Does hijacking the news work?

An effective newsjacking campaign can help to develop SEO, improve awareness and reputation of a brand and drive organic traffic to a brand’s digital presence – and all at an extremely low cost.

Let’s have a look at some examples...

The Good…

1. In 2011 T-mobile launched a parody video of the royal wedding a few weeks before the event with actors who looked very similar to the real people they were portraying. Their message was ‘One’s life is for sharing’. The video received over 26 million views on Youtube. This was a really simple way to use a newsworthy topic in positive, non offensive manner.
2. During the Power cut at this year’s Superbowl, Oreo cookies sent out a tweet saying ‘Power Out’ attached with a picture of an Oreo and a caption saying: ‘You can still dunk in the dark’. This was retweeted more than 15,000 times the next day.
3. In January 2013, in recognition of ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’ and around the topic of ‘Blue Monday’, we created a beach scene in central London, to promote Hilton Resorts that reached over three million people across online, print and broadcast media.
4. Save The Children offered parents tips on how to help their children after the Sandy Hook shooting by sending out ‘10 tips for Helping Children’.

The bad…

But companies tread a fine line when getting involved with bad news. For example, during the midst of Hurricane Sandy, clothing retailer American Apparel jumped on the chance to exploit their brand; sending out an email that offered their customers 20 per cent off all products for the following 36 hours if they entered ‘SandySale’ in the checkout. This was met with Twitter outrage and accusations of cynical marketing. The moral of the story, don’t jump on marketing during a disaster if you have nothing to do with the aftermath of it.

Here are three lessons to make newsjacking work for your brands

1. Creative content is key - put a fun angle and spin on a newsworthy subject but always use good judgement. Don’t take advantage of negative events when you can’t help the aftermath.
2. Monitor breaking stories and use Twitter to identify them in their early stages.
3. Act quickly - formulate your newsjacking strategy in real time.

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