India is home to the pioneer in “newsjacking”… Who??

On test tube babies!

If you are in the public relations business, by now you must be familiar with “newsjacking”, more recently well articulated by David Meerman Scott (are you following him on twitter – you must do – @dmscott )

For those who are late, here’s how David defines 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. It creates a level playing field—literally anyone can newsjack—but, that new level favors players who are observant, quick to react, and skilled at communicating. It’s a powerful tool that can be used to throw an opponent or simply draft off the news momentum to further your own ends”.

By that, newsjacking is the easiest tool available in the arsenal of any right thinking public relations pro. And despite many downfalls and issues of ethics in what events ought and ought not to be “newsjacked”

You can read a load of stuff, all over the net, and in PR fora’ on recent uses of newsjacking, where it worked well and where it backfired.

Looking around, it realized on us that the pioneers of “newsjacking” are right here in India. You might be pleasantly surprised, but, in my view its as earyly as 1966 that and India company (offcourse with the help of their great agency) India might as well the home to “newsjacking”

Here, is a part of the story of Amul topical (courtesy : amul.com) Twitter handle – @amul_coop

On the Enron controversy!

“For 30 odd years the Utterly Butterly girl has managed to keep her fan following intact. So much so that the ads are now ready to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest running campaign ever. The ultimate compliment to the butter came when a British company launched a butter and called it Utterly Butterly, last year.

It all began in 1966 when Sylvester daCunha, then the managing director of the advertising agency, ASP, clinched the account for Amul butter. The butter, which had been launched in 1945, had a staid, boring image, primarily because the earlier advertising agency which was in charge of the account preferred to stick to routine, corporate ads.

In India, food was something one couldn’t afford to fool around with. It had been taken too seriously, for too long. Sylvester daCunha decided it was time for a change of image.

The year Sylvester daCunha took over the account, the country saw the birth of a campaign whose charm has endured fickle public opinion, gimmickry and all else.

The Amul girl who lends herself so completely to Amul butter, created as a rival to the Polson butter girl. This one was sexy, village belle, clothed in a tantalising choli all but covering her upper regions. “Eustace Fernandez (the art director) and I decided that we needed a girl who would worm her way into a housewife’s heart. And who better than a little girl?” says Sylvester daCunha. And so it came about that the famous Amul Moppet was born”

In a sense, even unknowingly, the Amul moppet has been ever since 1966, been only using the  concept of newsjacking in the best possible way, on issues that confront the people of this country – issues which were breaking news…

Right time to newsjack?!

If you chose to look at the graph by David on when you should newjack, and compare it with what Amul has been doing almost on a daily basis since the birth of the Amul moppet, what else would you call the Amul topical but newsjacking in its truest sense.

And even better, Amul has been newsjacking using traditional media (call it brick and mortar), decades before all this internet thing happened!

So, who else but our own Amul as pioneers of newsjacking? Surely, David Meerman Scott would agree, hopefully.

What are the like examples of newsjacking you can think off?

And lastly, is “newsjacking” in your things to do in 2013??

 

Related articles

• BEST Amul advertisements in 2012 (rediff.com)
• Newsjacking: 6 Tips to Help Your Branded Content Use the News (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• Newsjacking (slideshare.net)
• Newsjacking: You’re Doing It Wrong (iacquire.com)

Social playbook – you thought it was all about PR or branding??

When was the last time you thought that a communication plan or social media action play book created for your organization (or the client if you happen to be an agency) could be to do with anything other than branding, public relations, buzz, and may be HR/employer branding?

The probability of this is very high – and it’s quite but natural for communication professional to work in a silo – a silo or PR or employer branding et al.

Well, those days are gone, and if there is such a play-book you proffer to your leadership, you are taking the first step in being a social media myopic.

The proliferation of social media across the different levels in your organization is complete, and you are well aware of this. By the same logic the proliferation of social media is as much complete in the external world – a world that encompasses your prospective employees, the next COO you are out to hire from out there, your product/service consumer, your media consumers (aren’t our journo friends consumers of what we communicate, and channels to a larger audience? J), your lenders (banks), your vendors and so on and on – just about every constituent you can imagine to be of present or future consequence.

Yet, how often does a play book you and me make cater to such a varied and dynamic constituency? If social was all about some buzz in the online world, then your playbook can be as you wish. But social is all about engagement, and at some point measurement of what the social media plan has delivered in value to the organization – and how much the plan has impacted the entire universe of constituents’ (call them stakeholders if you wish)

True, it will be impossible to make such a comprehensive play book. But what is important is to make sure that the kind of message that is sent out there is not just plain breast-beating to build an employer brand, but also to cultivate an image of a credible and competitive player in the space your organization is in.

Revisit your social plan now – do you see the kind of silo-isation as mentioned in the first part? Or can you see that you are factoring and attempting to engage the entire universe of constituents in your plan?

Revisit and Rewrite your social book today if need be. Not today, right now! 

Related articles

• LinkedIn’s Newest Crusade: Fix That Employer Brand! (forbes.com)
• Recruitment & Employer Branding (slideshare.net)
• 10 must-have traits for working in social media (prdaily.com)
• Social Media Playbook (radian6.com)
• LinkedIn attempts to quantify the Employment Brand (gautamblogs.com)