Once upon a time, earned media meant one thing: getting a story in the newspaper or being interviewed on the nightly news. That was the goalpost for visibility and credibility. And it still matters. But here’s the kicker: Earned media today is so much more, and it's never been more powerful for building trust, influence, and reputation for business and personal brands. We’re not consuming media like we used to. We’re not all sitting around watching the 6pm news bulletin or flipping through glossy magazines. These days, we scroll. We binge podcasts. We subscribe to Substacks. We check out Instagram Reels or TikTok videos. We dip in and out of YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Twitter/X. Our habits have changed as the media ecosystem has evolved. So if you're a founder, a solo business owner, an expert advisor, or a thought leader building your professional brand, take note. Earned media is evolving, and if you understand how to leverage its power, it can do a lot of heavy lifting for you. The new shape of earned media Let’s start with the basics. Earned media is any kind of exposure you don’t pay for and don’t publish yourself - it's conferred upon you by someone else. FOR EXAMPLE: A journalist quoting you in a story. A podcast host inviting you on as a guest. A customer raving about your service on LinkedIn. A peer citing your insights in their newsletter. A speaker featuring a quote from you in their keynote presentation. It’s independent, and often carries perceived third-party validation and endorsement. And it’s certainly more credible and believable than any ad campaign you can come up with! Bottom line: It can’t be bought, it needs to be earned. This is the hallmark of public relations, and while there’s a whole lot more to PR today than just earned media, it represents the roots of the discipline. Indeed, when I first started working as a PR consultant some three decades ago, generating media publicity formed a large part of what I did day-to-day (we didn’t call it earned media then). Of course, the world’s changed a lot since then but the concept of earned media continues to matter when it comes to building brand visibility and authority. But here's where it gets interesting.Earned media today includes not only mainstream press but also things such as: podcast guest appearances influencer shout-outs user-generated content unsolicited testimonials reposts and recommendations across social platforms mentions in Reddit threads or Quora answers citations in niche industry blogs opinion pieces in trade publications quotes in Substack newsletters organic shares of your content across communities you didn’t seed yourself It’s all earned, and it’s all-powerful, because people trust third parties more than they trust your marketing. The AI Factor: What’s changed? Okay, so we’ve got the multitude of media channels - major outlets, well-established niche publications, owned media such as blogs and podcasts, YouTube, and the raft of social media platforms. If the seismic shifts that have occurred in the media over the past 20 years or so wasn’t enough, we now have to layer in generative AI. Tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity are changing how people find and validate information. These tools don’t just search the internet - they synthesise it. What they surface is often based on trusted mentions and citations from articles, interviews, transcripts, and forums. While models like Claude don’t currently browse the web, they still draw on a wide range of high-quality public data to generate context-rich responses. In other words: your earned media - those mentions, quotes, interviews, and citations - are not just reaching people, they're training the machines that influence the people. If someone asks ChatGPT, “Who’s an expert on sustainable architecture?” or “Best podcast guests on digital leadership?” — the LLM (Large Language Model - e.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity) is drawing on previously published material. If you’ve been mentioned in enough credible places, there’s a chance you might show up in the answer. This isn’t SEO - it’s GEO We’re entering a new era called Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) . GEO is the emerging practice of optimising your content, media presence, and brand signals so that you’re included, cited, or surfaced in responses generated by generative AI search tools like ChatGPT (with browsing), Perplexity, and Google’s Gemini. If SEO is about getting found on Google, GEO is about getting mentioned by AI. It’s about supplying the type of structured, context-rich content that AI tools are designed to detect, understand, and include. Let’s say you were interviewed on a podcast last year. That interview gets transcribed and quoted in a Substack newsletter, and linked on a community forum. That layered visibility increases the chances your name shows up in AI-generated answers about your area of expertise. You get surfaced, not because of an ad, but because of your authority footprint. This is where reputation meets reach. And it’s happening now. Generative AI search is changing how people discover experts and brands - instead of showing links, it delivers full answers based on trusted sources. This shift makes earned media even more valuable. Real-world examples of earned AI visibility Still wrapping your head around it? Here are a few everyday scenarios: You’re featured in a trade article about leadership trends. That piece gets scraped into the training data of a generative model. Months later, your quote turns up in an AI-generated summary. A client tags you in a Reddit thread saying you helped them solve a problem. Reddit is heavily crawled by LLMs. You just earned an AI trust signal. You write a guest blog post on a respected industry site. That content becomes part of the model’s memory when people search for expert recommendations. You give a talk at a virtual summit. The event organiser publishes a recap with key speaker takeaways, including yours, which gets shared in multiple industry Slack groups and ends up quoted in a blog post. That digital trail boosts your discoverability in AI-generated summaries. The generative AI voices to follow There’s a lot of noise around AI and PR right now, and I am by no means an expert in the space. But I note a few voices are starting to cut through with sharp, strategic, and practical insights. These people ‘get it’, and are well worth following … Sarah Evans: Sarah is a leading public relations strategist and partner at Zen Media, known for advancing the integration of generative AI in PR practices. Through her Substack "PR@ctical," she shares executive-level insights on how AI and search transform brand visibility. If you’re interested in this topic, Sarah’s Substack is essential reading: https://prsarahevans.substack.com/ REQUIRED READING: “The new media glossary for generative PR” and “The new media tiers (and why tier 1 just got demoted)” Andrew Bruce Smith: Based in the UK, Andrew is the chair of the CIPR’s AI in PR panel and a brilliant guide on embedding AI across comms workflows, from media monitoring to ethical usage. He’s well worth following on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbrucesmith/ REQUIRED READING: This LinkedIn post summarising one of the speakers of an AI in PR Masterclass (excellent stats & info tidbits) Christopher S. Penn: Christopher is a bit techy, but his frameworks are gold. If you want to learn how to generate prompts, structure data, and think like a machine without losing your humanity, he’s worth a follow: https://www.christopherspenn.com REQUIRED READING: "Generative AI Use Cases in PR" And here are a couple of articles that have caught my eye that you might find interesting. FURTHER READING: Why Is AI Essential for PR Pros in 2025? - by Barbara Rozgonyi How media and PR impact AI for your brand - by Lana Mini Final thought You don’t need to ‘game’ AI (although no doubt there are many short-cut merchants out there trying to!). You don’t need to chase virality. You just need to focus on building meaningful visibility, the kind that’s earned, not bought. That’s how you build real authority and make yourself not just seen, but remembered, by people and by machines. If your media mentions have been gathering dust, it’s time to dust them off and re-strategise. The new earned media isn’t just about reach. It’s about reputation, relevance, and long-tail recognition in a world run by algorithms and fuelled by trust. We’re just sauntering to the starting line - the race has only just begun, and it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint! Onwards! ~ Trevor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trevor Young – aka The PR Warrior - helps purpose-led business owners become clear and confident in how they leverage PR, content and digital communications for profit, impact and legacy. This article first appeared on 5 August 2025. You can follow Trevor on LinkedIn and on Substack .

Starting my communications career in London’s West End eons ago, I remember many of the colourful characters who populated Wardour Street’s creative corridors. A particular standout was Charlie, an ‘old school PR man’ doing his life’s best work telling the good stories for some of the firm’s most prestigious clients. As a former army officer, Charlie liked to see things done properly. Aside from some questionable “when I was on tour” stories over Friday lunchtime drinks, one of my favourite Charlie memories was the high precision creation of his end-of-quarter client coverage brag boards. Digital wasn’t a thing then (although we had a fax machine on our floor), so Charlie would meticulously cut and glue his press clippings to A3 sized black cardboard. Once finished, these looked as sharp as Charlie in his navy blazer and loafers, ready for a client lunch where he would show off the fruits of his labour. In Charlie’s old school world, this reflected months of effort cultivating a wide network of senior business reporters at UK mastheads, many of whom he saw as friends. This network lifeline was always willing to take his call and listen to his well-curated pitch. The brag board was tangible proof, a receipt of earned goodwill credited to the client’s trust bank account over the course of that past quarter. Well done, Charlie, another bottle of burgundy if you please. That was then and this is now, and the earned landscape has fundamentally changed. The media pool that Charlie used to network is nowhere near as abundant as it once was, and neither are the client entertainment budgets sadly. Technology has flipped over more than once – case in point Facebook wasn’t a ‘thing’ back then (Mark Zuckerberg was only 14) so alas Charlie and I have not stayed in touch – and the ubiquity of AI now dominates all aspects of working life. However, if Charlie were still operating today, then I’d like to think he would be grinning from ear to ear as we see the star of earned storytelling on the rise again. This is because Generative AI is eating Search’s lunch (although I know there’s plenty of talk of Google’s comeback, but for the sake of this story let’s not go there just yet…), and in this new information ecosystem most of us humans are choosing to get a synthetic readout from our favourite AI bot and going no further. And where does our preferred AI friend get this information? Earned content, of course! Traditional media yes (the more prestigious the better), but also from industry advocates, NGOs, academia, creators, analysts, trade and good old local media. Why? Because Generative AI scrapes and weighs all these third-party, citation rich endorsements before synthesising them into compelling insights that most people accept as gospel. Building this earned content ecosystem is communications’ job. Equally as important as cultivating external sources is tending to your own backyard – developing authoritative thought leadership and clear quotable insights from your leaders, maintaining consistent value-focused messaging across all content assets including press releases, blogs, and white papers, plus ensuring a well-curated and clearly structured website with comprehensive FAQs. The extensive agenda I reference above must be prioritised by the communications team with one clear goal: making your owned media not just informative but also meaningful and easily digestible for Generative AI. It’s equally important to keep a diligent eye on what is being said about your brand within these non-static generative engines and be prepared to quickly correct misinformation with fact. So, this World PR Day, with its themes of ‘building bridges’ and ‘navigating polarisation’, let’s reflect for a moment on the job to be done by an industry which has been hobbled in recent times and, frankly, has always done a lacklustre job of selling its value back to the business. Gil Scott-Heron once said, “The revolution will not be televised,” but our revolution has the potential to be everywhere. For communications professionals, this means rolling up our sleeves, taking a deep breath and flexing those earned muscles as AI reveals our true value once more. Time to dust off the loafers, Charlie, and don’t spare the UHU. You’re going to be busier than ever, because high-quality trust must still be earned. Note: This article first appeared on Mumbrella

The business world now loves to declare that "uncertainty is the new normal." Fair enough, responding to pandemics, cyber-attacks, activist pressure and now tariff wars may feel for some like check box items on a weekly to-do list. But here's the real shift: crisis preparation is no longer a special project for the risk committee. It's simply what good businesses do every day. Warren Buffett's timeless warning "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it" hasn't aged a minute. What has changed is the muscle memory inside companies. The smartest teams run regular scenario drills not because they expect to predict the next black-swan event, but because rehearsing decision-making under pressure sharpens judgment for whatever lands on the desk at any given moment. A recent Economist article ("A manager's guide to handling crises - How to keep calm and carry on", 26 May 2025) laid out three essential touchstones: plan, decentralise, and prioritise. Planning is a given. Prioritisation is common sense, Lime's decision to keep bike manufacturing in-house during COVID serves as a crisp reminder of strategic focus paying off. Decentralisation, though, is where opinions diverge and corporate affairs leaders may raise their eyebrows. Handing local teams more autonomy can feel like letting the brand's most precious asset wander off-leash. Yet rigid command-and-control structures carry their own risk: paralysis at the very moment speed matters most. The sweet spot is a framework that empowers on-the-ground experts while anchoring them to clear principles and pre-approved guardrails. In our increasingly decentralised world, you need to trust and empower your teams wherever you do business. None of this is headline-grabbing stuff, which is exactly the point. Crisis readiness done right looks boring: regular tabletop exercises, living playbooks, and a culture comfortable asking "what if...?" without eye-rolling. It's business as usual, which means that when the unusual strikes, the response hopefully feels almost routine at best, and at worst no one is panicking. The payoff isn't just averted disaster; it's reputational capital (also known as trust) that compounds over time. In a market where investors, regulators, and employees are quicker than ever to judge, that compound interest may be the best hedge a company can buy. After all, long-term business outcomes and reputational health are deeply intertwined and should never be considered in isolation. The lesson for today's leaders? In an era of heightened volatility, the organisations that thrive will be those that make crisis preparation feel as natural as any other business discipline.

Since launching indigo murphy on 31 March this year (yes, it's our two-month anniversary today no less), the question I'm asked most often is: "why did you choose 'indigo murphy' as a name?" The truth is, I wanted to build something that would stand out in a crowded market. Looking at the agencies I most admire - Burson, Ogilvy, Edelman (of course) - they all benefit from their founder-focused legacy. There's something powerful and truly accountable about putting your name behind your work, even if it sits uncomfortably with my natural introverted happy place. Beyond the power of personal branding, I've always been fascinated by how the best company names carry both emotional and strategic weight, perhaps simply with the addition of a colour that evokes sentiment. Think BlackRock (sophistication, strength, authority), or Red Bull (energy, passion, excitement). These brands understand that a name isn't just a label; it's a promise, a feeling, a cultural connection that strengthens over time. The blue period So, speaking of colour, my instinct was to gravitate toward blue. It's dominated both my wardrobe and business thinking for years - a colour I associate with trust, depth, and reliability. But "Blue Murphy" presented some obvious challenges. The domain was taken, and frankly, it risked being mistaken for something far removed from senior business advisory services and more akin to an adult novelty store from the outskirts of Dublin. Enter indigo Then indigo emerged from the creative process, a deep, rich blue that throughout history has been associated with creativity, intuition, and wisdom. These are exactly the qualities I want clients to experience when working with indigo murphy. But there's also something more visceral about the word itself. Say it out loud. Indigo! IN-DI-GO! There's an almost onomatopoeic quality to it - like 'energy released' as you let your dog off the lead with a surge of determination to tackle complex challenges head-on (in my dog Freddy's case – see enclosed - it's to get to the frisbee in the surf before I do). This energy embodies what I want the business to represent: passionate, focused work that cuts through the noise to deliver real results with a bit of antipodean mongrel thrown in for good measure. Beyond the name Ultimately, the name indigo murphy isn't about me or the senior folk I work with. It's about the work. High-calibre, no-fluff outcomes that help solve real problems for real businesses. Two words that serve as a commitment, designed for staying power in client conversations whilst evoking creativity, insight, wisdom, and of course a bit of mongrel. Now that we've covered the 'why', it's time to focus on what really matters, and in true communications parlance, that's the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ behind the work we do and the challenges we help businesses navigate. Curious about how we approach problem-solving? I'd be interested to hear about the challenges you're working through.

AI is no longer emerging tech, it’s embedded in the day-to-day operations of modern business. From streamlining workflows to generating content at scale, its benefits are undeniable. But there’s a growing signal amidst the noise: as adoption accelerates, our critical thinking skills may be quietly atrophying, with recent research by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University reinforcing this concern. A 2025 survey of 319 knowledge workers and 936 real-world use cases of generative AI (GenAI) revealed a pattern: the more people relied on tools like Copilot or ChatGPT, the more likely they were to report a reduction in the cognitive effort they applied to tasks, and confidence in AI was inversely correlated with critical engagement, i.e. we get lazy, and worst, complacent. This should concern us all, but especially communications leaders. After all, critical thinking is the cornerstone of trusted communication. It’s what allows us to interrogate a claim, challenge an assumption, and elevate ideas with originality and insight. When teams become passive recipients of AI outputs, we risk trading originality for speed, and nuance for efficiency. So, what can be done? Here are five strategic actions communications leaders should consider: Enhance AI literacy - Equip teams with a clear understanding of AI’s capabilities and limitations. Knowing when to trust it, and when to dig deeper, is the new literacy. Promote active engagement - Encourage critical prompting, diverse sources, and the interrogation of AI-generated outputs. Treat AI as a collaborator, not a final authority. Establish oversight protocols - Introduce review processes that assess not just content accuracy but alignment with brand values, tone, and strategic intent. Foster a culture of critical thinking - Recognise and reward team members who challenge the status quo and improve upon AI-generated suggestions. Curiosity and challenge should be embedded in workflow. Invest in continuous learning - Prioritise training that strengthens problem-solving, synthesis, and strategic judgment—skills AI can’t replicate, but which remain essential to brand trust. Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's Chief Communications Officer and a prolific champion of AI, regularly underscores the importance of integrating AI thoughtfully into our workflows. He advocates for breaking down processes into their atomic steps, identifying where AI can assist, and ensuring that human judgment remains central to our communications efforts. Today’s communications leaders have a unique responsibility and opportunity to safeguard critical thinking as a core strategic function. Yes, AI removes friction. But it’s human-centered judgment that adds value. As communicators, we’re not just power users of AI. We’re stewards of critical thinking. And in this symphony of speed and substance, it's the human conductor who adds value and truly brings the orchestra to life.