Paid, earned, shared, and owned media: fully operational, fully integrated
Your MarComm Operating System
The PESO Model® is an integrated marketing and communications operating system that unifies paid, earned, shared, and owned media into one measurable strategy.
Created by Gini Dietrich, founder of Spin Sucks, and introduced in 2014, it has graduated from a framework into a full operating system—one that feeds itself, where each channel makes the next one stronger.
Today it’s used by Fortune 500 companies, global agencies, governments, and universities in more than 15 countries to build visibility, credibility, and trust in an AI-first world.
Paid. Earned. Shared. Owned.
What Does the PESO Model Stand For?
Four media types. One operating system. The power isn’t in any single channel—it’s in how they reinforce each other.
Paid Media
Amplify trusted signals. Paid doesn’t manufacture results; it scales the ones already working. When owned, earned, and shared show what resonates, paid puts budget behind it efficiently.
Earned Media
Validate what you claim. Earned media is third-party credibility. It’s the proof others vouch for you. In an AI-first world it’s also the most-cited source: more than 95% of the links AI engines surface come from earned, shared, and organic owned content.
Shared Media
Distribute, stress-test, and listen. Shared is where your narrative travels and where your market talks back, reinforcing what’s working, stress-testing what isn’t, and feeding you real-time intelligence about what audiences (human and algorithmic) actually respond to.
Owned Media
Define your authority. Owned media is your source of truth and your destination, where you stake clear, leading positions and where every other channel sends people. It anchors authority and powers visibility across search and AI-generated answers.
Why Use the PESO Model?
Most teams confuse coordination with integration—and the difference is costing them.
Coordination puts tactics on a timeline. Integration designs the handoffs between them, where the output of one channel becomes the input of the next. A shared calendar and a launch date don’t make a PESO campaign; connected handoffs do. That’s the difference between a launch that looks busy and a system that compounds.
The PESO Model helps teams move from chaos to coordination. Instead of running separate campaigns across paid, earned, shared, and owned media, it gives you one strategic operating system that connects everything—so your efforts reinforce each other, and your results multiply.
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Align your teams
PESO gives everyone—from brand leads to content creators to media buyers—a shared language and direction. No more siloed efforts or misaligned messaging.
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Integrate your strategy
It’s not “PR does this” and “marketing does that.” PESO brings your campaigns under one umbrella so every channel plays its part and works toward the same goals.
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Measure what matters
The model is built to show outcomes, not just outputs. You’ll move beyond impressions and vanity metrics into real indicators of visibility, engagement, and influence.
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Earn trust—algorithmic and human
In an era of AI-curated results, showing up consistently across high-authority channels matters more than ever. PESO helps you earn citations, mentions, and owned visibility that trains both the machines and your market.
Who is the PESO Model for?
It’s for marketers and communicators who are done with disconnected tactics—and ready to lead with strategy. The PESO Model works across industries, team sizes, and business models. This operating system is for you if you’re responsible for building awareness, shaping reputation, or driving measurable growth.
For Enterprise Teams
Enterprise readiness isn’t something you buy—it’s something you build.
In our Diagnostic data, the biggest, best-resourced teams scored no higher on visibility readiness than a solo practitioner: readiness is a system property, not a spending one.
The PESO Model becomes the operating system that turns your disconnected channels into one accountable system—one that touches product, hiring, IT, finance, and risk, and gives leadership a clear line from communications to business outcomes.
For Marketing and Comms Pros
Whether you lead a team or work inside one, the PESO Model helps you modernize your skills, elevate your strategy, and show measurable impact.
It’s how you move from task-taker to strategic advisor.
- Advance your career with a proven system
- Build integrated campaigns across media types
- Learn how to plan, execute, and measure what matters
- Move beyond vanity metrics to real outcomes
For Agencies and Consultants
The PESO Model gives you an operating system your clients can understand—and a system you can scale. Use it to win new business, align deliverables, and demonstrate results your clients care about.
- Differentiate your services with a licensed system
- Standardize strategy and reporting across clients
- Build trust with data-backed results
- Train junior staff faster with a clear structure
For Educators and Students
The PESO Model is taught in leading PR and marketing programs, including Syracuse University and USC Annenberg. Use it in coursework, research, and real-world projects to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
- Teach integrated marketing communications in action
- Equip students with modern, in-demand content
- Contribute to the evolution of PESO through academic research
For Government Agencies
The PESO Model helps government agencies modernize their outreach, build public trust, and deliver information with clarity, consistency, and credibility.
Whether you’re informing residents, engaging communities, or navigating high-stakes issues, PESO gives you a system to align your efforts across departments and channels.
- Communicate clearly across platforms during high-priority initiatives
- Coordinate messages across internal teams, external partners, and public platforms
- Build long-term trust through consistency, transparency, and follow-through
- Demonstrate results with metrics that show reach, engagement, and public understanding
How Does the PESO Model Work?
One system to plan, execute, and scale integrated marketing and communications.
Start with your business goals, not your media tactics. The PESO Model helps you map those goals to the right mix of paid, earned, shared, and owned—with content, amplification, and timing planned from day one.
Owned content becomes your foundation. Shared distributes it. Earned reinforces authority. Paid amplifies what’s already working. The system only works when the channels hand off to each other—the output of one becomes the input of the next—so design the handoffs before you design the calendar.
Instead of reinventing the wheel for every campaign, the PESO Model supports consistent workflows, aligned teams, and repeatable processes that scale. It becomes your operating system for marketing and communications.
6x performance with the same resources
100% participation amongst marketers and communicators
150 avg. attendees to weekslong virtual training
Metrics Matter
The Power of Measurable Integration
Your measurement problem usually isn’t a measurement problem. You can’t put a gauge on a system that isn’t running as a system. When owned feeds earned, earned gets amplified by shared, and paid points at what’s worth amplifying—and all of it aims at revenue, reputation, recruiting, and risk—measurement takes care of itself. PESO is built to prove outcomes, not count outputs. It tracks visibility in AI and search, engagement depth, and trust you can tie to the business.
From Outputs to Outcomes
Stop tracking vanity metrics that leadership ignores. PESO helps you measure what matters: risk, reputation, recruiting, and revenue.
Think beyond:
- Impressions → to visibility in AI and search
- Clicks → to content journeys and engagement depth
- Mentions → to correlate brand outcomes
Attribution, Not Assumptions
The PESO Model supports structured measurement—so you can map tactics to results across channels. Use correlation models, campaign tagging, and journey mapping to show how paid, earned, shared, and owned actually move the needle.
Trusted by Humans.
Recognized by Algorithms.
When your work is visible across high-authority media and influencer sites and owned platforms, you train both buyers and machines. Brand mentions, citations, and structured content now influence how AI summarizes your brand.
The PESO Model doesn’t just help you execute better. It helps you prove your value—clearly, consistently, and in a language executives understand.
What Makes the PESO Model Different?
It engineers visibility for an AI-first world. PESO makes your brand legible to AI systems and the humans they serve. Buyers don’t type keywords anymore—they submit briefs. PESO is built to answer those briefs across paid, earned, shared, and owned at once, so the systems that now decide what gets surfaced can recognize, cite, and route back to your authority. It’s built on trust, not attention. Attention is easy to manufacture. Trust isn’t. In an AI-first world, trust is no longer just a reputational asset — it’s a visibility requirement. Visibility is no longer something you generate; it’s something you earn through credibility.
It’s Built for Integration
It’s Measurable by Design
It Evolves With the Industry
It Works in the Real World
It’s Not Just a Model. It’s a System.
PESO Has Six Stages of Maturity. Most Teams Misjudge Theirs.
Integration isn’t something you either do or don’t — it has stages. Our Diagnostic data shows 91% of teams sit in the bottom half of the ladder, and almost everyone is one stage behind where they think they are. The crime isn’t being at the bottom. It’s being at the bottom while telling yourself you’re at the top.
Foundation
“Every channel is alive, but none supports or amplifies the others.” Channels exist; integration doesn’t.
Pilot
“Every channel is in conversation. For about six weeks.” One integrated campaign runs; the rest of the calendar doesn’t.
Scale
“Every channel is integrated around the same thesis. Every two years.” Integration is a behavior, but not yet a system.
Systemize
“Every channel feeds the same dashboard. Every quarter.” A dedicated integrator and shared dashboards make PESO the operating system.
Real-Time
“Every channel feeds the same dashboard. Every day.” The system pivots in days, not quarters.
Leadership
“Every channel feeds the others. Everyone else is watching.” The operating system itself becomes the competitive moat.
Take the Free Diagnostic
How Do I Start?
Whether you’re ready to master the Model, bring it into your organization, or just want to test the waters, we’ve got you covered.
I want to learn it.
Get PESO Model® Certified. Learn how to build, scale, and measure integrated programs with on-demand training taught by the creator of the PESO Model.
I want to use it in my business.
License the PESO Model. If you’re using PESO to train teams, pitch clients, or deliver strategy, you need a commercial license. We offer Professional, Training, and Enterprise packages.
I want help implementing it.
Partner with Us on Strategy + Execution. From embedding with your team to designing custom playbooks and AI tools, we help large enterprises operationalize PESO across teams and campaigns.
Not sure where to start?
See exactly where your team sits on the maturity ladder and what to do next.
Want to get really good at PESO?
PESO Model FAQs
The PESO Model® is an integrated marketing and communications operating system that unifies paid, earned, shared, and owned media into one measurable strategy.
Created by Gini Dietrich, founder of Spin Sucks, and introduced in 2014, it has graduated from a framework into a full operating system—one that feeds itself, where each channel makes the next one stronger.
Today it’s used by Fortune 500 companies, global agencies, governments, and universities in more than 15 countries to build visibility, credibility, and trust in an AI-first world.
Paid. Earned. Shared. Owned. Four media types. One operating system. The power isn’t in any single channel—it’s in how they reinforce each other.
The PESO Model was created by Gini Dietrich, founder of Spin Sucks, and introduced in 2014. It has graduated from a framework into a full operating system—one that feeds itself, where each channel makes the next one stronger.
Coordination puts tactics on a timeline—everything happens at the same time. Integration designs the handoffs between channels, so the output of one becomes the input of the next. Most teams coordinate and call it integration; the PESO Model is built to make true integration repeatable.
IMC is a philosophy. It is the idea that messages should be integrated across channels. The PESO Model is the operating system that makes that integration real, with a repeatable structure for what owned publishes, how shared distributes it, which earned opportunities compound it, and how paid scales what’s working. Measurement is built into every step.
It connects paid, earned, shared, and owned media into one measurable system, so the work moves business metrics instead of vanity numbers. Teams that operationalize PESO report outcomes such as a 6x improvement in marketing performance with the same resource investment, higher cross-functional participation, and clearer executive visibility into how communications drives pipeline, trust, and authority. Because measurement is built in, you can map specific tactics to outcomes.
The PESO Model Maturity Ladder is a six-stage model of how integrated a team really is: Foundation, Pilot, Scale, Systemize, Real-Time, and Leadership. Our Diagnostic data shows 91% of teams sit in the bottom half, and almost everyone is one stage behind where they think they are. Different brands belong at different stages. The point is to know your real stage and choose the smallest next move.
The PESO Model® Diagnostic is a free, ~10-minute self-assessment that scores your operation across owned, earned, shared, paid, measurement, and integration. It surfaces the gap between your self-rating and your actual performance, tells you your maturity stage, and recommends your next move—producing a one-page picture you can take into a budget conversation. You can find it at spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic.
Visibility engineering is the modern application of the PESO Model. It makes your brand legible to AI systems and the humans they serve. Buyers now submit briefs instead of keywords, and more than 95% of the links AI engines cite come from earned, shared, and organic owned media. PESO is the operating system that answers those briefs across all four media types at once, so AI can recognize, cite, and route back to your authority.
No. The PESO Model is used across marketing, communications, brand, content, and digital teams—and increasingly by enterprise organizations as a cross-functional operating system. It’s for anyone responsible for building visibility, credibility, and trust, whether you’re a CMO running an integrated team, a solo practitioner, or an agency serving clients.
Yes. The PESO Model Certification® is an eight-week, online, self-paced program that teaches you to build, execute, and measure an integrated PESO strategy. Developed with the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communication at Syracuse University, it’s designed for professionals moving from tactical execution to strategic leadership.
Yes. The PESO Model® is a registered trademark of Spin Sucks, free to use with attribution and licensed for commercial use. If you use PESO to train teams, pitch clients, or deliver strategy, you need a commercial license, which is available in Professional, Training, and Enterprise packages.
The Free AI-Powered PESO GPT
Your always-on PESO Model strategist.
It’s like having a PESO-certified strategist on demand, built by the people who invented the Model in the first place.
Who We Work With
Spin Sucks has helped leading brands and agencies operationalize PESO—from Fortune 500 brands and top-tier universities to agencies and solopreneurs.
Spin Sucks helped us do what every CMO talks about but few actually pull off—turn marketing into a measurable, strategic growth engine that delivered 6x performance improvement with the same resource investment. PESO isn’t just an operating system. It’s a competitive advantage.” — CMO, Fortune 100 Brand
I just received great feedback from a partner in Global Customer Office (operations) saying that while your Insight Circle doesn’t relate directly to his work, he found it really aspirational and inspirational! He came to learn more, and you exceeded his expectations.” — Learning Professional, Fortune 100 Pharma Brand
We started thinking about PESO as a way to ensure all media types are covered during our campaigns instead of leading with paid and bolting on other tactics. You’ve given us a completely new way of working that has infiltrated our daily workflows.” — CCO, Fortune 200 Financial Services Brand
During the PESO training sessions with you and your team, we had an internal goal of having 100% participation from a certain segment of marketers. Not only did we reach that goal, but we had a big cohort of optional learners, too.” — SVP of healthcare marketing, leading healthcare facility
Your Insight Circles were the most well-received training we’ve ever done. You averaged 150 attendees—during the summertime!—which is unheard of during normal business cycles, let alone in the middle of summer vacations.” — SVP, consumer marketing, Fortune 100 pharma brand
Explore & Learn
Toolkits, trends, and thought leadership to help you apply PESO and lead an integrated strategy.
Books
Explore books by Gini Dietrich, including deep dives on the PESO Model and modern MarComm strategies.
Blog
Smart, practical, and (let’s be honest) kind of funny. Stay current on trends, tactics, and leadership with 100,000+ readers.
Podcast
Get insights on PESO, leadership, and the evolving marketing landscape with Gini Dietrich.
Videos
Watch fireside chats, expert interviews, AMAs, and more — designed to make integrated marketing and comms practical and powerful.
Community
Ask questions, share wins, get feedback, and connect with peers.
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