The POET Standard
The equation for reach in an AI-shaped marketplace.
POET = R.
The POET Standard rests on a single equation: the four routes, added, equal Reach.
Reach defined not by how many people were touched, but by whether what arrived was discoverable, distinctive, consistent and credible.
The extended form.
P + O + E + T = R(d², c²)
Partnered plus Organic plus Earned plus Targeted equals Reach.
- P
- — Partnered — reach through the audiences, platforms and credibility of others
- O
- — Organic — reach the company builds and owns, and what AI systems find and cite there
- E
- — Earned — reach granted by others' judgment: coverage, citation, recommendation
- T
- — Targeted — reach the company buys and aims: paid media, precision audiences, and the in-person experiences it stages
- R
- — Reach — how far what is seen, understood and believed travels, and whether it arrives with the people who decide. The exponent in R3.
- d²
- — Discoverability × Distinctiveness — distinctive discoverability. POET's own domain.
- c²
- — Consistency × Credibility — how coherently, and how provably, what is carried holds up when it arrives. P3's domain.
Partnered, organic, earned and targeted routes combine to produce reach — discoverable, distinctive, consistent and credible — and reach is the power to which relevance and reputation are raised.
The only plus sign in the series.
Every other equation in the Objektive Working Papers multiplies, and multiplication means that if either term is at zero there is nothing. Routes are not like that. A company with no paid budget still reaches people. A company with no press still reaches people. No route is mandatory, every route adds, and the routes substitute for one another as the domain allows. So the routes add.
Adding is not equal weight. The mix is set per organisation and domain, exactly as R3 sets its lever weights. A regulated company leans Earned and Partnered; a consumer company leans Organic and Targeted; both have all four routes available. The discipline is in the mix, not in the presence of all four.
d2 × c2. Discoverable, distinctive, consistent, credible.
Reach is a distance, but it is not only a distance. Two companies can reach the same people and arrive very differently. Reach is a function of four qualities in two pairs. The first pair is POET's own work. The second pair is what POET carries.
Discoverability — how findable and citable a company's positioning is in the environments where audiences and AI systems form their views. Companies with high discoverability are surfaced, quoted, and attributed. Companies with low discoverability are invisible no matter how distinctive they are.
Distinctiveness — how unmistakably ownable a company's positioning is. Companies with high distinctiveness are recognized instantly across all touchpoints, are difficult for competitors to imitate, and hold clear category ownership.
Consistency — how coherently the company's positioning holds across time, geography, audience, and route. Companies with high consistency reinforce their relevance and reputation with every touchpoint. Companies with low consistency dilute both.
Credibility — how provably what the company carries holds up when it arrives. Reach amplifies whatever it carries: a claim with its proof attached compounds; a claim without one erodes on contact. Reputation is whether the company is believed. Credibility is whether the claim can be.
Discoverability × Distinctiveness is distinctive discoverability — d². Consistency × Credibility is c². Together they define Reach.
Reach is measured through:
- Share of the decision-making audience the company reaches, by stakeholder group, across the four routes
- Presence across the places decisions are formed — AI answers, media, partners' audiences, and in-person settings
- Frequency and continuity of contact with the people who decide, not just the size of the audience touched
- How far a company's own claims travel intact — cited, attributed, and repeated in its own terms
- Balance across the four routes: Partnered, Organic, Earned, and Targeted
The same measures R3 uses for its Reach lens, so the two papers score one thing, once. Distribution is the foundation signal: does the company reach the people who decide, and keep reaching them?
Where POET sits.
R3 measures whether a company is seen, understood and believed. POET is how far that travels.
R³ = G raises Relevance × Reputation to the power of Reach. Reach is what POET makes. The R3G Standard.
POET decides how far a claim goes. P3 decides whether it survives the trip.
c² — consistency and credibility — is whether what the routes carry holds its proof on arrival. P3: Provoke, Persuade, Position.
Data as creative material, and a body of work that trains AI on what you stand for, are 10-80-10 in practice.
Give the direction. Let it prototype. React. 10-80-10.
The box
Reach is the box. POET is how it is drawn.
Four routes. One discipline.
The POET Standard is the equation. The POET Framework is each route defined, with the rooms, publications, coverage and placements that make it real.