Brandjacking – Definition and strategy for traffic increase

The word brand tracking as well as news tracking refers to the targeted poaching of followers, interested parties and fans from other topics. This is not news that will come up in the future but other competitors, manufacturers or even a completely different industry. Brand Jacking is about using a different brand term for yourself. For example by placing picture material under hashtags of another company. Who then wants to see the shoe of one exclusive brand, sees in every fourth photo the shoe of the other exclusive brand. The more frequently he or she is confronted with the brand, the higher the probability that he or she will be interested in the second brand.

Brandjacking as strategy

This simple example or best practice from the social media world shows how easy it is to place your own brand within the other target group.

Let’s take a look at another Best Practice example! How easy it is to act with other brands is not only shown by the strategy of brand jacking. In the modern social media methodology you can also directly address the fans of other brands. In politics, big decisions are made every day, sometimes even small ones, with PR and marketing agencies. In the US election campaign between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, over 70% of tweets came from the same IP address. These tweets were switched, among other things, to the hashtags of political opponents. So every time a real user sends a tweet with the Democratic Party’s hashtag, the Social Media Bot of the US Republican Party makes a comment below it. Each organic voice was answered as it instantly with an automated voice. This ensures that the perception is clearly shifted in favour of a certain party.

What is Brand Jacking?

Shortly explained: Brand Jacking

• Brand jacking means the targeted poaching of followers of a specific brand or person
• A brand term is used for itself
• Example: A fashion brand uses the hash tag of an exclusive high fashion brand – if users go to the hash tag and see the other brand amidst the photos of the exclusive brand, it is likely that they will also get interested
• Brand Jacking focuses on shifting the perception of the user