Campaign Hijacking
Campaign Hijacking
Erdinc Kurt IB5 Marketing Communication
Definition
Campaign – An organized course of action in order to achieve a goal.
Hijack – Taking over (something) and using it for a different purpose.
Approaches to hijack a campaign
The first way is to find a breaking story and make sure that you get your message in front of the media. There are two approaches in this method. The first is the humour method, second is the commentary method.
This is where you add some commentary around the issue. Either supporting or attacking the initial news item you are trying to hijack. This gives the media something to use to expand their stories. However you can’t be non-committal with your comment. You have to make an emphatic statement. You must stand for something. If you are less than news worthy you will not be commented or quoted.
The second way is to find some very well known item and make a connection to it. You can reference it in your marketing or even copy it in some way (make sure you don’t infringe copyright). This can be tricky because you are relying on your customers having the
same knowledge as you. If they don’t have the same knowledge then they will not make the some connection as you and you will not hijack anything. It can be a parody as well. For a while Pepsi used the fact that Coke hadn’t changed their bottle design for 70 years. They used that point to say Coke was an old person’s drink. They hijacked the shape of the Coke bottle something everyone knew and used it to gain leverage over Coke.
PROs
CONs
-
(Often) inexpensive
Viral potential
High media awareness
High involvement
Word of mouth
Attention attracting
Legal issues
Opportunity (competitor) dependent
No forecast possible
Zeitgeist
Obligation being Up-to-date
Erdinc Kurt IB5 Marketing Communication
Definition
Campaign – An organized course of action in order to achieve a goal.
Hijack – Taking over (something) and using it for a different purpose.
Approaches to hijack a campaign
The first way is to find a breaking story and make sure that you get your message in front of the media. There are two approaches in this method. The first is the humour method, second is the commentary method.
This is where you add some commentary around the issue. Either supporting or attacking the initial news item you are trying to hijack. This gives the media something to use to expand their stories. However you can’t be non-committal with your comment. You have to make an emphatic statement. You must stand for something. If you are less than news worthy you will not be commented or quoted.
The second way is to find some very well known item and make a connection to it. You can reference it in your marketing or even copy it in some way (make sure you don’t infringe copyright). This can be tricky because you are relying on your customers having the
same knowledge as you. If they don’t have the same knowledge then they will not make the some connection as you and you will not hijack anything. It can be a parody as well. For a while Pepsi used the fact that Coke hadn’t changed their bottle design for 70 years. They used that point to say Coke was an old person’s drink. They hijacked the shape of the Coke bottle something everyone knew and used it to gain leverage over Coke.
PROs
CONs
-
(Often) inexpensive
Viral potential
High media awareness
High involvement
Word of mouth
Attention attracting
Legal issues
Opportunity (competitor) dependent
No forecast possible
Zeitgeist
Obligation being Up-to-date