Allie Novak, Senior Media Strategist at SourceCode Communications

I surely don’t have to convince you that the time we’re currently living through is unlike any other we’ve seen previously. And in our industry, it’s more important than ever to not only tell relevant stories – but to do so in a landscape that is quickly changing and that requires extra attention to sensitivities around a pandemic, racial injustices, and a Presidential election – now that takes some skill.

Luckily, we pride ourselves on being storytellers. Personally, I’m scrolling through Twitter almost incessantly, which could just be the former news producer in me. Last election, I was on the ground covering the news as a segment producer, so you can imagine how obsessed I am with being in the know without news updates coming in from sources multiple times a day before they hit the wire, and thinking about how these moments can shape our media outreach around our clients.

Like me, all of my coworkers at SourceCode have unique backgrounds that bring differentiated viewpoints to the table, and as an agency, we can all collectively agree that there is power in being informed. That way, we can meaningfully tell the great stories our clients have to share – and sometimes that means not engaging in a cycle at all if there isn’t something significant to add to narrative. 

We are proud to showcase a diverse portfolio of clients here at SourceCode, with our B2C and B2B portfolios growing with amazing clients. We believe the key to successful storytelling is staying clued into the news, and seizing the moment if it seems appropriate. And also realizing that sometimes, a story is still worth telling even if it’s not piggybacking on the stories of the day, it just may take longer to place. In the first part of this series, here is some success we have had within our Insights and Engagement practice: 

Newsjacking

We just started working with Dataswift, a company that enables ethical, compliant, and privacy-preserving data usage. Their CEO, Irene Ng, is a leading data privacy expert being both a CEO and academic, so given recent news around antitrust hearings with the first one that happened in July and the second happening October 28, we knew there was an opportunity for Irene to get involved in the data privacy and big tech conversation. We went directly to reporters who had either covered the first hearing or who had covered big tech recently, positioning Irene as an additional source and a subject matter expert. 

Through this, we secured an interview with MarketWatch where Irene discussed her thoughts on Big Tech ahead of the hearing, specifically on Google and the recent 449 page report presented by the House Judiciary Committee. Newsjacking can go a long way in building solid relationships and also credibility for your executives on hot, timely topics.

To learn more about SourceCode Communications, please drop us a line at hello@sourcecodecomms.com.