Working With.. Issues-Jumping for Tech Companies

In the latest from our Working With series, Jocelyn Hunter, CEO and Founder of BENCH PR (our member agency for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore), shares top tips for successfully delivering ‘issues-jumping’ for tech companies.

Issues-jumping is one of those concepts that goes by different names around the world. You might also hear it referred to as ‘rapid response’ or ‘news-jacking.’

Whatever the name, it’s all about monitoring issues in the news to identify opportunities for our clients to comment on and contribute to the ongoing conversation and debate. It involves tracking what the media is writing about and then figuring out how to insert our clients into that discussion in an interesting way.

For many tech companies, issues-jumping is a great way to secure media coverage—especially national media coverage.

If you’re a smaller tech company or even a company new to a region without much presence, this can be a brilliant tactic for generating company awareness.

Tip 1: Track Media Issues and Stories

We need to keep an eye on events happening each week. For example, let’s say there’s a cybersecurity attack on Melbourne Airport. We could put together a comment on behalf of one of our security clients and submit this to the journalists likely to cover the story.

We might also monitor bigger issues that could evolve over time. For instance, a couple of months ago, the Australian Government announced it would ban social media use for people under 16. If we have clients related to that topic, we can keep engaging with the issue as it evolves.

It can also work with major events. For example, there’s a federal election tomorrow in Australia. It’s almost guaranteed there will be announcements on topics like cybersecurity or technology investments. That’s when we can work with a client, prepare a response, get their approval, and send it out to journalists likely to cover the topic.

Tip 2: Keep Checking the News Every Day

To be successful with an issues-jumping campaign, we make sure to follow what the media is covering to see if there’s something we can get our clients involved with. We need to check the news daily.

We specialise in tech, which makes tracking the news easier.

There are also a handful of journalists whose work we read every day anyway, which helps keep us in the loop.

It’s always helpful if clients are monitoring the news too!

Tip 3: Prepare in Advance When You Can

When we know certain events are coming up, like the federal election I mentioned earlier, we can prepare in advance. If it’s part of a larger campaign, like the government banning social media, we might already have comments approved and ready to go.

For some clients, we also have a more formalised system, like a “comment bank” with approved, rapid-response comments. We can go into that tracker, pull a comment that was used previously, and know it’s been approved for us to use. 

Sometimes the comments are approved in other countries but are still available for us to use. If a comment is signed off in France and used there, there’s no reason we can’t use it here.

Tip 4: You’ll Need an Interesting View

Issues-jumping works best when clients have an interesting perspective. That’s the hard part—coming up with something new. Journalists generally aren’t interested in anything that isn’t fresh. You need to offer something different and interesting.

If you see that the media is already following a topic and you’re just echoing everyone else’s thoughts, what’s the point? You’re not adding anything new or offering anything different.

A journalist needs to provide a balanced viewpoint, so they don’t need a stack of tech company CEOs just saying, “We agree.” That’s not a balanced argument.

Tip 5: You’ve Got to Be Fast!

National and trade media are quick to publish a story after it first breaks. If the story breaks and we haven’t given the relevant journalists a comment within the first couple of hours, we’re out of luck.

Working with international tech companies can present a challenge. If our day-to-day contact is asleep when the story breaks, it makes getting something approved more difficult.

That’s why having a local spokesperson is so beneficial, along with a pre-approved comment bank.

I think smaller companies also have the advantage here because the big players can’t respond that quickly—they don’t have the agility. We’ve had clients featured in great stories because they were super-fast and had something interesting to offer. Being nimble sets them apart, compared to getting lost in the lengthy approval process at big companies.

Tip 6: Don’t Be Afraid to Challenge a Published Story

Sometimes it’s possible to impact an already published story. We’ve done this before. For example, a journalist might write a story, but because of the quality of the comment provided, they include it in an update the next day.

If you’ve got something interesting or a new angle that takes the issue in another direction, why not submit it to the journalist?

Also, if the journalist doesn’t include the comment in that article, it doesn’t mean they won’t write another one on the same topic soon. Sometimes, you’ll send them something and they might circle back months later and say, “I’m writing about this now.”

Tip 7: Be Flexible and Broad in What You Want to Talk About

If a spokesperson only wants to focus on one very specific issue in a narrow area, we’re not going to get much traction with that. If clients pigeonhole us into only talking about certain things or approving certain quotes—it makes our job much harder. 

We need to have some flexibility and allow the conversation to spread out a bit.  If we’ve already got approval for similar content, we should have some flexibility to use it and apply it to the ongoing debate or conversation.

Tip 8: You’ll Be More Successful If You Are Independent

On certain issues, jumping in as an expert is key. However, vendors aren’t always the first choice for a journalist because their perspective is often limited to their own business.

Overall, journalists love speaking to consultants, analysts, university professors, and other independent experts. 

Tip 9: Be Reliable!

Being reliable is huge. It’s so important. As a journalist, if you must write something in half an hour, you’re going to call the people you know will take your call and provide a solid comment every time.

When journalists must write quickly, they rely on people they know, which comes down to the relationships your agency has built. If you’re not on their radar, they won’t call you.

The spokesperson also needs to be willing to drop everything for interviews after submitting a comment. It’s just so important.

Being in the same time zone helps. If the spokesperson is in Australia, and the incident happened in Australia, and they have knowledge of the situation, that’s much more helpful than having someone in the U.S. commenting on a market they don’t know much about and being delayed by the time zone.

Successful issues-jumping campaigns hinge on the ability to act swiftly, monitor media trends consistently, and provide fresh, relevant insights that contribute meaningfully to ongoing conversations. 

You can learn more about BENCH in our 3-minute Coffee With interview. Alternatively, if you need help working with issues-jumping for tech companies, please do get in touch and signup to our newsletter.