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Real-time marketing, Newsjacking, or Reactvertising

IP#9 - A very specific form of leveraging culture in brand communications is called “newsjacking” or “reactvertising.” The idea is to identify a breaking news item and spin it in a smart way to relate it to your brand. That way, public excitement about the news item is hijacked and is supposed to revolve less about the original news itself, but more about how it relates to your brand. Through that, the interest and reach potential of the original news is transferred to the brand message.

The concept as such sounds easy, yet only a few newsjacking cases are successful in terms of creating a lot of buzz. Two of those have been discussed in previous posts: The Blackout Oreo and Kit Kat’s reaction to Apple’s “bendgate.” On the other hand, there are numerous cases where newsjacking barely got any attention. Examples would be the following Tweets from Sears and Kenneth Cole:

What makes the Kit Kat tweet so much more successful and popularized than one of these failed attempts to leverage the same concept?

All were Tweets and referred to breaking news. The obvious difference is what kind of news was used. Newsjacking is clearly a marketing effort with the goal to increase brand awareness, gain attention or even to drive sales. Newsjacking a negative event such as the riots in Cairo or Hurricane Sandy with the end goal of making a profit is just wrong. No human being was severely affected by bending iPhones so Kit Kat could easily make fun of it, exploit the “crisis” and win the situation.

So what does this all mean?

First, newsjacking is not as easy as it sounds. Not every breaking news item can be leveraged in that way. In fact, brands have to be very careful in determining which news they want to attach their message to. If chosen poorly, the entire attempt can backfire. This means that every news item has to be evaluated before it is used.

Second: Time plays a big role. Once the news is out there and has been presented from several angles, it quickly becomes old news. This means, that the newsjack has to occur at a very early stage. Marketing Strategist David Meerman Scott has created a timeline to visualize when exactly is the best time to newsjack a story:

Third: You have to be ready. In order to pull off that thing, both Oreo and Kit Kat had to have teams ready to create the brand message. This includes copywriters and creatives. Depending on the agency-client dynamics of every brand, the client might also have to approve of the message before it can be posted.

However, all of this doesn’t mean that everyone has to be constantly alert and expecting a newsjack. If a brand has decided that its communications plan and style allows for something like newsjacking, then it should have an execution plan ready including steps that are to be taken in case a breaking news item qualifies to be hijacked.