By Marketing
Real-Time Marketing (RTM) is about reacting quickly to current events and using them into your own marketing strategy. A great example of RTM is Oreo’s “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet as a response to the Super Bowl power outage that generated more than 15.000 retweets.
According to a study made by eMarketer, consumers feel more positively towards brands that participate in real-time marketing. In fact, consumers are 22% more likely to consider your brand as a result of real-time marketing.
This poses the question: How can my brand engage in real-time marketing with limited time and resources?
1. Real time - You have to unlearn the idea that marketing is always about a long-term campaign. There’s nothing wrong with long-term planning, but what happens when everybody focus ONLY on that? They forget about right now. That’s why you have to come up with something new to outrun the competition.
One of the greatest real-time marketing moments this year was Pharrell Williams’ tweet for Arby’s after winning the auction on eBay for his hat. Pharrell thanked Arby’s for spending $44,100 (that will go to charity) right before Oscars. Although they spent a large amount of money for a hat, Arby's received extra recognition from more than 17000 Twitter users, retweeting and favoriting the message.
2. Be human - The best social content doesn’t need to be polished. Audiences best respond to raw and authentic content. Use social networks to your advantage. If you have something new to show or share with your fans, don’t wait long. You can easily snap a photo and upload it to Instagram or Facebook. Also, Vine is another great network that allows you to capture video experiences and share them with your fans. With social media you got an instant reaction to something you do. People are responsive and will tell if they like or dislike something you share.
One of the most relevant examples is Gap’s attempt to change its logo, creating "a more contemporary, modern expression" of the brand. Before launching the new logo on the market, Gap used Facebook to ask fans’ opinions about the new logo. Their reactions were not at all positive, drawing a lot of criticism on the new design. The result: in only 5 days, Gap reverts to the original logo due to the social media backlash.
3. Be a part of the story – In real time you can become a part of the story. If there is an event, information or breaking news and you see it or hear it and relate with it, act now if you can take advantage. You can write a blog, upload a video, tweet about it, and do it “right now”, not “later”. The moment you act is really important, because the opportunity of instant engagement will vanish with time. Also, if you are in a situation that is potentially negative, do something at that moment.
A great example is Nasa’s real-life gravity tweets at the Oscars. Every time “Gravity” won an Oscar, NASA, the biggest cheerleader of the movie, took the advantage and tweeted in real-time cool images and facts relating to gravity using the hashtags #RealGravity, #Oscars and #Gravity. The tweets generated a huge amount of engagement from users. The tweet presented below had over 13000 retweets and over 7000 favorites.
As seen in the examples presented above, with real-time marketing you generate attention instantly. It’s important to engage the marketplace when the marketplace is ready, not when you happen to be ready. And, as we mentioned in numerous times in previous articles, speak to your buyers in their language, not yours. People care about themselves, not about your products or services. Therefore, find the middle path to make those two meet.
