Double Forte

By José Gálvez

A creator can deliver every asset on the brief, smash performance benchmarks, spark lively comment threads, and still leave your PR team holding an empty hand.

That doesn’t mean the engagement was a bust. It simply means earned media was treated as a hopeful afterthought rather than built into the foundation of the work. We have all sat in that planning room where someone invariably asks right before wrap-up: “Can we get some press out of this?”

That question needs to be in the room on day one.

If earned media is truly part of the remit, an influencer strategy cannot begin and end with message delivery. It has to focus on narrative substance. That means looking for voices who can help uncover an untold story, bring genuine lived experience to an issue, or frame a conversation so compellingly that editors actually want to dig in. The goal is never just paying an influential voice to champion a logo. It is crafting something that holds its own weight long after the sponsored post scrolls off the screen.

Start with the Story, Not the Shortlist

Before anyone opens a spreadsheet of follower counts or starts horse-trading over deliverable tiers, pause and ask a fundamental question: What makes this interesting to someone who has never heard of the brand and does not follow the creator?

A splashy partnership announcement might occasionally make the rounds, but staking an earned media plan on a signature on a contract is a gamble at best.

A far sturdier foundation is an authentic audience friction point, an unexpected industry shift, or a tangible cultural insight that warrants a closer look. The creator’s role is to sharpen that narrative, not serve as a proxy for the lack of one.

Look at the editorial landscape. In Cision’s survey of more than 3,000 journalists globally, 86% noted they instantly pass on pitches that do not directly serve their beat or readership. A verified handle does not magically create relevance.

Here is a simple test before locking the brief: write the dream headline without using “partners with,” “teams up with,” or “taps creator.”

Strip those away. What is left?

If the story collapses without the transaction, you have an ad, not an editorial hook. That distinction separates what a brand wants to announce from what an audience will voluntarily read.

Choose Someone Who Adds Substance, Not Just Footprint

When earned coverage is on the table, vetting creators solely by reach is an easy trap. The real calculation is what they bring to the table as a subject-matter voice.

Can they break down a nuanced operational headache? Do they possess deep, credible roots in the discipline? Could an editor interview them about the broader industry landscape without them constantly glancing down at brand-approved talking points?

This is where public relations and creator strategy need to align. Organizations like PRSA have consistently pointed out that creators bring the most enduring communications value when treated as long-form storytellers, subject sources, and dynamic event speakers. Their contribution does not need to expire after a 24-hour story cycle.

Consider the contrast between paying someone to say a piece of software saved their workday versus partnering with a seasoned operator who can articulate the systemic inefficiencies plaguing their trade. The former provides an endorsement. The latter gives a reporter a credible source, a compelling human case study, and an actual reason to investigate.

That changes how we vet. Brand affinity and safety screenings are non-negotiable baselines, but we also have to evaluate whether a partner’s background withstands scrutiny. Being charismatic on camera does not make someone an authority. Credibility requires expertise, an intuitive feel for audience dynamics, and the poise to handle nuanced conversations.

Build Something an Editor Can Actually Use

Consider a B2B platform partnering with a creator who owns and runs an independent neighborhood restaurant.

A standard marketing brief asks for a slick walkthrough showing the owner balancing books on an iPad before dinner service. That is fine for a paid social campaign.

An earned-media brief pushes deeper: What does this person’s day-to-day reveal about the invisible labor required to keep a local establishment solvent?

Imagine the restaurateur chronicles the administrative grind that starts after the kitchen lights go down at midnight. The brand commissions a robust, methodologically sound study surveying independent operators on that exact administrative burden. The creator provides the tangible, human perspective; the research establishes the broader macro trend.

Suddenly, an editor has a legitimate story about the unvarnished realities of the small-business economy, backed by credible data, an articulate interview subject, and compelling visuals.

The brand has an authentic, defensible place in the conversation, but it does not need to force its way into every paragraph to make the effort worthwhile.

A word of caution on rigor: a handful of passionate comments on a sponsored post do not constitute an empirical trend. Anecdotes spark curiosity, but they are not representative data. Methodologies and funding must be transparent, and findings should never be massaged to fit a talking point.

Furthermore, the mechanics must be buttoned up before pitching begins. That means confirmed interview availability, clear photo assets, and transparent commercial disclosures. An editor’s interest evaporates fast if basic access requires a week of approvals. Make the story frictionless to report, not just easy to share.

And let’s be unequivocal about labels: a paid partnership does not transform into earned media simply because the aesthetic feels candid. Earned media is coverage an editor chooses to assign on editorial merit. Full stop. A creator can serve as an articulate expert, but they cannot be positioned as an unattached bystander, and regulatory guidelines on commercial disclosures must be ironclad. The integrity of the program relies on total transparency.

Measure the Outcomes Beyond the Feed

When earned visibility is an explicit campaign goal, evaluating the work requires distinct scorecards for creator metrics and PR outcomes.

Engagement rates, reach, and video completion rates assess content resonance. For earned outcomes, the lens must shift to where the story landed, who read it, and whether the strategic context was preserved.

Returning to the restaurant example: the benchmark for earned success is not the creator’s view count. It is whether coverage in a respected industry trade reached actual operators, prompted meaningful site traffic, or sparked conversations around the core business challenge. A passing mention in an advertising trade about a “creative activation” is a vastly different and far less durable outcome than an in-depth feature in a business publication examining the problem you set out to solve.

Look at the downstream impact: Did the piece bring qualified traffic? Did it drive informed inbound interest? Did it shift the way prospective clients understand the operational challenge?

This mindset mirrors AMEC’s framework for outcome-based measurement. The objective is to understand whether the narrative moved the needle on a real priority, rather than cataloging vanity metrics and declaring victory.

Give the Work Room to Travel

Earned media can never be promised as a guaranteed rider on an influencer agreement. But what we can do as strategists is build the work so thoughtfully that the story commands attention on its own terms.

Bring communications into the room early. Choose partners who contribute hard-earned perspective. Back claims with research that holds up to scrutiny. Give reporters unfettered access to articulate voices without trying to dictate the resulting column inches.

The sponsored post is simply the asset you bought. The earned media is the enduring narrative you built around it. When designed with intention, a partnership doesn’t have to choose between driving immediate brand visibility and contributing something substantive to the broader industry dialogue. It can easily do both.