Paid, Organic and Owned Media

What this is about

The distinction changes the cut, not only the media budget. In paid placements the viewer did not choose the film, so the opening has to earn the stay, and every licence — music, talent, stock — must cover advertising use. Organic posts compete inside a feed, where a native look often outperforms polish. Owned surfaces such as the website, a newsletter or a fair screen reach people who already opted in, so longer forms and denser information still work. Earned coverage is the fourth term: reach other people hand you. Plan at least two of them per project.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Paid needs licences that cover advertising use; a clearance for organic posts alone does not stretch to it
• Owned surfaces reach an audience that already opted in, which is why longer versions still work there
• One shoot can serve all three, but only if the cutdowns are planned before the shoot day

With TillyGen

TillyGen plans the cutdowns for each route inside the same shot list, so one shoot day produces every version.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.