Getting Real About Real-Time Marketing #2: Why Real-Time Now?
The following is part of a series of blog posts related to 2013’s hottest point of social discussion—real-time marketing. This is the second post in the series. The first post is here.
This year’s Super Bowl showed us how brands like Oreo, Tide, Audi and others were able to look at a situation, develop content and creative, gain approval and share content in almost an instant. This captured the imagination of marketers and the industry as it marveled at how quickly brands were able to move from situation to message launch.
As impressive as those executions were, they didn’t come out of nowhere. They’ve been years in the making and were really symptoms of larger marketing trends.
Fleeting Attention
Technology has increased the velocity of consumer attention and conversations. Everything’s moving faster, and the growing proliferation of mobile devices means every moment is fleeting. Marketers have been forced to play catch-up and appear more responsive. The brands that do this successfully stand out because so few are set-up to move quickly effectively.
Opportunity Diminishes with Time
The increase in speed means that the longer a brand waits to pounce on an opportunity, the less effective it may be. It’s not important to be first, but it is important to be early. Marketers that wait too long to move on an opportunity are irrelevant because the relationship between opportunity and timing is inversely related.
Targeting Conversations
The prevalence of social media has made monitoring conversations a common practice among marketers, and the interesting thing about those conversations is that a brand’s consumers aren’t always the ones having them. With real-time marketing, marketers aren’t going after target audiences. They’re tracking conversations and cultural shifts relevant to their businesses. By targeting conversations to act on them, brands are reaching the people already having those conversations whether they’re a target or not.
Real-Time Marketing Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere
As new and fresh as real-time marketing feels, its arrival wasn’t sudden. It was the result of other trends. The marketers that respond stand out. The marketers that don’t may be missing an opportunity.