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What is Newsjacking?

   
http://www.newsjacking.com/
      When I first heard "Newsjacking", I quickly checked it on Google, and here is a great definition of Newsjacking--the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.

       To make it simple, I think newsjacking is one optional marketing approach, which allows a company to deliver relevant contents of the trending news topics faster than journalists do. One of goals of newsjacking is to increase customer engagement. 

       However, newsjacking is very challenge to stand out in the media especially when your industry does not relate to the trending news. I will show two different examples to explain and evaluate how brands use newsjacking approach on Twitter. 

  No.1  Oreo's Super Bowl Tweet

       When the lights of Super Bowls went out in the Superdome last year, Oreo tweeted " You Can Still Dunk In The Dark" on the Twitter. This tweet received more than 15,000 re-tweets. I can feel that people were highly engaging with this message. 

      Oreo newsjacking definitely achieved a great success. I believe from this tweet, Oreo earned huge respects and engagement on media. It was also a great promotion for Oreo. Why does Oreo newsjacking so effective?

  • Tweet in the Real Time: Oreo quickly tweeted the news in the real time that reflects Oreo also cared about what was happened during the Super Bowl Game. 
  • Creative Picture Design: Oreo created a dark background picture, which reflects the power was went out. Inserting an Oreo cookie with bright light around could reflect Oreo care about how Super Bowl fans' feelings. Oreo wanted to bring the light to people's hearts.
  • Relevant and Positive Message: "You can still dunk in the dark" does not only state the news correctly, but also tells people that they can still have fun in the dark. Oreo brought a positive energy to people.
No.2  Stella Artois Oscar Newsjacking

      Not all newsjackings could receive as great success as Oreo did.  In the last year Oscars, the beer brand Stella Artois posted several newsjacking tweets to celebrate the Oscar winners. However, Stella Artois only receive a very few engagement.

       Before the Oscar Award began, Stella Artois tweeted out a playful message to engage people to guess the movie name in order to win a Chalice. Surprisingly, the tweet received only 1 favorite and 2 retweets. However, it did receive many responses from its followers.
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/01/brand-marketing-newsjacking-next-level/

       Then, Stella Artois continued tweeting a glass of filling beer to celebrate with winners during the award. After a few times of congratulations for the winners, at the end, it tweeted an empty glass with a short message "That's All! Goodnight."




      In my opinion, Stella Artois's newsjacking was not successful. While the company did act very fast during the awards, we can see the connection of celebration between the brand and the winners. However, this newsjacking was not creative enough to engage with its audiences. It just simply updated the award process with a glass of beer from the beginning to the ending. People did't need the company to update the news again because they all knew what's going on. People may be more willing to engage with the brand if they could learn some new ideas or to have a fresh feeling beyond the Oscars.

      Moreover, in the "Chance to win a Chalice" tweet, Stella Artois didn't give any response on followers' comments.The lack of response will result a one-way communication. When followers didn't receive any responses from the brand, they would be very disappointed. Followers would think the "Chalice" was fraudulent. As a result, Stella Artois may lose its brand reputation. Therefore, Stella Artois didn't earn the media and achieve its expected results.

 Newsjacking = Real Time Marketing?

       From the two newsjacking examples above, both brands tweeted their messages in the real time. Does newsjacking equal to real time marketing? 

       The answer is No. I think newsjacking is part of real time marketing because companies do tweet the newsjacking in the real time. However, newsjacking is also difference with real time marketing in several ways.

       The article "Real-Time Marketing v.s. Newsjacking" describes that newsjacking is a tricky business because it lacks strategic plan. Companies tweet newsjacking to match the trends of news. And, most newsjacking usually generated less than 100 shares, which is certainly not enough to bring attentions from audience. Thus, newsjacking is a tactical marketing tool to gain short-term attention.

       Real time marketing (RTM) is different. In the real time marketing, company usually make a strategic plan to adapt and refine the content selectively around conversations or events. It doesn't simply follow a trending news topic. Real Time marketing delivers messages that relevant to the brand, benefits company's marketing efforts, and generates long-term payoff.

http://www.cyberalert.com/blog/index.php/real-time-marketing-vs-newsjacking-whats-the-difference/
   
     Overall, many brands follows Oreo's marketing approach after they saw its successful newsjacking. However, not all of those brands gained high engagements. Trying to ride off trending news topic maybe an approach to build conversations with customers in the real time. 

       Personally, I don't recommend every brand should use newsjacking not only because it is tricky, but also because it is time-limited.  Breaking news always fast come and fast end. And, the same news won't occur repeatedly all the time. If the brand wants to use newsjacking, it must have strong confident to build new ideas related to the news in positive and creative ways, deliver the message on the right time, and communicate with audiences in a limited time. 

       I think brands should focus on their own styles to make thoughtful and meaningful conversations with customers for long-term marketing efforts. Thus, brands don't necessary to follows the trending news topic to make promotion. Company should send valuable messages relevant to brand's core value and style. The most important thing is that company needs its customer to believe in its message. In addition, providing quickly personalized responses can increase engagement and reputation. Developing a strategic and adaptive media plan not only can help a brand to achieve good engagement, but also can help a brand to build incremental reputation in the long run. 










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