Cutting Through the Noise: How Brands Can Stand Out in a Saturated Media Market

The times have changed. While media is still one of the most important mediums for brands to get their message across, it is no longer as easy as before. Now, every scroll, click, and tap bombards consumers with a relentless stream of content, leaving brands with an unprecedented challenge: cutting through the noise to make a meaningful connection.

The bustling landscape, saturated with advertisements, social media blurbs, and a never-ending cycle of news, demands a new approach to brand visibility — one that transcends traditional advertising to forge genuine relationships with the audience.

The key to standing out in this crowded space lies in the strategic shift from mere visibility to engagement, from broadcasting messages to initiating conversations. It is about transforming the brand from a distant entity into a familiar voice that resonates with the audience’s daily lives and values.

One of the most effective strategies to achieve this is through earned media, which unlike its paid counterpart, relies on the organic spread of the brand’s story by others. This approach mirrors natural human relationships, where interest and trust are cultivated over time through genuine interactions.

“Earned media, unlike paid opportunities, is really earning your story being told by someone else. So just like an organic friendship or any sort of relationship that we have, like when somebody wants to get to know you more, they want to get to know you more because you have something interesting,” explains Emily Reynolds Bergh, Founder of R Public Relations.

Brands that succeed in earning their story’s place in the media enjoy a more authentic connection with their audience, one that’s built on credibility and mutual interest rather than the sheer force of advertising dollars.

To achieve this, Patricia Bardin, Former Product Marketing and Global SMB Content Strategy Manager at Lexmark, has a suggestion, “Make sure that what you pitch is seemingly less like paid.” Otherwise, journalists will see through it. They will see that it is for a brand and send you directly to the paid department.

But not all roads lead to traditional media these days. Podcasting has long become one of the preferred methods of consumption by the masses, and it stands out as a prime example of leveraging personality and authenticity to connect with the audience on a deeper level.

With podcasting, the listener’s engagement is intimately tied to the host’s persona, allowing brands to benefit from the “halo effect” — the association with a trusted, relatable figure whose endorsement serves as a tacit validation. This relationship-based approach to brand visibility capitalizes on the trust and loyalty the audience has for the podcast host, weaving the brand into the fabric of the listener’s world in a way that feels both organic and meaningful. Moreover, the brand of a podcast is not as important, making it effective without the need to hit a major media outlet.

“There are people in podcasts where it doesn’t matter what the brand of the podcast is under, if it’s Crooked Media or if it’s ABC, if it’s CNN or whatever, the person and the personality is the thing that people tune into because that’s who they relate to,” stresses Wesley Faulkner, Sr. Community Manager at AWS.

Regardless of the medium, subtlety and strategic insight is crucial in today’s market. Increasingly savvy consumers can easily discern between content with genuine value and thinly veiled advertisements. Their discernment calls for a nuanced approach to media engagement, where the content pitched to journalists and influencers is crafted with the audience’s interests at heart, offering stories and insights that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

In this context, authenticity emerges as the cornerstone of effective brand communication. The world is awash with content, and consumers crave realness. They want stories that move them and brands that stand for something beyond their products or services. By anchoring their messaging in authenticity, brands can cut through the digital noise to not just capture attention but to engage hearts and minds.

If you want to delve deeper into the conversation on cutting through the media noise as a brand, check out “Making Brands Stand Out in the Noise of Media,” a panel featured at The Lively & Grit Daily House during SXSW 2024. It features Emily Reynolds, Patricia Bardin, and Wesley Faulkner.