Media coverage of your brand, product or company leadership is a great way to reach large numbers of potential customers and improve brand reputation. But they call it “earned” media for a reason — to get coverage, you need to earn it. Your brand needs to have a story that will make for interesting news. Just like you, the journalist is after more people to read, view or engage with their content.

Word of mouth is still one of the biggest and most powerful forms of marketing. 

But how can we affect it? The simplest, truest, and hardest answer is by being better. Better than the competition, better at solving the problem, better products, better services, better at how we treat employees. If you ARE better but are still having trouble breaking through the noise, you may be asking how can you stop being a “best kept secret” and start being a “well loved solution.”

If you’ve consumed any television or movies in the past 50 years (or anything on film since the 19th century), you’ve probably recognized product placement. As a refresher, product placement is the inclusion of a branded product or service in media without explicit reference to the product.