Own Bought Earned revisited

Notes from Arto Joensuu presentation in socialsummit

Nokia has split its digital strategy in 3 categories: own, bought, earned. The system is super-elegant and has worked well to split different activities into larger entities and build connections between them to allow fluent consumer journey. Own media is the official, company owned channels while bought relates to online advertising; earned is the social conversations brand is managing.

The new consideration from Arto points out a few interesting topics:

Burned is he first topic. When true conversation becomes marketing propaganda and the entire ecosystem is not in balance, the consumer satisfaction decreases. In worst case the person becomes detractor and entire effort becomes burned rather than earned. It’s the consequence of social marketing that defines whether brand is able to build earned media (or burned respectively).

Traded was another new topic. In stead of buying visibility, brand may swap assets and visibility with other brands. In Nokia case this may mean mobilizing the other brands online presence with technology and services. In return, the other brand credits the technology with inbound links to tech provider. Of course collaboration goes beyond technology to communications and co-promotions.

Last topic was human. It highlights the importance of all corporate workers to become actively involved in interaction with marketplace. It’s about breaking the silos between organizational structures and work more as one evolving organ to collaborate with people.