Newsjacking 101: What It Is & How to Master It

Have you seen the Uber marketing campaign entitled “Thank You for Not Riding,” which was released at the beginning of the pandemic? The advertisement encouraged drivers to stay at home. If you have seen it, you have witnessed an example of newsjacking.

The term newsjacking was first widely used in 2011. It lets you take advantage of current trends to promote your product or brand. In this post, we’ll discuss this marketing strategy and more.

What is newsjacking?

The term “newsjacking” became extremely popular, thanks to David Meerman Scott. He published a book called “Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.” The term was used occasionally before this, but the book made it significantly more popular.

The full title of the book provides a concise definition of newsjacking. It is when you take current events or popular news and figure out a way to add in your ideas, brand, products, or services. 

There are no readily available statistics regarding newsjacking, but a simple online search can show you how popular it is. According to Meerman Scott, there is an optimal point during the news story’s life when you should do some newsjacking.

A fairly recent example would be how companies have somehow injected themselves into the conversation about coronavirus. Specific examples would be companies advertising things to do while at home or to stay healthy and either directly mentioning or strongly alluding to the virus. That said, most newsjacking strategies rely on shorter-term news stories than COVID.

The following shows a more concrete example. At the same time, it shows that newsjacking has been around since at least 2013:

For some context, Oreo wrote this Tweet in 2013 during the blackout that occurred during the Superbowl.

Is newsjacking the right strategy? Benefits and Drawbacks

Newsjacking can be a powerful way to increase your brand’s visibility. Unfortunately, it is a double-edged sword. If you don’t do it right, it could backfire and hurt your business. So before you include this tactic in the mix of your marketing strategies, determine whether or not it is right for you by weighing the benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of Newsjacking

1. Boosts brand reputation and awareness.

The main benefit of newsjacking is increasing your brand’s visibility. By following the larger conversation, newsjacking will get your brand in front of many fresh eyes. In addition, it will show your customers that your company is not just in it for the money but is also socially aware, boosting your brand’s reputation.

2. Reaches new audiences.

Newsjacking increases your chance of reaching markets your company doesn’t usually target. Anyone searching for the story or news you’ve newsjack will likely see your brand. These new audiences may become your new customers.

Additionally, if the newsjack is done very well, there’s a chance it will become a new story within itself. This might help generate backlinks from many high-authority media sites. Quality backlinks can boost your SEO over the long run.

3. Increase conversions.

If done right, newsjacking can show your existing customers that your business isn’t just all about making money. People may like you better because of it and may help in converting them into paying customers.

4. Boosts social media engagement.

Boosting engagement on social media is often challenging for companies that offer services or products, like business outsourcing, because not many people are interested in these topics. When you join conversations around hot news, you can spark discussions, increase shares, and generate likes and comments. 

Cons of Newsjacking

1. Is time sensitive.

Unlike with evergreen content, people won’t always be interested in a story. So you need to find the perfect timing to newsjack.

It should not be too soon because no one is probably looking for the news yet. It shouldn’t be done too late either because people typically stop caring about the story. The very short shelf life is one of the newsjacking’s greatest disadvantages.

2. Can backfire.

You must be careful when newsjacking because it can backfire, like Bing’s case in 2011. The company attempted to newsjack the earthquake that happened in Japan. The company tweeted about donating a dollar to Japan quake victims for every retweet. People weren’t too happy about it, and the company end up tweeting an apology.

3. Can attract the wrong audience.

Newsjacking increases brand visibility but won’t give you quality leads. There’s always the risk of reaching the wrong audience. If this happens, you may end up wasting marketing and sales resources on detractors.

How to Newsjack in 6 Steps

If you think newsjacking is right for your business, here are a few tips when getting started:

1. Look for relevant stories.

The first step of newsjacking is searching for emerging stories. These days, finding trending news isn’t that difficult. Many tools, like Google Trends, social media hashtags, and dedicated forums, are available for keeping your finger on the pulse. 

Choose a story relevant to your industry or expertise to avoid attracting the wrong audience. Also, make sure your marketing team understands the topic or situation before newsjacking.

2. Think about your angle.

Many other businesses are probably considering using this strategy as well. If you want your brand to get more attention, find a unique angle on your chosen news event. A new perspective is often more enticing to audiences. 

4. Be quick and accurate.

Newsjacking is time-sensitive, but you still need to ensure you get all the facts straight. Otherwise, your brand reputation will be at risk. You will lose credibility among your audience if you create inaccurate content. So before creating any content based on your chosen news story, verify the story’s primary source and do more research.

5. Brand your content.

Be creative and ensure the newsjack stays consistent with your brand’s voice and identity to prevent undermining your credibility. If your content is usually humorous and light-hearted, create your newsjack with the same tone and communication style unless the news is a tragedy. 

6. Think about your distribution channels.

Determine where to put your content. These days, social media platforms are a good place to start. Many people are already using these platforms. These channels also come with many tools that make content sharing easier. Another option is letting journalists and influences mention your brand. 

Newsjacking Tips & Best Practices

There is no exact art to newsjacking. You can do it the way you want. But if you want to increase your chances of success, consider following these rules:

1. Be authentic and honest.

It is paramount to ensure that your newsjacked content feels sincere and consistent with your brand voice. Your audience is smart, and they can always tell whether or not you’re just jumping on the bandwagon. 

If you want your newsjacking content to be successful, show your audience you walk your talk. For example, build a meaningful relationship with the LGBTQ+ community if you want to use news and other stories surrounding this community.

2. Research your audience.

Find out what your target audience like and what platforms they usually visit. Doing so will help you determine what content to create and what distribution channels to use. It will also help boost the chance of newsjacking success. 

3. Mind timing.

It is crucial to be timely with your newsjacking strategy. According to the marketing strategist who defined newsjacking, the best time to use this strategy is just after the news has broken but before many media sources have fully covered the story.

4. Create relevant content.

News and trending stories won’t always be relevant to your industry. For example, Superbowl is in a completely different industry from lawn care. But some irrelevant stories are too good to pass on. 

In cases like these, you must be creative and find a logical connection between the news and your business. If you offer lawn care maintenance services, you can create content about how your customers can get their home lawns in a condition similar to the Superbowl venue.

5. Offer unique takes.

A unique take on a topic will help separate your brand from the competition. In finding a unique perspective, don’t go overboard and newsjack serious and sensitive topics like cultural events and disasters. Newsjacking those topics can backfire significantly and even affect your company’s growth and profit.

6. Don’t overdo it.

Like many other brand marketing strategies, newsjacking works best when you mix it up with other tactics. There will be new stories every day, and you don’t have to piggyback on every story that comes your way.  Choose which newsjacking opportunities to grab carefully.

Examples of Newsjacking

1. Busch Beer

Before the pandemic started, there was a trend in the food and beverage industry of companies stepping up to help dogs find their forever home. Anheuser-Busch also jumped on the bandwagon by offering a free three-month supply of beer to anyone who adopts a dog from a shelter they’re sponsoring. This story helped the company enjoy wide acclaim across social media. 

2. Calm

Calm, a meditation app, sponsored CNN’s election coverage in the U.S. The company also ran 30-second calming advertisements up to and on election night, which served as a juxtaposition to the end of the stressful election. 

Katie Shill, Calm’s Senior Director of Brand Marketing, reveals the campaign’s success in an interview with Ad Age. She said the company saw a huge spike in organic growth and a ton of PR coverage and social conversation. 

3. Uber

This is a great example because the company’s newsjacking strategy also salvaged the brand. Uber did not make much profit since people were required to stay home during the pandemic, but the campaign helped forge loyalty and trust with its customers.

4. Oreo

Oreo is one of the brands that are likely into newsjacking. When a power outage happened during the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the company responded with a real-time “Blackout Ad” on Twitter. And when social media users were buzzing about a plan to raid Area 51, Oreo went to Twitter again and joked, “What flavors do you think they’re hiding in #Area51?” 

With a perfectly-timed and clever tweet, the brand gained engagement and improved brand awareness on the social platform-a great example of newsjacking at an affordable price. 

5. Burger King

Burger King once newsjacked McDonald’s legal slips. In McDonald’s legal battle with Supermacs, the company lost its exclusive Big Mac trademark, and the ruling noted that other companies can also use the term “Big Mac.”

Burger King then released menus promoting its limited-time flame-grilled Big Mac, which the company claimed was tastier and bigger than McDonald’s. It was a funny but professional way of taking advantage of news relating to a competitor.

6. Microsoft

The pandemic stalled the sporting world. Fans weren’t able to attend events because of lockdowns and quarantines. And the Microsoft team took advantage of this situation by promoting its “Together Mode” functionality. 

Together Mode crops people’s shoulders and faces and slots the images into a virtual shared environment, like an auditorium. This feature was made to make everyone feel like they are in the same place together. The Microsoft team partnered with the NBA to simulate the experience of an audience in the stands with virtual attendees.

5 Newsjacking Strategies for Content Marketing and PR

The following are some of the more common newsjacking strategies you can find in PR and content marketing. Some content will only use one of these strategies, while others will use more than one.

1. Act quickly—so set up alerts.

The most common strategy when it comes to newsjacking is to act as quickly as you can without hurting the quality of the content. The sooner you “newsjack,” the more effective it will be. You mainly want your story or post to get out before others do, as that maximizes your attention. 

To ensure you can act quickly and “jack the news” effectively, consider the following strategies. 

Create news alerts, such as:

• Google Alerts
• Use Google Trends
• A good example of this comes from KitKat. In 2014, the iPhone 6 Plus had issues with bending in back pockets. KitKat acted quickly and created the following Tweet.

2. Emphasize the story, not the sale.

Another important strategy for newsjacking is to make sure that you place the focus on the story in question. Your client’s brand should seem like a secondary thought. If you make the promotional aspect too strong, you could do more harm than good.

Oreo offers a good example of this strategy, showing the company has had a well-rounded newsjacking approach for a while. They released the following ad when Kate Middleton had her baby.

An Oreo is in the image, but you see the “royal” cushion and baby bottle first. Therefore, this emphasizes the story of the birth of the royal baby. At the same time, it has a gentle sell for the Oreo with the tagline at the bottom and the image of the Oreo.

3. Using negative content—but only with extreme tact.

You can also take advantage of negative news stories, but you have to be extremely careful when doing so. You should be particularly cautious before you “newsjack” any story that involves:

• Tragedy
• Death
• Natural disasters
• Similar negative content

The exception here is if you’ll use newsjacking to further the conversation or show solidarity. You need to be particularly careful about promotions and community sentiment.

This is the type of newsjacking where solidarity and support will be much more effective than blatant promotions. 

Bad Examples

To start, consider an example of how this strategy can go very poorly. After Hurricane Sandy caused devastation and death, Sears made the following insensitive tweet.

The company was quickly accused of trying to profit from the tragedy. It became an example of what not to do.

Another poor example is the following from Spaghetti-O to commemorate Pearl Harbor, a day associated with death.

A Good Example

For a good example of this strategy, look at Gillette and its response to the #MeToo movement in 2018 and 2019. Gillette had used the slogan “The Best a Man Can Get” for years and changed it to “The Best Man Can Be” with a Superbowl ad that confronted toxic masculinity.

The commercial helped confront the issues of #MeToo and toxic masculinity by showing examples before saying, “Something finally changed – and there will be no going back,” and then switching to instances of men doing good and making changes.

4. Newsjacking stories about other brands.

Some of the most successful newsjacking efforts come from bringing up or responding to controversies regarding other brands. This lets you take advantage of negative media attention on another company.

While the seemingly obvious use case would be to take advantage of a competitor’s bad press, that is not the only possibility. 

A great example of this comes from Aviation Gin’s newsjacking of Peloton’s commercial that went over poorly. In December 2019, Peloton released a commercial intending to show how great of a gift their bikes are. Instead, people interpreted it as implying a potentially abusive relationship where the husband was forcing the wife to exercise on the bike. 

Aviation Gin took advantage of the scandal, even casting the “wife” from the Peloton ad. It was an ad for the brand’s gin, but the content implied it was a sequel to the Peloton ad. It went viral, providing great marketing for Aviation Gin.

To make this example of newsjacking more effective, Aviation Gin even titled its ad in response to the Peloton ad. The Peloton ad was called “The Gift that Gives Back,” while the Aviation Gin ad was “The Gift that Doesn’t Give Back.” 

5. Newsjacking popular media.

Another popular newsjacking strategy is to use something popular in media or entertainment and connect it to your brand or messaging. It commonly involves TV shows or movies.

For example, consider this article from MarketWatch:

Or consider this one from the Globe and Mail. 

Marketing Solutions for Growing Businesses

Newsjacking can be a highly effective strategy to make your brand appear relevant when used correctly. You simply have to act quickly to release your content at the right time in the news cycle. You also have to practice tact and understand how your audience feels about the news in question. 

Newsjacking should make up just one of your digital marketing strategies. Joining the Podium Partner Program lets you work with a company that can help you grow your marketing, sales, and promotion in other ways.

You can also take advantage of many other Podium tools, like review management and review link generator, to boost your conversion. Webchat is also available to help you provide your website visitors and customers with a better experience. 

If you’re looking for other marketing strategies, you can consider text marketing with the help of Podium’s SMS tool, which has many ready-to-use templates. 

Newsjacking FAQs

1. What is the newsjacking process?

Newsjacking is when you take current events or popular news and use these events as a way to promote your brand, products, and services. 

2. What is the difference between newsjacking and trendjacking?

The newsjacking process involves injecting your brand, services, or products into a breaking news story, while trendjacking is capitalizing on trending stories. These two also differ in terms of time and urgency. Trends tend to stick around longer than news.

3. Is newsjacking worth it?

Early research into newsjacking shows that it is effective. A study from Angell et al. that is yet to be published concluded that the cluttered nature of social media means that consumers simply ignore many messages and need something novel to cut through them. They say that: “Newsjacking can achieve this. For content creators, the news is something they really can use.”