Forget Real-Time and Focus on Right-Time
Real-time marketing… Every marketer wants to do what Oreo, Audi and others did during the Super Bowl and capitalize on a cultural conversation. With a moment’s notice those brands developed a POV, creative and launch plan with brand content and capitalized on the Super Bowl blackout. They did so successfully to the point that they became topics of conversation themselves. Any marketer would like to have their brand associated with that kind of activation.
True real-time marketing is a 24/7 commitment, but the number of brands with the process, people, tools, and, most importantly, need is small. The reality is that most brands cannot justify the investment to have a team ready to pounce on an opportunity at any given moment. Brands like Gatorade have been able to justify the investment of having a team and tools dedicated to all-the-time engagement. In an ideal world, every brand would be able to follow suit, but with tightened budgets and a need to show results, that’s not always possible.
Predictive Marketing Offers a Sustainable Solution
The opportunity is not being available 24/7 for most marketers. Most brands will see benefits if they’re available at near real-time, being available as much as possible and always being responsive to the needs of customers. It might not mean instant responsiveness, but it satisfies the needs of customers while dealing with the reality of doing business. This approach is more sustainable for most brands.
Still, there are times where a brand should be ready at a moment’s notice to jump on an opportunity. That’s what Oreo did during the Super Bowl. They had key decision-makers in a room along with a team of advertising professionals ready to pounce on an opportunity, and that’s exactly what they did. But that’s not necessarily real-time marketing. They organized at the right time and anticipated that they would be doing something (actually several things) during the Super Bowl.
Real-time, all-the time is nearly impossible for most brands, but what is possible is predictive marketing—choosing the right time to be real-time. This is a brand’s ability to understand the brand, its consumer and the culture to best identify opportunities to stand out and add a POV to cultural conversation.
Predicting when to take action and to be ‘always-on’ allows brands to take a more sustainable and more results-driven approach to real-time marketing. This may mean some opportunities will be missed, but it will also mean less effort wasted by having all hands on deck all the time.
Does real-time marketing seem too lofty? Whether it’s tools, processes or people holding you back, predicting the right time to have all these pieces in place versus all the time allows a brand to be real-time at the right time, when there’s the greatest opportunity to be relevant.