Recent data released by Spin Sucks regarding the PESO Model Maturity Ladder has revealed a significant disparity between how communications teams perceive their integration of the PESO Model—Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media—and their actual operational proficiency. According to the May 19 report titled "The Six Stages of PESO Model Maturity," an overwhelming 91% of professional communications teams are currently performing at the "Scale" stage or lower. More strikingly, while 68% of teams describe themselves as running the PESO Model as a comprehensive system, every single one of those self-identified "integrators" scored in the bottom two stages of the maturity diagnostic: Foundation or Pilot.
This discrepancy highlights a pervasive issue in the communications and marketing industries: the gap between theoretical knowledge and functional execution. Industry analysts suggest that this "maturity gap" is not a result of intentional dishonesty by practitioners but is instead a byproduct of how professional competency is traditionally assessed. When assessments focus on what a team knows or can recite rather than what they can demonstrably do under operational pressure, the resulting data often provides a false sense of security.
The Evolution of the PESO Model and the Maturity Framework
The PESO Model, originally introduced by Gini Dietrich in her 2014 book Spin Sucks, was designed to break down the silos between traditional public relations, advertising, and digital marketing. Over the last decade, it has evolved from a conceptual framework into a registered trademarked operating system used by global enterprises and boutique agencies alike. The model posits that true communications success occurs at the intersection of four media types:
- Paid Media: Content that requires a financial investment for distribution, such as social media advertising or sponsored content.
- Earned Media: Traditional media relations and publicity, where third-party credibility is established through news coverage.
- Shared Media: The social media ecosystem where engagement and community-driven distribution occur.
- Owned Media: The content and platforms fully controlled by the organization, such as blogs, white papers, and websites.
The Maturity Ladder was developed to provide organizations with a roadmap for moving from basic implementation to a fully optimized, data-driven system. However, the latest diagnostic numbers suggest that the industry is struggling to move beyond the "Description" phase of the model.
The Psychological Barrier: Confidence vs. Competence
A core finding of the Spin Sucks report is that confidence in the PESO Model often appears long before actual competence is achieved. To explain this phenomenon, the report cites the four stages of adult learning, a model developed by Noel Burch in the 1970s. These stages—unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence—provide a framework for understanding why teams misjudge their own progress.
The report argues that "unconscious incompetence" is the most dangerous stage for a communications team because it is invisible from within the organization. In this stage, practitioners believe they are executing a high-level strategy because they understand the terminology, yet they lack the skills to identify the flaws in their output. Both the first stage (unconscious incompetence) and the final stage (unconscious competence) are characterized by high levels of confidence, making it difficult for teams to distinguish between a "lucky" success and a repeatable, systemic process.
Historical data from large-scale corporate training programs supports this. In one cited instance involving a manufacturing launch for a healthcare product, 90% of the workforce reported feeling "ready" and "competent" following a training program. However, production data later revealed that one-third of the team committed errors during the actual launch. The issue was not that the employees had forgotten the training; they could recite the requirements perfectly. The failure occurred because they had not yet reached "operational competence"—the ability to perform the tasks under the stress of a live production environment.
The Three Levels of Professional Understanding
To address the maturity gap, the Spin Sucks framework differentiates between three distinct levels of understanding that teams must navigate:
- Recognition: At this level, practitioners can identify the four channels of the PESO Model. They understand that Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media exist and can spot them in a presentation.
- Description: This level involves the ability to explain the model to others. Practitioners at this stage can build slide decks, define each channel’s purpose, and answer general questions about the strategy. Most professional teams currently reside at this level.
- Operation: This is the highest level, where the team can run the system under real-world conditions, such as budget cuts, shifting deadlines, or personnel turnover. This level requires the ability to maintain the integration even when the "perfect conditions" of a plan are disrupted.
The report notes that many professionals are rewarded for their ability to reach level two—Description. In corporate environments, the ability to present a plan clearly often leads to promotions, even if the underlying operational system is fragile or non-existent. This creates a "sidebar effect" where leadership believes a system is in place because it was explained brilliantly, while the "behind-the-scenes" data tells a different story.
Structural Failures in Team Assessments
One of the primary reasons teams continue to overrate their maturity is the reliance on group consensus meetings rather than objective diagnostic instruments. The report identifies "social physics" as a major hurdle in honest assessment. When a senior leader or a highly respected colleague expresses a confident opinion on the team’s maturity level, junior members are statistically less likely to disagree.
This social pressure is compounded by the fear that a lower self-rating will be used negatively in future performance reviews. Consequently, teams "round up" their ratings, assuming that having some components of the PESO Model in place justifies a higher standing on the maturity ladder. The Spin Sucks analysis suggests that these meetings rarely produce accurate data. Instead, they produce a consensus that mirrors the confidence of the most vocal person in the room.
Closing the Gap: The Applied Learning Approach
In response to these findings, Spin Sucks has restructured its certification and university curriculum to prioritize applied work over knowledge checks. The curriculum is built on a "100-400" level progression, designed to move students and professionals from fluency to full integration:
- 100 Level (Fluency): Focuses on vocabulary and the basic mechanics of how the four media types feed into one another.
- 200 Level (Scenario-Based): Moves from definitions to the application of the model in controlled, hypothetical scenarios.
- 300 Level (Diagnosis): Students are required to diagnose real, publicly facing organizations. This level is described as the point where "inflated self-ratings go to die," as practitioners must identify gaps in messy, real-world data.
- 400 Level (Integration): The final stage requires the construction of a full, end-to-end integrated campaign.
The report emphasizes that "humbling is a feature" of this process. Even those who helped build the model are required to go through the certification to ensure their operational skills match their theoretical knowledge.
Strategic Recommendations for Communications Leadership
To help teams move from understanding to operation, the report outlines a "Monday Morning" exercise designed to bypass the social physics of group meetings. Leadership is encouraged to send three questions to every team member to be answered independently:
- What stage of the PESO Model Maturity Ladder are we currently in?
- What specific evidence (data, reports, or workflows) supports this rating?
- What is one specific operational hurdle preventing us from moving to the next stage?
By reviewing these answers side-by-side, leadership can identify the "spread" of the data. A wide spread—where a director rates the team at "Systemize" while a coordinator rates it at "Foundation"—indicates a visibility problem rather than just a maturity problem.
Broader Industry Implications
The findings from Spin Sucks suggest a broader trend in the communications industry toward more rigorous, evidence-based management. As the lines between marketing and PR continue to blur, the ability to operate a truly integrated system like PESO is becoming a competitive necessity rather than a luxury.
For universities, the data underscores the need to move away from theoretical PR education toward hands-on, diagnostic-heavy curricula. For enterprise teams, it highlights the importance of investing in "operating systems" rather than just "tools." The report concludes that the path to maturity begins with an honest, often uncomfortable, reckoning with a team’s actual capabilities. Only by naming the current stage—regardless of how low it may be—can a team begin the work of building a system that is earned rather than merely hoped for.
