Newsjacking - the art of finding the right moment

Newsjacking is a simple marketing principle that implies that a particular brand and its social networks will "hook" to an existing viral trend. The goal is to get instant attention, and therefore to raise brand awareness, as well as to gather reactions and new followers. The most important thing is to act quickly, to keep the fresh news we relate to, while it’s the main topic and intensively spoken about. These topics can be diverse and vary from country to country, so it is important to follow numerous portals, news, sites such as Reddit, social networks (primarily Twitter and Instagram), and keep up to date with current events.

With this kind of announcement you should keep it up-to-date, be fast and creative, but the most important thing is timing - the post is important to hang on to in the next 24 hours (or less) from the release of the relevant news or event we are connecting to, otherwise it will not succeed. We'll illustrate this through a post that was voted the best newsjacking example ever - it's Oreo who, in 2013, when the power went down during the 2013 NFL Finals, published the following post:

When it comes to our marketing practices, this idea certainly came later, but it is clear that today brands are trying to follow trends and show them on their social media. Followers' comments are generally positive and reactions are numerous, which indicates that this principle really works. However, it is important to be careful, politically correct and not to "cling" to sensitive topics, while everything else is allowed and suitable for creative solutions.

There were, for example, numerous posts related to famous series or movies, including the last season of the popular series Game of Thrones:

Some brands also used current marketing campaigns that at the moment attracted a lot of public attention. So Exit 2019's "Do You Know Where Your Goods Comes From" campaign got a slightly different version:

It is also important to emphasize that not only brands or objects will use this principlein order to promote. Often newsjacking can also be found in the press or on YouTube, where it is common for YouTubers to comment on current songs, news or events, and thus receive new views and followers.

Anyway, one thing is for sure, newsjacking is certainly a very convenient principle for quickly gaining attention and raising brand awareness, but as with everything, you should not exaggerate, but moderate and carefully spice up your profile with some newsjacking posts.