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There’s a great technique that will help your content strategy by getting your content seen: newsjacking. This works by piggybacking on current events that are being covered in the news. Newsjacking will align your brand with the trending topic and push it front and centre. Make your brand relevant at the right time and be in the right places for your audiences.
When everyone is competing for attention, newsjacking can help you break through busy news feeds. Watch the news for opportunities and at the right time, launch your news or quotation or campaign. Newsjacking has brilliant results, especially when you catch the news as it’s gaining traction.
It’s essential to get the angle right else it will reflect negatively on your business. And if you catch it too late, you risk looking out of touch.
So, what does successful newsjacking look like?
The stories that have gotten breakthrough recently have used humour to get their story across. It can add a whole new dimension to the story and encourage the conversation to keep going. Remember IKEA’s new reusable glass water bottle, the Cristiano? A stroke of genius by the Swedish furniture giant to change the name of a water bottle to Cristiano Ronaldo’s name. He replaced two bottles of Coca-Cola with some water at a press conference. IKEA paid attention and took action. They got plenty of coverage as a result.
You might have seen the #fijiwatergirl in the news at some point. Kelleth Cuthbert stole the show at the 2019 Golden Globes. The Fiji brand ambassador photobombed A-List celebrities while holding a tray of Fiji water bottles, and the online response was epic.
Kelleth rose to internet fame and Fiji had an explosion of good PR. This event appealed to the internet’s meme culture, and so it quickly went viral.
The dark side of newsjacking
The other side of newsjacking is when it doesn’t go quite as planned. It could be down to the message put out of the wrong timing, but sometimes newsjacking can go very wrong.
An infamous example of newsjacking gone wrong is the Pepsi campaign featuring Kendall Jenner. This was launched during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in 2017. The premise was a demonstration of people is met with a blockade of police officers. Jenner offers a police officer a can of Pepsi and then the tension is broken. The ad was seen to be trivialising the BLM movement, and Pepsi ended up pulling the campaign.
Another newsjacking gone wrong example is the Urban Outfitters’ tweet released after Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of the US. The company posted: “This storm blows, but free shipping doesn’t.” The internet remembers.
Choosing the right story and angle is absolutely crucial when planning to newsjack. Urban Outfitters chose the wrong approach and received torrents of negative publicity as a result.
How you can start newsjacking
Decide what sort of stories you want to align with, people, companies and events. Work out appropriate responses and be agile to create content quickly. You will have opportunities, don’t do it just for the sake of it.
When the opportunity ticks all the boxes, the results are brilliant. Brands can enjoy a host of goodies from a boost in online engagement to positive press, and wide exposure without chasing journalists. When the time is right, newsjacking is worth dropping everything else in the book for.
Find out how you can make headlines, book your strategy call with us or email us at hello@ambitiouspr.co.uk.
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