29.07.12

This Week...Newsjacking, thirsty squirrel, departure roulette, epic challenge, Bucharest not Budapest

Royal Baby newsjackingVarious

Thirsty squirrelSmithwicks

Departure RouletteHeineken

Epic ChallengeAsics

Bucharest not BudapestROM

Newsjacking is the practice of capitalising on trending events to increase engagement with a brand.

With the world on the edge of their seats for the birth of the royal baby, social media teams were ready and waiting for the royal announcement to drive their own Royal baby posts and tweets to the vast audience glued to social media.

According to Twitter there were over 421 tweets per second following the royal birth. Here’s a few brands who acted quickly with good executions to benefit from the news.

Royal Baby NewsjackingVarious

Royal Baby NewsjackingVarious

Thirsty SquirrelSmithwicks

This ad for Smithwick's Irish Ale shows a brewery, shutting down for the night. The building is not empty, however. A thirsty enterprising squirrel watches the workers leave, and then sets to work, brewing himself some delicious Irish Ale. The Kaiser Chiefs provide a distinctive soundtrack.

Departure RouletteHeineken

Your itinerary’s fine, but Heineken think a last minute change of plans is much more exciting. They found a few people at JFK Airport who’d agree. Travellers between the ages of 25 and 40 in Terminal 8 were given the opportunity to exchange their travel plans for a trip to a randomly chosen international location.

The marketing stunt aimed to bring attention to a series of webisodes entitled “Dropped,” which follows four men who are randomly dropped into remote areas of the world. It’s also an extension of their ‘Voyage’ campaign, which features a guy caught up in a series of bizarre situations in India.

Epic ChallengeAsics

Asics wanted to encourage and inspire people to start their fitness training, so they came up with a unique and fun way to engage with people.

They set up a 16 foot tall wooden horse which doubles up as a personal trainer and a cross training gym on wheels and tasks people to take on the Asics Epic challenge, which involves all sorts of exercises and fun games!

Romania definitively put its stamp on the advertising world, thanks to a brilliant campaign by chocolate-bar brand ROM that played on nationalistic pride 2 years ago.

Turns out, it wasn't enough, since plenty of people around the world still mistake the country's capital, Bucharest, for Hungary's capital city, Budapest. The problem has been going on for years, with pop stars like Michael Jackson and Lenny Kravitz saying they were in Budapest when they weren't. And 400 soccer fans flew to Budapest for a Europa League match that was actually happening in Bucharest.

ROM set out to clear up the confusion with a fun, integrated campaign, dubbed Bucharest Not Budapest. There's a dedicated website that lets you download a browser add-on that adds "not Budapest" to every mention of Bucharest on the web. There's also a "news" section and resources that will help Romanians spread the word. Finally, there’s an outdoor campaign promoting the cause.

Bucharest not BudapestROM