Brands walk a very thin line when it comes to leveraging a tragedy to gain attention through real time marketing or more popularly known as 'Newsjacking'. The jargon #NEWSJACKING got infamous by a book published under the same name by David Meerman Scott. A simple definition given in the book states that Newsjacking is the process of injecting your brand into the day’s news, creating a twist that grabs eyes when they’re open widest.
Companies need to be observant, quick to react and skilled at communicating. It’s a powerful tool that prepares you to stay ahead of the competition and attract the attention of highly-engaged audiences by taking advantage of breaking news. Breaking news is reported all of the time, and as a marketer, you have a unique opportunity to take advantage of these trending topics and generate higher brand visibility through a relevant campaign. It boosts SEO, grabs attention of readers with real-time commentary and exemplifies thought leadership. A typical News Life Cycle looks like this:
The author warns marketers 'To be open to Serendipity; But Happy Accidents only'. A military coup, the death of a celebrity, a national tragedy, a natural disaster — these are strictly not the kind of events you would want to piggyback. 'Newsjacking' requires enhanced sensitivity — a characteristic that some major brands have demonstrated they don’t have. In such cases, newsjacking can do a lot more harm than any good to the brand. Here's one example:
The April 15th Boston Marathon blasts are still quiet fresh in our memories. While we are still trying to recoup from the devastation caused by the unforgivable behavior of two adults. On April 16 Epicurious, the food website blasted the following insensitive tweets to its 385,000 followers:
What was Epicurious thinking? The food company completely alienated itself from its loyal fans through these absurd tweets. It is the perfect example of 'newsjacking' going bad. Here's the reaction of some of its loyal followers who are now considering to delete the branded app.
"@epicurious Get your legs blown off by a terrorist? Try these scones! Lose a cherished friend? Maybe this bowl of breakfast energy can help!"
"@epicurious First, let’s be clear: the earlier tweets didn’t “seem” offensive. They were offensive. The word “seem” shifts the burden of blame onto their readers, who the brand seems to think were overly sensitive. It stops short of fully acknowledging the obliviousness of their tweets."
Within next few hours, Epicurious deleted the old tweets and repeatedly tweeted apologies to salvage the bad PR.
What else the company could have done?
For starters, the brand manager could personally take charge of the situation, acknowledge the misjudgment, formally apologize through interviews and tweet about imparting social media training to their entire staff to be a little more compassionate while representing the brand.
Second, repeatedly tweeting a template-style “apology” should have been avoided.
And lastly, the company could have engaged with readers individually and offered human responses such as going completely dark to express their solidarity and condolences for victims of the tragedy. Like Dunkin Donuts, they could even pledge a donation to the victims of the Boston tragedy in an effort to make something good come out of this experience. Another thing they could have done is to get on to the ground and set up a pro bono food service to feed all on duty staff.
In the real time world, newsjacking could be like playing with fire. There are several instances where companies had to remove their content due to the sensitivity of a current issue. Fun and humor cannot replace compassion. People are forgiving provided marketers stop being pretentious and behave like humans. Once a mistake has been made, immediate acknowledgement, followed by ultra-timely rectification and crisis control is critical for a brand's reputation.
In the real time world, newsjacking could be like playing with fire. There are several instances where companies had to remove their content due to the sensitivity of a current issue. Fun and humor cannot replace compassion. People are forgiving provided marketers stop being pretentious and behave like humans. Once a mistake has been made, immediate acknowledgement, followed by ultra-timely rectification and crisis control is critical for a brand's reputation.
Sources:
http://bit.ly/15vQhWG
Images have been sourced from David M. Scott's book, Twitter Feeds and Bella Pilar Creation.
Images have been sourced from David M. Scott's book, Twitter Feeds and Bella Pilar Creation.
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