. Old and new fans of the game flocked to social media to share their friend codes and talk about their island inhabitants. Since its release in March, 22.4 million people have bought and played the game making it Nintendo’s second best selling game for the Nintendo Switch.
3. Alternative Modes of Transportation
During the quarantine, many forms of public transportation were shut down leaving people to find other methods to get around. Early on, TV stations started recommending bicycles as a safer alternative to public transportation and great leisure activity that adhered to social distancing guidelines. As the cases continued to rise, mentions of bicycles across many forms of media skyrocketed, and the bike industry saw product demand nearly double since the year prior. With more people talking about the need for bikes, many bicycle distributors had a hard time keeping up with production and were running out of bikes to sell. The roller skate industry saw a similar spike because of videos going viral of skaters on Twitter and other top social media sites. The CEO and Founder of Moxi Roller Skates had to open a second factory to keep up with orders.
4. The #BlackLivesMatter Movement
The year 2020 has been a big year for the Black Lives Matter movement with countless news stations talking about BLM protests and police reform. In fact, the movement’s hashtag was used over 47.8 million times on Twitter in just a little over a week in May, which equals out to about 3.7 million mentions a day. This movement captured the attention of people from all over the world and inspired many to share their views on social media and tune into the news to get the latest updates about where the movement is headed.
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Jessica Pickering
Jessica is a marketing professional in the hospitality and tourism industry with a passion for content creation and digital marketing strategies. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, cooking new recipes and traveling with friends.
