What is newsjacking?

Man staring at TV Screen for newsjacking blog iStock_000022998001Large

Marketing specialist 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.” By recognising an opportunity as soon as it arises and striking swiftly, enormous amounts of positive PR can be generated with relatively little investment. Here are some of the most effective examples of newsjacking used by brands to gain exposure.

1.  Virgin

When the British Airways-sponsored, London Eye  was  experiencing a technical problem that prevented it being erected, Virgin Airways CEO Richard Branson ordered a blimp fly directly above the London Eye displaying a sign which read “BA can’t get it up”. Crude, but certainly effective, since the world’s media that were present that day to report on the London Eye and ended up covering Virgin’s antics instead!

2. Oakley

When a group of miners were rescued from a collapsed mine in 2010, sunglasses manufacturer Oakley saw an opportunity for promotion. Knowing that the miners would need eye protection after spending months in the darkness underground, Oakley donated 35 pairs of sunglasses to the miners which were placed on their eyes as soon they came out of the mines – all while being watched by over a billion people worldwide! The total amount of advertising value produced for Oakley in these few minutes was estimated at $41 billion. Not bad considering the sunglasses themselves retail for $180!

3. Oreo

During the Super Bowl in 2013 (the world’s most watched sports event) the power cut out, leaving millions of viewers around the world bewildered for over half an hour. Instantly recognising an opportunity, Oreo tweeted a picture of one of their renowned snacks accompanied by the caption: “you can still dunk in the dark.” Within an hour the tweet had been retweeted over 10,000 times! Ironically, Oreo had actually paid millions to create an ad which was played during the superbowl. Despite this, people have suggested that the tweet actually resulted in more positive PR than the advert!

4. Tide

Tide, a manufacturer of stain removal products also capitalised on the 2013 Super Bowl blackout.  While the lights were out, Tide posted a witty tweet which stated “we can’t get your blackout, but we can get your stains out.” Due to the popularity of this tweet, during the 2014 Super Bowl Tide decided not to bother filming its own advertisement, and instead spent the entire Super Bowl posting witty tweets about the other advertisements being shown!

5. KitKat

Many will remember Felix Baumgartner’s extraordinary skydive from space in 2012. To show support for Baumgartner (and to capture enormous amounts of media attention), KitKat flew one of their chocolatey snacks up to space in a balloon. Known for its strapline “have a break, have a kitkat”, the company encouraged Twitter users to tweet with the hashtag ‘#breakfromgravity’. The video of the chocolate bar moving through space with Earth in the background is rather extraordinary, and as you would imagine, social media went crazy for it! There were 10 million Twitter impressions, 6.5 million Facebook posts and media features on Mashable, CNN and more.

Proceed with caution

While seizing the moment and injecting your brand into a news story in a way that offers entertainment, humour or value can be a great way to generate positive PR, newsjacking can also be done badly. For instance, many brands attempted to newsjack the Hurricane Sandy disaster. No matter how witty your tweets are, nothing good can come from trying to gain exposure off the back of a huge tragedy. If you are considering newsjacking, ensure that you are not being distasteful or you could do more damage than good!

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