David Meerman Scott’s “Newsjacking:” How Indie Filmmakers Can Use It To Their Advantage…

So what’s newsjacking, you ask? Well, depends very much on which industry we’re discussing. But as concerns the independent filmmaking game, newsjacking outlines a process whereby filmmakers can insinuate word of their projects or stories into prominent breaking news items, whereby they capitalize upon the rampant buzz swirling around a particular hot-button issue, topic, or cause, luring some of that spiked attention and Google Juice to spillover onto their film. This is my loose definition, paraphrased as it is, after my listen of Mitch Joel’s interview of David Meerman Scott, the man who coined the term.

Newsjacking is a highly delicate game because filmmakers can (and often do, like in any industry — so be prepared for brickbats!!!) get accused of carpetbagging the news with pap-like drivel which dishonors the dead, perhaps even disparaging the extent of whatever tragedy (egs. Asian earthquakes or tsunamis, the death of prominent political figures) has befallen. If this defines your situation, you’ve got quite a  bit of a brand “repair jobbing” to do. Alas, that’s the subject of another blogpost, interesting in and of itself. Maybe I’ll return to this if someone can supply a specific case-study example of a film which has sunk itself into this sort of hot agua.

Today let’s talk about several of the techniques you can implement to insinuate yourself into prominent news stories as they’re occurring. More importantly, this is also how you can engage audiences more effectively, promoting your independent film or documentary in the process.

If you’re looking to newsjack, what’s the first thing you need to do?

Be online often: Filmmakers need to keep hawkeye-like tabs on the stuff taking place at platforms like Twitter, their ears pinned close to the ground. If you’re a tweeting ninja, this won’t be too challenging as both good and bad news travels quickly over Twitter. Once something breaks, be fast on the draw, though, and find your angle, stat.

Finding that angle: Analyze the issue thoroughly, then craft a response to what’s taking place. Always keep in the back of your mind how the subject of your film or documentary can somehow solve, demystify, or better explain whatever’s transpiring in the news, better than the talking heads can. Again, this is tremendously easier for docs than for feature-length narratives, especially if the latter don’t find their inspiration or impetus within a specific issue’s context,  political or otherwise. Once you’ve found the angle…

…Find your ideal delivery vector: Which is the best platform for getting the newsjacked story out? Social media, most likely, but then how do you unspool it? If you were thinking a data dump or a “like the banshee” crossposting campaign across multiple channels was the most appropriate approach, guess again, boss. Not only will you have to be clever about how you insinuate news blasts of your film into the newsjacked story under the microscope, you also must consider innovative means of getting the word out as you unfurl. If you maintain a robust subscriber base on YouTube, for instance, you might want to record a video comment in response to one of the slicker news pieces assembled by the larger news organizations like Al Jazeera, the Telegraph, or the BBC. Then, drop it in response to these more news-y video(s) and proceed to warm yourself (with increased clicks/views/calls-to-action, whichever they may be for you) by the embers the main story is giving off.

Monitoring the efforts of your jack: If it’s a video and your views suddenly spike, you’ve just proven two things: 1) that the story you’re following has mighty legs, galvanizing enough, as it were, to an audience and 2) that your video is enticing enough – from the thumbnail you leave, to the title you suggest, to the presentation style you espouse, or – if it’s an edited piece – to the technique you’ve employed in lacing together the various images – for your potential audience. If it’s a blog post strictly, and your reads suddenly rise, you’ll know people are continuing to seek out sources of information about the main story told in different ways from the mainstream pabulum. Good on you for taking an angle.

What are the best kinds of newsjacks?

Here’s how this film can help you gain greater insights about this topic: If filmmakers structure their promotion around breaking news stories, such that they addresses concerns brought up in these pieces, it increases the integrity of the particular newsjack, something which might otherwise not be the case. It causes their newsjack to transcend mere shameless self-promo, rising above the pack. Perhaps some readers/viewers might discern what you, the filmmaker, are attempting to really do but at least you’re not leaving things open-ended by strictly calling attention out to yourself. You’re creating a tangible benefit for a reader or a viewer, and there are those who will appreciate that as well.

Hey did you realize a film/documentary was soon coming out about exactly (or almost exactly) the same issue? Here’s a good chance to demonstrate your sincerity and increase your fascination/wow factor by showing off how savvy you are using Google Alerts, or any other “river of news” aggregator (egs. Radian6 or HubSpot, for instance). By keeping your eyes peeled on the news stream flitting through your box on an hour-by-hour basis, you show your potential audience that you’re closely tethered to the issues and themes being dealt with in your film and, again, here’s our particular take on this issue. As a bonus for “liking” a Facebook Fan Page or subscribing to a channel or following a film’s Twitter feed, you might want to gift people some kind of Holiday discount or some other premium, thanking them for their attention or response to your call to action.

We’ve been planning this film, but ever since this news came out, we’d like to make a few changes…here’s how we’re attempting to do it: A breaking news item might change the overall creative point of view a given film or documentary might choose, so you can always put the feelers out to your community to see if they might suggest any changes in light of the changes perspectives.

I’m almost positive I haven’t covered all of the possible newsjacked varieties, so if you’ve got any suggestions kindly let us know in the comments.

Adam Daniel Mezei, PMD | Producer of Marketing and Distribution
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