Slang dictionary
trendjacking
[ trend-jak-ing ]
ºÚÁÏÍø is trendjacking?
Trendjacking is when brands, companies, or influencers insert themselves into viral or trending topics in an attempt to gain visibility, engagement, news coverage, and cultural relevance. It might involve capitalizing on an awards show gaffe, meme, political moment, viral tweet, or sports win. Done well, trendjacking can catapult a clever campaign or quip into the digital spotlight and earn a brand attention and sales. Done poorly, it can result in a swift and merciless dragging from the very audience it was meant to woo.
Journalists and PR professionals can also engage in trendjacking by working up story ideas and headlines targeted to hot topics that will earn a higher-than-usual click rate. This is an evolution of newsjacking.
Trendjacking is a staple of modern social media marketing. But social strategists, beware: trendjacking is a high-risk, high-reward game. If your audience thinks you’re off-brand, insensitive, or just plain opportunistic, they’ll let you know, and loudly.
Where does trendjacking come from?
The term trendjacking is a double portmanteau, blending trend and hijacking. Hijack, a portmanteau of highway and jacking, dates to the early 20th-century American criminal underworld, originally used to describe the armed robbery of goods in transit. (Jack in this sense is of uncertain origin but may allude to a tool used in theft, and it has long been used colloquially in association with stealing; it’s also found in related words like carjack.)
Trend, which was originally applied to the movement of waters along rivers and coasts, comes from Old English trendan, meaning “to turn or roll.” So when you trendjack, you’re intercepting a cultural vehicle already in motion and redirecting it toward your own objectives.
While the concept of jumping on the zeitgeist has been around for decades, the term trendjacking emerged in marketing and PR circles in the early 2010s alongside the rise of real-time social media engagement. It gained particular traction during the heyday of newsjacking, a related term popularized by marketing strategist David Meerman Scott that refers to inserting your brand into a breaking news story. Trendjacking is broader, encompassing viral dances, memes, and niche internet drama.
By 2016, trendjacking was firmly embedded in digital strategy guides, and social teams were scheduling daily “trend sweeps” to find opportunities for brand posts.
Examples of trendjacking
Who uses trendjacking?
Trendjacking is common parlance among social media managers, PR strategists, brand consultants, digital content teams, and journalists. You’ll find it in job descriptions for social media managers, in agency decks, and on LinkedIn posts dissecting the latest “how did this brand win the internet today?” moment.
Marketers distinguish between relevant and opportunistic trendjacking. The former aligns with brand values or audience interests. The latter often backfires, especially if it piggybacks on tragedy or scandal.Â
If a brand posts a hot take fourteen minutes after a celebrity outfit reveal, drops a meme template before it finishes going viral, or makes a Father’s Day joke the moment Succession airs its finale, chances are someone in its comms or marketing department has an eye for trendjacking.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of trendjacking like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of trendjacking that will help our users expand their word mastery.