What then followed was what the business technologist Steve Sammartino labelled the Great Fragmentation: the explosion of an orderly media universe into thousands upon thousands of programming options, and the parallel explosion of a homogeneous audience into one fragmented both by time and space – each fragment being, potentially, “always on”. PAID, OWNED AND EARNED Connections planning worships at the shrine of POE – paid, owned, earned. While media was previously bought and “paid” for via advertising, brands now “earn” it from PR, social mentions and partnerships, and “own” it via their digital and physical channels. The digital age didn’t invent all these channels, but it did shepherd in a deeper level of sophistication in delivering campaigns.