{"id":1323,"date":"2021-05-29T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/building-your-brand-through-newsjacking\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T14:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T12:06:28","slug":"building-your-brand-through-newsjacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/blog\/building-your-brand-through-newsjacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Building your brand through newsjacking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does your PR strategy include \u00abnewsjacking\u00bb?<\/strong> Are you aware of its importance?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a form of real-time branded communication and an effective channel for a good PR strategy. The strategy involves brands referencing topical news stories in their marketing communication to go viral, get noticed, or make a difference. With news cycles being brutally short and public memory transient, brands that insert themselves and capitalize on a trending topic or a current situation are often remembered better, sometimes for their\u00a0relevance<\/a> and cheekiness\u00a0<\/a>or\u00a0chutzpah<\/a>. It\u2019s a popular strategy as it has a potentially high ROI if done well within a low budget.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Meerman Scott<\/strong>, the author of\u00a0 Newsjacking, developed the idea in 2011. Since then, the concept has slowly become an integral part of an intelligent PR strategy and an excellent addition to building a brand and gaining the attention of your customers and\u00a0the media<\/a>. There are a few caveats. If done well, you will get new clients and stakeholders. However, it can backfire\u00a0on a brand if done thoughtlessly. A seasoned PR professional can guide you and build a newsjacking strategy that can help you use it as a tool to build brand awareness and get media attention.<\/p>\n

Why should you include newsjacking in your PR plan?<\/h2>\n

PR is about increasing visibility for your brand, and newsjacking as a tool can help your business grow measurably.<\/strong> It is most effective when brands can draw a clear connection between their\u00a0brand values<\/a> and the news, but it has to be done quickly before the news cycle changes. Newsjacking can attract customers and drive targeted traffic toward your website, eventually leading to leads and sales. If the general public likes your intervention, it can lead to significant social media leads and potential customers, which also help your brand\u2019s overall recall value, including credibility and authority or a mention in Google\u2019s Year in Search<\/a> results. Take the example of the\u00a0AeroMexico\u00a0<\/a>campaign, which happened due to\u00a0former President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0insistence on a wall at the US and Mexico border.\u00a0AeroMexico used the media coverage around the wall<\/strong> and the subsequent shutdown to create a video campaign that surprised rural Americans, discovering that they had Mexican descendants and were happy to visit Mexico once they learned about the discounted ticket prices. The campaign went viral and saw a 33.7% increase in ticket sales.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to do it?<\/h2>\n

Newsjacking\u00a0<\/strong>at the right moment and in the right spirit, as done by AeroMexico, has helped numerous brands become\u00a0memorable<\/a>. For instance, \u00a0Gillette\u2019s take on #MeToo\u00a0got a fair bit of traction (though some customers also criticised it), while Oreo jumped in on the speculation over\u00a0Area 51<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When a news item is fresh and current, brands often use it to ride the wave and create the\u00a0right impression<\/a> about themselves. To accomplish this, you need to be on top of the news cycle and trends; automation tools can help deliver the trending news. Brand managers must constantly monitor their markets’ information on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to ensure they can actively post on news trends important to their customers or stakeholders. Choosing<\/strong> the right story that resonates with your brand\u2019s image and core values so that the connection is easily made is <\/strong>essential<\/strong>.<\/strong> It is also important to use trending hashtags or optimal keywords for SEO so your brand gets recall value when people search for the story.<\/p>\n

What to watch out for?<\/h2>\n

At the outset, newsjacking might look easy, but you have to be careful while looking for ways to co-opt a news story so it won\u2019t affect your brand\u00a0negatively<\/a>. In 2017, Pepsi got the flak for the Kylie Jenner commercial that tried to appropriate the Black Lives Movement as an opportunity to sell cola. It gets worse when the news event is a\u00a0tragedy<\/a>,\u00a0as AT&T discovered when they tried to use the September 11 attack featuring a smartphone that took the Tribute in Light memorial photo. It\u2019s best to avoid using any such grave event for your PR.<\/p>\n

Several brands have suffered backlash when they\u2019ve chosen the wrong events to news jack, which shows a lack of empathy and sensitivity, which, unfortunately, the world doesn\u2019t forget even though news cycles are short. Epicurious soon discovered this after they tried to plug their breakfast treats, connecting it with the Boston Marathon Bombing. More prominent brands and companies can often survive this, but the same can\u2019t be said for SMEs trying to make their mark worldwide. Sometimes, you may inaccurately represent your brand, confusing and distancing\u00a0your consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it is essential to navigate regularly through the tricky world of newsjacking. This can offer instant benefits, such as viral campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does your PR strategy include \u00abnewsjacking\u00bb? Are you aware of its importance? It\u2019s a form of real-time branded communication and an effective channel for a good PR strategy. The strategy involves brands referencing topical news stories in their marketing communication to go viral, get noticed, or make a difference. With news cycles being brutally short…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pr-communications-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brigittekaps.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}