Capitalizing on Current Events

I’m about to make a confession: I, Samantha Luthra, am a journalism student who DOES NOT have the New York Times as my home-page. Shocking, I know. An even worse confession, when I do check out the New York Times, I jump straight to the Style section. Oh, the horrors. Trust me, I already know I am an atrocity to the Journalism school, I’ve accepted it. Moving on…

That being said, I would like to make it clear that I still get news on current events, just not in the typical way.

This morning, I was delighted to learn that today was the 30th anniversary of Pacman. Did I learn this from the news? Nah, I don’t have time for T.V. in the morning. Did I see this in the paper? Pshh- the only thing I am reading in the morning is the Starbucks coffee menu. It was, of course, a Tweet that delivered this information. I think it is safe to say that I have first been exposed to every major news story in the past year via Twitter. Maybe, this is because the way young people consume news is changing. Or maybe this is because I am obsessively addicted to my Tweetdeck. Who knows?

I think Google’s use of the iconic Pacman game on its home-page was spot on. Twitter was abuzz with comments like “Welp, not getting any work done today. Thanks Google and Pacman ;)”. In a time when competitors like Bing are making waves, Google took a golden opportunity to capitalize on a current event, in this case Pacman’s 30th anniversary, and drive traffic to their website. Not only did they drive traffic, but they also created conversation on social media sites like Twitter about their brand. Did you take a little time out of your day to play Pacman? I know I did! And thanks to Google and good ole’ Twitter, I was caught up on the fact that it’s Pacman’s 30th anniversary, without having to consume any news. 😉