Being an Advertising and Public Relations student, I am very interested in the art of photography. Because of that interest, I’ve acquired a small internship with a local photographer that does amazing work. Corey Rourke has been in the business for about fifteen years, and his high-end photography gets him noticed.
After I started working for Corey, I noticed that almost all of his media and marketing techniques are owned and paid. There is obviously going to be a lot of owned media used, being a photographer and putting your images out there and all, but I think there is potential to take a stab at creating some earned media through the photography business.
Targeting young people is one of the smartest moves to make when creating earned media, because us millennials know social media and sharing techniques best. To create a successful earned media campaign, I think Corey should set up an incentive competition for his seniors that he shot this last year. He could create it through any media outlet, but for this purpose, I believe Instagram would be best. My idea is to create a competition between a handful of his seniors on Instagram. Each one has the rights to the photos from their shoot and can post them on their personal Instagram accounts as they please. The senior that gets the most overall total likes on their photos could win free graduation cards, or a free framed portrait.
By creating this incentive, it will drive these kids to share their photos as much as they possibly could to get noticed and get likes on them. While they are doing that, they are also sharing the Corey Rourke Photography brand. Each photo shared sends out a message to other kids and parents saying “I got my photos taken with Corey Rourke Photography. Look how awesome they turned out!” By using this tactic, I think it will not only increase awareness of what the Corey Rourke Photography brand is, but it solidifies the business of new clients. Not only that, but increases the business of their current clients, having them come back for weddings, baby portraits, or head shots.
Earned media is one crazy tool that any business can master, if you have the right tactics. 
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