From Newsjacking to Crisis Comms in a Heartbeat

News spread on Feb 6 that Microsoft was to hold an event the following day to announce the rumoured integration of ChatGPT with said tech giant’s search engine Bing. This timing, however, is ever more curious when we take into consideration that Google had announced their own AI project, Bard, only moments before the press were invited to Microsoft’s news event where none other than Satya Nadella would “share some progress on a few exciting projects.”

These news events rarely ever coincide on their own. Last autumn marked the first ever, let’s say, commercially available AI product, ChatGPT. Deemed “the Google killer” (wonder how that phrase was coined), ChatGPT was to do something extraordinary - give Google’s search engine a run for its money.?

With this background into account, the fight for AI-powered searches became a battlefield between tech giants in every corner of their business: from strategy and product to marketing and communications.?

The latter caused quite the stir when Google had an oopsie during their live demo, while Microsoft managed a successful newsjacking campaign around Bing. Interestingly enough, Bing saw a 10x increase in downloads right after the campaign (well, theirs and Google’s). Every news article about Google’s Bard included a paragraph about Bing’s campaign.?

Going back to press coincidences, as the old PR adage goes, good things rarely ever happen on their own during a campaign.

What I mean by this, is that both companies were trying to newsjack each other’s press events. Google needed some media air around their AI product given that ChatGPT had already gained momentum, while, on the other hand, Microsoft had to down out even further Google’s attempt at upping their AI game from a purely public communications point of view.?

Given that Google hadn’t properly tested their product before the live demo (!), it is fair to assume that the company had caught wind of Microsoft’s intended communication around the now artificially intelligent Bing. In PR, we call this newsjacking - steal your competitor’s thunder.?

First came ChatGPT, now the new Bing. Google could live with competing AI, but it could not lose points when it came to its most recognisable product - the search engine.

One press campaign, however, no matter how successful on its own merit, won’t make AI-powered Bing the Google killer just yet. Like it or not, Google is one of the most, if not the most, well-infrastructured companies in history. It can weather this blow with ease.

For me as a PR guy, the lesson learned from this exercise is that professional communicators are not the only ones responsible for the public image of your campaign.?

When senior managers or product owners, though it’s mostly C-level managers, *want* to newsjack a campaign or launch that product by Date X, they need to be better prepared. This preparation includes work with teams beyond communications and product.?

A good PR campaign can surely help your product. But it won’t fix it for you.