The Trump-Kim summit reportedly cost Singapore a cool S$20 million to host.

While some Singaporeans lament the cost, others are taking a more sanguine perspective as it is being suggested that the summit could be worth a lot more than what we paid for.

Worth over S$700m in exposure

A lot of random numbers have been thrown about after the summit ended to justify the cost.

Andrew Darling, a former global communications director at adtech firm Blis, said the summit is estimated to be worth around USD$100 million (about S$133 million) in earned media benefits.

And if one takes into account the lead-up to the summit, he estimated an additional USD$30 million to US$50 million.

But there was no elaboration on how he arrived at these estimates.

Not like it matters because others are willing to raise the figure much higher.

According to a Straits Times report on June 14, media intelligence firm Meltwater estimated a much higher figure of about S$767 million in tourism, retail and media exposure.

They also added that the hotels gained the most from the attention from online articles.

Meltwater's figures

For Meltwater, their figure takes into consideration global online media mentions throughout the summit, as well as the buzz generated in the last month.

And this is the formula they used to calculate the media value:

Number of people an online article reached x 0.025 (probability that someone will read an article) x 37 cents (industry formula for monetary value of someone reading an article)

Meltwater clarified that they did not track expected value of print, broadcast or social media mentions. The figure would likely be much higher if those were included.

What is media value?

These figures refer to earned media or media value.

Earned media refer to publicity gained through promotional efforts that is not paid advertising, and media value is a way to measure the value of news coverage.

What this means is that media value is not equivalent to economic impact.

Instead, it is a tool for companies to gauge their return on investment from any public relations activities.

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Nevertheless, all analysts agree that there are much potential benefits for Singapore to be reaped further down the road.

The historical Trump-Kim summit has put Singapore on the world map, fuelling awareness and curiosity surrounding Singapore.

This could mean a boost in tourism and investments.

But as some freelancers are only too well-aware, exposure cannot be eaten or cashed in at the bank.

Top photo from Wikipedia