Newsjacking is the process whereby brands capitalize on the news stories. The aim is to jump the bandwagon as well as to capture audience’s attention. If done in an efficient manner, you will have positive brand awareness. A double edged sword, done wrong it can backfire.
The art of picking up the relevant story is essential here since only that can create value for your brand, in turn. PR of your brand will be off the roof!
David Meerman Scott defines Newsjacking as “the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.”
Now that we have learned what Newsjacking is all about (almost), for further understanding let’s see some examples in this regard. In the end, you decide if Newsjacking is the way forward.
1. MINI
This Newsjacking was executed superbly. It had the right mix of a news story, humor and brand philosophy to it. The ad made a mention of horsemeat as opposed to beef across UK and Europe that was revealed through DNA testing.
From Ireland, it spread out to all over the EU and consequently beef products were removed from the supermarkets/shops. MINI capitalized by saying ‘Beef, with a lot of horses hidden in it’. Stupendous job by Team MINI, come to think of it! See below.
Image Credit: www.soundm.com.
2. Etihad Airways
The airline is the major sponsor of Manchester City Football. So when Man U won the league and City defeated in the FA Cup Final by Wigan, there was a deafening silence. What Etihad did was spotted a photo of Man U players (celebrating) in a City-backed sky blue taxi and included that photo in their Manchester Evening News which read:
‘Congratulations Manchester United. You deserve to go home in style.’
It was both mischievous and cheeky tribute, but it worked like a charm. Wouldn’t you agree? Check out below.
Image Credit: zenfs.com.
3. Kit Kat
Another classic example of Newsjacking, this it was Kit Kat and iPhone 6 Plus. It was reported that the latter bent by accident when people placed it in their back pockets referred to as ‘Bendgate’. Well, what do you know? Kit Kat pounced! While the world debated as to the phone’s durability, Kit Kat tweeted the following:
‘We don’t bend, we #break.’
Kit Kat cleverly reinforced their brand with this witty tweet and that too without being rude. Okay, slightly but yea, it was fun. And you know what Android also has a system called KitKat. So for a “KitKat” to poke Apple, that’s awesome in its own way!
Image Credit: www.adweek.com.
4. Norwegian
Brad and Angelina’s breakup (formerly Brangelina) spread like wildfire. The story was available to brands for Newsjacking, and Norwegian Airline Company chose to exploit. They cashed on Brad Pitt’s single relationship status by stating that any flight to Brad’s home city of Los Angeles from Europe, only for 169 GBP.
Don’t believe us? See the advert for yourself.
Image Credit: www.veinteractive.com.
5. Tide
Tide sought to tweet during Super Bowl and turned it into a brand marketing moment. How? Super Bowl experienced a power outage, and the subsequent blackout left the die-hard fans in the dark. Tide pitched in with the following:
‘We can’t get your blackout. But we can get your stains out.’
LOL! The tweet received hundreds and of thousands of retweets and likes. See, how Tide that has absolutely no relevance to Super Bowl dived in and made a name for it, in case you forgot. Whenever from now you will seek a detergent, Tide will register as a top-of-the-mind brand.
Or at least for some time, can you disagree?
Image Credit: dailydot.com.
6. The Guardian
The ad was featured in The Guardian and was published few weeks after the death of former premier Margaret Thatcher. Now Newsjacking a story that has to do with the death of a prominent figure is thin ice to walk on. And this could backfire in a major way.
However, the ad by Martime was done in a considerate manner. It showed a jar of Martime labeled ‘Margaret’ (with her face) and stated ‘Contains Iron’ as she was hailed as the ‘The Iron Lady’. Her rapport and popularity in the UK are a force to be reckoned with. So to integrate a food spread with a renowned figure is no short of a feat!
Image Credit: cloudfront.net.
7. Petcentric
Petcentric took a pretty straightforward approach in Newsjacking Oscars and explicitly said so. I quote “screw it” then posted the picture of a cat. They wanted to let the world know that internet culture appreciates transparency no matter how dynamic that effort is.
They in a way proved their relevance amidst the Oscar buzz. Check out the TwitPic below.
Image Credit: texterra.ru.
Final Words
As you can see from above that for brands to function in the current day and age. It is imperative that they improvise with techniques like real-time marketing, Newsjacking, and other mediums. All I’m suggesting is that we will have to forgo our heavy reliance on conventional marketing tools.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the examples above. This list is by no means exhaustive. Feel free to share cases you think we missed out on in the comments section.
This article is written by Emma Martin. She is a Digital Marketing Expert and has been associated with the industry for over a decade now. Currently, she working at assignmenthelpdeal.co.uk. She loves blogging and writing assignments to educate her readers on the current trends in the online marketing industry. You can connect with her on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.
