Hijacking the news - Meningitis Now. South West Regional Group, 5 June 2015

Hijacking the news

Richard Hudson

Director of Marketing and Digital

Mark Hunt

Head of Communications

saving lives,

rebuilding futures

A little background

• Meningitis can affect anyone

• Many different strains

• No vaccine for all types

• It can result in limb loss,

hearing loss, brain injury and

death

Free for iPhone and Android

www.MeningitisApp.co.uk

Our vision

A future where no one in the UK loses

their life to meningitis and everyone

affected gets the support they need to

rebuild their lives

You are a dandy

highwayman!

What is a hijack?

Illegally seize (an aircraft, ship, or vehicle)

while in transit and force it to go to a

different destination or use it for one's

own purposes.

Stick ‘em up

A large cargo of gold is coming up from the

coast.

What do you need to do to hijack the stage

coach?

Hijacks are (mainly) planned

• Knowledge

• Experience

• Speed

• Responsive

• Flexibility

• Timing

• Clear goal

Media hijacks are planned & managed

• Knowledge

• Experience

• Speed

• Responsive

• Flexibility

• Timing

• Clear goal

• Relevance

• Credibility

• Consistency

• Content

Types of

news story

Ones you know are happening

“There are known knowns.

These are things we know that we know.

There are known unknowns. That is to say,

there are things that we know we don't know.

But there are also unknown unknowns.

There are things we don't know we don't know.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Read more at

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/donaldrums148142.html#eSSMkrrXfBEo

X5Pv.99

Vaccine approved

It will be introduced

We don’t know when the

vaccine will be introduced

Increase in UK Men W cases

Ones that surprise you

Our hijacks

Beat it Now!

Integrated campaign to force through the lifesaving

Meningitis B vaccine:

Hijack MPs (and their priorities)

Hijack social media

Hijack traditional media headlines

Hijack sofas

Beat it Now!

Operational Strategy

Exploit milestone events and or create

reasons to engage

Leverage the human tragedy and cost

of inactivity

Be an indispensable friend to key

journalists/commentators

Be available and prepared

Plan, plan, plan

Hijack MPs

Public affairs

Public affairs: PM Questions

Hijack social media feeds

• License Twitter

announcement

• Reached 1 million in 24

hours

• 2.6 million people

reached in 3 days

• Brand trending on

Twitter in the UK

Create news > 1,000 cases

Create news > 2 years since license

Hijack relevant stories

The heist

Be the go to contact

Be the first to break the story online

Own the news on social media

Continue the engagement

Celebrate success

Results

• Over 3,000 total mentions in March

• Owned broadcast news headlines for two consecutive

weekends across the BBC, ITV and SKY

• Owned 1st charity comment in shared national press

• In 24 hours over 3,000 comments on our Facebook

page and 13,000 shares

• Press coverage spike continued in April and May

• Reinforced Meningitis Now as a credible, reliable and

authoritative source of information

• Well placed for the next news hijack opportunity –

Summer 2015

10 point checklist

1. Think ahead - Consider all options/outcomes (even the

ridiculous ones!)

2. Prep statements, blogs & posts for all media and then be

prepared to change them!

3. Create integrated share graphics for social channels and

website

4. Establish list of relevant case studies, seek

permissions/approval and thoroughly brief

5. Prepare Q&A’s brief relevant teams and tell them how it

will run

6. Establish ‘mission control’ - ensure all spokespeople are

contactable and ready at a moments notice

7. Test and be sure of technical capabilities

8. Ensure out of hours cover to arrange interviews and

handle social media enquiries

9. Use relationships with journalists to seed expectations/

what ifs, but don’t set false dawns…

10.Don’t rely on your specialist contacts to be there – get

to know the guys who run the news desk, especially out

of hours and make them your new best mate! But be

prepared to know the answers and act quickly

10 point checklist continued

Visit the CharityComms website to

view slides from past events, see what

events we have coming up and to

check out what else we do.

www.charitycomms.org.uk

South West Regional Group

5 June 2015

Bristol

#ccsouthwest

South West Regional Group

Hijacking the news