The phrase sport, Wordle, has turn out to be a worldwide phenomenon. By now, we’re all conversant in these 30 ominous squares, stuffed with grey, inexperienced, or yellow, that decide your temper for the relaxation of the day. The virality of this easy sport has spanned throughout nations, generations, and platforms, gaining consideration on social media and late-night television. And, unsurprisingly, as a result of of its recognition, Wordle has additionally captured the consideration of entrepreneurs.
Marketers, from a range of manufacturers (sure, together with Iterable—hello), have seen the traction Wordle has gained and determined to make use of it to their benefit. This is named trendjacking. According to Trendjackers.com, “[Trendjacking is] a quick and relatively simple method of gaining free exposure by ‘jacking’ a trend or ‘riding the wave’ of a hashtag [that] became a commonplace tactic for social media marketers.” Brands are utilizing Wordle in their advertising and marketing strategies to narrate and join with audiences in a brand new approach.
From left to proper: 1) Paper Source despatched this GIF through SMS advertising and marketing to rapidly get clients’ consideration. 2) Lego turned Wordle squares into Lego bricks to tie their model to the pattern. Source: Twitter. 3) Hilton cleverly turned one of their accommodations into a large Wordle sport. Source: Twitter.
From these examples, we have now proof that manufacturers are into trendjacking however, as we noticed all of these examples pop up, we began questioning if it actually works. Are there advantages to trendjacking? How can manufacturers successfully hop on tendencies? Well, let’s get into it by beginning at the starting.
How Trendjacking Started
To take into consideration how trendjacking began, we have now to consider how tendencies began. Enter: the hashtag. In 2007 hashtags have been initially launched through Twitter as a method to categorize content material. While hashtags have been initially met with some resistance, “In 2009, Twitter finally embraced them and introduced a search tool, so that users could see who else was using a particular hashtag. The following year Twitter introduced ‘Trending Topics,’ which displays the most popular hashtags at a given time.”
Trending matters bought the ball rolling for trendjacking. Once manufacturers might see what everybody was speaking about, it turned straightforward to become involved in the dialog. When there’s a second that enters the zeitgeist, manufacturers goal to natively match into the narrative. Remember the energy outage throughout a sure sporting occasion? Remember the iconic tweet from Oreo? Trendjacking at its most interesting.
Oreo noticed the conversations that have been taking place on Twitter and wished to be an element of them. Source: Twitter.
While Oreo’s tweet was a success, this isn’t at all times the case for trendjacking manufacturers. Becoming concerned in the dialog in the flawed approach can convey consideration to your model for all the flawed causes.
A Double-Edged Sword
Trendjacking can do as a lot hurt nearly as good in a brief quantity of time. Trendjacking is nearly a assure that no matter content material your model throws into the combine will likely be seen by at least a handful of folks. So, whereas the execution needs to be fast—to make sure the pattern continues to be a pattern when the content material goes dwell— it additionally needs to be properly thought out. If all interpretations of your message should not thought-about, your content material could go viral for all the wrong reasons.
Today, clients are smarter than ever and might simply sniff out inauthentic advertising and marketing. If your model is hopping on a pattern, only for the sake of hopping on a pattern, with none connection to your model in anyway, it’s going to go over like a lead balloon.
In 2018, Iuiga, a homegoods model, tried to enter the dialog round the passing of Singapore’s polar bear, Inuka.
Trying to capitalize on a tragedy is named “black hat trendjacking” and Iuiga’s clients weren’t happy. Source: Equinet Academy.
Trends are short-lived. They’re gone as rapidly as they seem and also you by no means need your model’s poor try at trendjacking to last more than the pattern itself. Trendjacking ensures eyeballs in your model, however leaping on a pattern has to have a objective—particularly at the moment. There must be model relevance and thought behind each message your model places out. But, when it really works, it actually works.
Is Trendjacking Worth it?
Based on what we’ve mentioned thus far, trendjacking looks as if rather a lot of work and type of dangerous. Bringing consideration to your model is certainly enjoying with hearth however the payoff, when finished appropriately, is value it. Look at the Oreo tweet, for instance. That tweet centered on a soccer sport that occurred 9 years in the past however continues to be used in advertising and marketing articles (~getting meta~) at the moment.
Now, you’re in all probability considering, “it’s great people are still talking about it, but what does that mean for the brand?” Plain and easy: it’s an consciousness play. This is a method to get your model title into the widespread conversations which are taking place at the second.
No one was serious about Oreo when the lights went out however, in response to Valens Research, “Just a day after it was posted on Twitter, the tweet accumulated around 15,000 retweets, while the Facebook post recorded approximately 20,000 likes. The ‘Dunk in The Dark’ image also garnered USD 525 million earned media impressions.” If folks didn’t know Oreo earlier than, they realize it now.
Do More Than Join a Conversation
Like we stated earlier than, your model can’t be half of a pattern simply to get consideration. No one likes a try-hard. It has to make sense. And, in a approach, placing the thought and wit behind trendjacking is what makes it work.
Brands want to know the pattern totally and perceive the mixture of the viewers of the pattern and their very own target market. Who is speaking about this topic? Do you, as a model, need to join with this group of folks? Is this a pattern your model can relate to? Trendjacking is about extra than simply popping right into a dialog and hoping your message turns into viral—it’s about being genuine, intelligent, and related.
To study extra about how your model can join together with your viewers through a number of advertising and marketing channels, schedule an Iterable demo at the moment.