Welcome to A Month of Mischief, a monthly take on the hottest passions gripping the nation, along with the latest Mischief news.
Newsjacking is all about having quickfire reactions to the hot topics that everyone’s talking about. It’s a means for brands to insert themselves into the most engaged conversations, command attention in a timely and relevant manner and show a bit of personality!
And the best part? Newsjacking is flexible depending on your means – from major reactive stunts to simple reactive tweets, ideas can range from big productions to simple social media comebacks.
Ikea’s recent Balenciaga newsjack is a great example of low-production, low-budget reactive resulting in impressive ROI. When Balenciaga announced they were launching a $900 ‘towel-skirt’, Ikea quickly jumped on the news, capturing a simple hero photograph announcing the sale of their own new ‘towel skirt’ for a fraction of price at £16. This tongue-in-cheek reactive helped them tap into an engaged Gen-Z audience across titles such as Dazed, High Snobiety, Hypebeast and Complex.
But it’s also possible to newsjack harder-hitting news in a sensitive way. October saw a shocking fire break out at Luton airport, which resulted in the loss of around 1,500 vehicles. Here at Mischief, we worked with LV= to share reactive data and expert commentary around the number of customers estimated to be affected, along with guidance around what the insurer was doing to support the affected. Being able to offer helpful reassurance and advice at such a troubling time for many led to us securing top tier coverage in the likes of The Guardian and Daily Mail – all simply generated from internal data and commentary.
Newsjacking is an incredibly valuable tool, but relevance is important. Brands need to have a right to play – is it within your industry? Can you add anything meaningful to the conversation? Do you have relevant data or expert insights to add to it? Every brand will have differing criteria when it comes to deciding what makes a newsjack worthwhile and impactful.
And speaking of worthwhile newsjacks, this month, we were able to tap into multiple trending conversations on behalf of Ocado, putting the online supermarket front and centre when it came to unusual consumer shopping habits…
And the past few weeks have been a smash for our very own newsjackers, as we secured a wave of coverage for reactive Ocado stories. Firstly, when London restaurant Fowl’s chicken head pie went viral, this prompted us to delve into Ocado insights around offal buying. What we didn’t expect was that sales of ‘tongue’ had more than doubled YoY, and the media loved it.
Most recently, fans across the UK were devastated when Nestle confirmed the discontinuation of the Caramac bar – so much so that searches on Ocado.com skyrocketed by over 3000%, resulting in headline pieces on Mail Online and their social channels as well as over 30 ReachPLC pieces, citing Ocado’s data and commentary alone.
With additional newsjacks capturing attention across Guardian, The Sun, Daily Star and Mirror, this reactive success proved that providing media with relevant and interesting data is key to inserting our brands into the heart of trending conversations.
Read more here.
Newsjacking aside, it was a busy month for team LEGO with nine events taking place throughout November. From Manchester store openings and three ‘Build to Give’ events supporting Children in Need, to a sleepover in the Natural History Museum (!) – the team travelled throughout the country spreading festive LEGO magic.
The events all generated a ton of social and earned coverage, with celebrity parent guests including Girls Aloud’s Kimberly Walsh, TV presenter Katie Piper and Strictly’s Neil Jones and ex-Love Islander Chyna Mills. Media guests came from The Guardian, Reach PLC, Pop Sugar, Hello! and the Independent.
Throughout November, an impressive 200+ pieces of coverage were earned for Lego overall, thanks to a range of engaging events with top tier media and celebrity attendees.
Read more here.
It wouldn’t be November in the office without a Black Friday sell-in and Three were at the heart of it. The team’s strong relationships with tech, shopping and deals writers helped to secure multiple standalone headline pieces of coverage across the likes of The Sun, Expert Reviews and Mirror.
Alongside standalone pieces, we also secured coverage in the likes of premium lifestyle titles GQ and Good Housekeeping, elevating Three’s Black Friday offering during one of the brand’s most important moments in the year.
Read more here.
Team Mischief had a ball at the recent PRCA Awards this month, scooping up another two awards for Women’s Aid and Avanti. The Women’s Aid ‘He’s Coming Home’ campaign took ‘Best Purpose Campaign’ whilst Avanti came out on top in the ‘Automotive and Transport’ category. Another great night of success!
Mischief MD, Charlotte Brooks, recently chatted to PR Moment about everything she’s learnt from her career journey so far, as well as her predictions for consumer PR as we go into 2024. The ‘In Hindsight’ podcast episode is available here.
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