NEWSJACKING
Why should I do newsjacking?
Newsjacking is a great way for your company to increase visibility and create brand awareness in a short space of time. Breaking stories in the news are an ongoing opportunity for you to newsjack what’s going on with relatable, newsworthy content related to your brand. Newsjacking can result in top quality coverage for your company in target media on relevant topics at relatively little expense and effort — the most important thing is to be fast!
How do you approach newsjacking at ABCD?
At ABCD, we have a shared passion for the news. Our fingers are always on the pulse of what’s going on out there, ready to react whenever an opportunity presents itself. Because of our diverse client base, which includes e-commerce, logistics, gaming, travel, fintech and e-learning brands, we take special measures to make sure we’re firmly in the loop of a broad range of topics.
Social listening tools: To maximise our awareness, we use social listening tools such as Buzzsumo and Talkwalker Alerts to monitor a wide range of keywords related to our clients. Social listening tools monitor online media as well as social media platforms like Twitter. They help us to learn about events right after they happen and to be the first agency to react when an opportunity presents itself.
Online and print media: As a PR agency, we collectively spend hours a day exploring online and print media — looking at trends, checking for new clippings, and simply informing ourselves with the current state of the world. The amount of time we invest in staying on top of the news keeps us up-to-date on the most promising opportunities for us and for you, and teaches us about what is working for other brands.
Industry research: At ABCD, we invest time and effort in relationship building with each of our clients. One of the duties of your dedicated account manager is to deepen their understanding of your topic and industry, doing so by researching recent articles, checking what your competitors are up to, and analysing trending content. This helps them to identify newsjacking opportunities on behalf of your brand as they happen.
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What is your process when it comes to newsjacking?​
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Opportunity: A member of the ABCD team identifies an opportunity for newsjacking. We meet to discuss its potential and whether to proceed with a reactive stunt.
Ideation: We analyse how to react to the event in the best possible way in a team brainstorm with our newsjacking experts.
Approval: Once we have the idea, we approach the client and seek approval for the newsjacking stunt. If there isn’t a suitable client, then we may carry out the newsjacking campaign on behalf of ABCD.
Content creation: As reacting quickly is so integral to newsjacking, our content team immediately gets started with creating whatever content is needed. We aim to finish everything by the end of the same day, ready for approval from the client.
Pitching: Once we have approval, we find the perfect time to distribute the newsjacking campaign — sometimes that’s later the same day, or first thing in the morning.
Reporting: We watch as the campaign goes viral, making sure to record all clippings in a special media coverage report.
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Newsjacking case studies
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Interested in learning more about some of our most successful newsjacking campaigns that we ideated, created and sent out? Check out some of our favourite case studies below and you’ll get a better idea of what we’re capable of. Alternatively, we can walk you through somes examples over a video call.
Objego
Berlin Rent Cap
What our clients say about us
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We’re proud of what we’ve achieved when it comes to newsjacking, both on behalf of brands but also on behalf of ABCD.
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Philip
CEO, Objego
As a platform for landlords, ABCD identified Berlin’s rent cap as an interesting topic area for us. After the law was taken to court, they had the foresight to carry out a survey on our behalf, asking for people’s views on it. They carefully monitored the legal case, and when the rent cap was overturned, they rapidly distributed the survey findings among relevant journalists. Within hours, more than 30 journalists were publishing stories that included findings from our survey, including Bloomberg, Express and MSN. Superb!
Q&A about newsjacking
What is newsjacking?
Newsjacking is the act of reacting to a breaking news story or event in such a way that results in your product being brought into the wider discussion. It’s all jumping on what’s happening out there to generate buzz and publicity for your brand within a short space of time.
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How do you excel at newsjacking at ABCD?
Agility: We love newsjacking and even do it on behalf of ABCD when it suits — sometimes there isn’t time to find a suitable client. Speed is absolutely integral to successful newsjacking. That’s why we consider one of our biggest strengths to be our willingness and ability to react faster than anyone else. If something happens late in the day which presents an opportunity for us or for a client, our agile, dedicated team will work to ensure all content and media lists are prepped and ready for an early morning send out.
Preparation: It’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen in the news — it wouldn’t be called news otherwise. However, it is possible to make an educated guess about how things might turn out. Certain dates are planned months out, like sports fixtures, diplomatic get togethers, film premiers, or public holidays. We look ahead in the calendar, create speculative content ahead of time, and then release it when the events take place.
Media expertise: Our extensive journalist contact list, coupled with our deep understanding of different media landscapes and outlets, enables us to newsjack like experts. We excel at targeting relevant people at the right place at the optimal time. That’s part of the reason why we get great results on an ongoing basis.
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What are the short term benefits of newsjacking?
In the short term, a successful newsjacking stunt will generate a lot of media clippings, reach, and brand awareness for your company. It can also drive traffic to your website, and may even lead to an increase in sales. Journalists and social media users alike will talk about your brand and share your content.
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What are the long term benefits of newsjacking?
If a newsjacking stunt is included in an article that goes on to enjoy high amounts of readership over time, you’ll see an increase in brand awareness and steady flow of traffic to your website in the long term. Furthermore, newsjacking campaigns that generate high-quality backlinks also deliver improved SEO rankings and more organic traffic for your brand in the long term.
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How do I measure the success of newsjacking?
The most common metrics of newsjacking are estimated audience reach, total social engagements, the number of media clippings related to the stunt, the quality of these media clippings, and website traffic. Some brands also monitor sales as a way of measuring the success of newsjacking.
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How do I get started with newsjacking?
Interested in experimenting with this exciting, contemporary, and fast-paced marketing technique? We encourage you to reach out to ABCD and let’s talk about how your brand could incorporate newsjacking into its wider marketing and brand strategy. There’s some important questions to consider:
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Which topics are interesting for you to potentially newsjack?
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What topics would you rather steer clear of?
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Who should we seek approval from?
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How do we react as quickly as possible?
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Any other questions?
We’re very happy to go into more detail via email or over a video call. Send us an email using the contact form or say hello using our Chatbot.
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ABCD Agency UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Koppenplatz 10
10115 Berlin