In today’s fast-evolving media environment, how do you track, analyze, and understand your brand’s media presence? At Watershed, we’ve been helping clients navigate this question for over 20 years, providing comprehensive media intelligence that goes beyond surface-level metrics. Our goal? To advance our clients’ reputations and business objectives by delivering total media awareness and actionable insights.
Over the past two decades, the media landscape has changed dramatically. It’s now more complex and fragmented, with traditional outlets sitting alongside influencers, viral moments, and niche communities that can shift public perception in an instant. For brands, this fragmentation brings both challenges and opportunities, making media measurement more essential—and more intricate—than ever before.
So, what does modern media measurement look like? Here’s our approach, developed over years of listening to clients and evolving to meet their needs in an ever-changing media ecosystem.
The Four Pillars of Media Measurement: Earned, Shared, Owned, Paid
When measuring media impact, we begin with the four major media types that define today’s communications landscape:
1.Paid Media: This includes any type of media or promotion that a brand pays for, such as digital ads (e.g., display ads, social media ads), traditional ads (TV, radio, print), paid influencer partnerships, and sponsored content.
2.Earned Media: Publicity you didn’t pay for, including social media mentions from stakeholders, traditional news coverage in national, trade and local outlets, blogs, podcasts and speaking opportunities.
3.Owned Media: This includes any media assets that a brand owns and controls, such as its website, blogs, email newsletters, social media channels, and mobile apps. The brand has full control over the content and how it’s distributed.
4. Shared Media: Shared media refers to content that is shared across social platforms or in public forums. It can include brand-related content shared by users on social media, user-generated content and opinions, and content from brand partnerships.
The trickiest to measure are earned and shared media, where data is often out of your control. However, these channels also present some of the most exciting opportunities for innovation, offering unique insights into how your brand is perceived by your key stakeholders. On the other hand, owned and paid media are more straightforward to measure, as they typically provide clear performance data, like click-through rates and audience demographics.
Beyond Impressions: The Metrics that Really Matter
For too long, outdated vanity metrics like Impressions and Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) have been used as benchmarks for PR success. But these metrics no longer reflect the reality of how information is consumed, shared, or influences decision-making. Impressions, for instance, may count potential views, but they don’t tell you how engaged or influenced the audience was.
At Watershed, we focus on more meaningful and actionable metrics:
- Volume of coverage: How much are people talking about your brand?
- Narratives & major story drivers: What are the key themes, and how is your brand positioned within them?
- Message pull-through: Are your key messages appearing in the coverage?
- Sentiment analysis: Is the tone of the coverage positive, negative, or neutral?
- Emotional trigger analysis: What emotions are driving audience responses?
- Share of voice: How does your brand compare to competitors in terms of coverage volume?
- Strength of company voice: How authoritative is your voice in the conversation?
- Media tiers: Are you getting covered in top-tier outlets or niche publications?
- Key reporters & influencers: Who are the most important voices covering your brand?
By focusing on these metrics, we can deliver a clearer picture of how your brand is performing in the media, how your stakeholders are speaking about your brand, and how you can refine your strategy moving forward.
Human Intelligence + Cutting-Edge Technology
While automation and algorithms are great for crunching numbers, they can’t replace the insight that comes from experienced analysts who understand the context of your industry and the subtleties of media narratives. That’s why Watershed uses a hybrid approach, combining human analysis with advanced data collection technologies.
Our analysts don’t just skim headlines—they read, synthesize, and code each media mention across multiple metrics. By layering in other data, like social engagement, web traffic, and influencer networks, we build a comprehensive picture of how your brand is perceived and what’s driving the conversation and provide you with the actionable insights to inform your brand strategy.
Bringing It All Together: Tracking Spillover Effects
One of the most valuable aspects of modern media measurement is tracking the spillover effects across different media types. For instance, a positive earned media placement in a trade press is a win, but the total impact goes beyond just the initial article. Did that coverage drive new website visits? Was it shared by influencers on social media? Did it increase public sentiment? Did it lead to new business opportunities or speaking engagements for your executives?
At Watershed, we merge data from across all four media types to give you the big picture of how your communications efforts are influencing both reputation and business goals. Even when direct cause-and-effect relationships are difficult to establish (as is often the case with PR), we provide enough insight to show the ripple effects of your media presence and provide strategic guidance forward.
Innovation in Earned and Shared Media
The most significant innovations in media measurement today revolve around earned and shared media. These areas are the most dynamic and least predictable, but they are also where the most valuable insights can be found. With the rise of influencers, niche communities, and viral content, understanding the dynamics of earned and shared media is essential for staying ahead of the competition.
At Watershed, we continuously refine our methods for tracking these channels, using social listening tools, sentiment analysis, and influencer mapping to provide deeper insights into how your brand is being discussed—and by whom. This enables us to help our clients not just react to media coverage but to shape it in meaningful ways.
A Custom Approach for Every Client
No two organizations are the same, and your media measurement strategy should reflect your unique goals and challenges. That’s why we work closely with each client to develop custom KPIs that align with their specific needs. Whether you’re focused on building brand awareness, driving sales, or enhancing your reputation, we tailor our measurement approach to provide the most relevant insights.
Ready to Elevate Your Media Measurement?
In today’s fragmented media landscape, achieving total media awareness requires a modern approach to measurement—one that’s as dynamic and multifaceted as the media environment itself. At Watershed, we combine human expertise with cutting-edge technology to help brands make sense of the chaos and turn media coverage into actionable insights.
VIEW ALL ARTICLES