Newsjacking Explained!

The hottest buzzword in marketing right now is “newsjacking” – the next evolution of an already popular strategy called “real-time marketing”. Newsjacking and real-time marketing leverage moments that capture our nation’s attention, like breaking news stories, trending topics, memes, viral videos, events, TV shows, celebrities and more. If it’s being talked about, it can be newsjacked.

With real-time marketing, brands participate in trending conversations by offering their response. It’s a worthwhile tactic that shows a brand is listening, and staying current on relevant industry issues. If a brand engages in real-time marketing it’s also a sign that they probably have a social media strategy that values developing long-term relationships with their fans and consumers.

So, how is newsjacking different? Newsjacking takes the concept of real time marketing, but instead of responding to socially relevant topics, businesses insert their own image, brand messaging, and persona into the conversation and become part of the thread. Here’s an example from the Oscars last week –

Pantene® ran standard broadcast ads during the live red carpet event, as well as during the pre-show, by teaming up with the presenters of E! Network. In its commercials the brand asked viewers to track the celebrity hair styles they liked best, and to share their choices by tweeting #WantThatHair.

Compare that to Kellogg’s®: Kellogg’s also ran standard TV ads for their new line of Special K© Popcorn Chips during the commercial breaks. But during the event and the day after, they created and released several content pieces on Twitter that placed the Special K product in the context of funny moments from the show. For example, the ‘chip’ walking the red carpet, giving an acceptance speech, and getting played off the stage by the orchestra. The content was connected by the hashtag #RedCarpetReady.

Pantene made the mistake of trying to control the conversation. They also added too many steps to engage with their customers – pick up a mobile device, sign in to twitter, spot hairstyle, hashtag, and post. Kellogg’s tied its product right into the conversation, and users got immediate satisfaction from the content.

Also, Pantene’s marketing died as soon the event ended, whereas Kellog’s leveraged the buzz for weeks. People who saw “the chip” on social media and talked about in blog recaps were more inclined to follow the brand’s social media channels and associate the Oscars with Kellogg’s.

So, is newsjacking right for your brand? There are two main things your business needs in place before jumping on the newsjacking bandwagon. One is the ability to create high quality content, quickly. It may be as simple as an image with a funny caption or a short video, but whatever the vehicle, it must be aligned with brand standards.

The second is approval from the person, team, or partner firm that manages your online reputation. Newsjacking can mislead some brands into thinking they need to act as a breaking news source and become journalists. Run your content past whomever is in charge of reputation management – if it seems hasty or risky, don’t post.

Lastly, marketers should ask themselves if newsjacking is worth the return on investment. Whether or not newsjaking pays off depends on a number of factors: Is the content genuine? Does it even make sense for your type / category of business to be marketing this way? Perhaps the most important lesson about newsjacking is that the effort is wasted without follow-up with these new potential customers to engage them further and bring them closer to taking action.