Real-time maRketing is just maRketing

needstoknow OCtOBeR 2014

COnventiOnal WisdOm Real Time marketing is about jumping onto the back of ‘buzzworthy’ social moments as quickly as possible, resulting in maximised earned media and brand exposure.

OuR POv

Brands who think about how reactive they can be to conversations are limiting their potential in the new space in which we play. The most effective real-time marketing is built on consumer insights, a long term comms platform and is largely pre-planned.

mOnthly BRieFing

1

Early in 2014, the World Cup in Brazil was being touted as a battleground for real time marketing. Football brands such as Adidas and Nike – and brands with a long term football/sports strategy such as Heineken, Samsung and Paddy Power – had fantastic results. But apart from those brands there were very few ‘real-time’ successes which cut through the football conversation clutter.

The missed opportunities of the ‘real time’ World Cup demonstrate the struggle brands and agencies have with the space. Emphasis is placed on being ‘in the moment’, rather than in an

ongoing conversation: being reactive is considered to be more effective than being pre-planned or strategic. In short, the idea of ‘real-time’ is hurting our ability to be truly ‘real-time’.

The term ‘real-time’ is putting too much focus on speed - causing brands and agencies to lose focus on the message and reaching the right audience. We need to stop talking about real time marketing as a discipline, and instead look at how we can improve our marketing strategy to allow us to be more agile with our messaging.

PRediCtiOn

The brands who work towards a long term ‘always on’ approach (grounded in audience learnings) will come out triumphant in this new world. They will not jump on events and landmark dates because they will have huge social buzz – they will think

‘always on’ and speak when they have to. These brands will think outside of Twitter – they will think about dynamic display and content as well as traditional media. They will learn as they go and modify their approach accordingly.

2

needstoknow monthly briefing OCtOBeR 2014

get the Right message tO the Right audienCe at the Right time and PlaCe

sPeed is nOt a measuRe OF maRketing suCCess

Digital media has allowed us to be more agile than ever. We can change creative on the fly, with no set creative deadline or approval process. We can buy media at the click of a button and have campaigns live in minutes – and that timeframe is shrinking.

We now have a better opportunity than ever to get the right message to the right audience at the right time and place.

However, the term ‘real-time’ focuses on technological advancements of digital media in

regards to speed, and not how that helps tailor the message and thereby reach the right audience.

The classic ‘Oreo #DunkInTheDark’ tweet was not a one off – it was part of an ongoing daily conversation around cultural moments (Oreo Daily Twist). Yes, it was pushed out very quickly around a buzz-worthy sports event. But speed was the facilitator for cultural relevancy – it wasn’t the primary reason why it was so effective. In fact, most of the retweets came well after the blackout moment.

Much of social media work is still done manually – so the quicker you need to post, the more corners you need to cut. Time is the enemy of quality.

The solution is to pre-plan as much as possible. The reality is that there are some things we can’t plan for, so we create ‘digital war rooms’ to cover for those moments. The consumer doesn’t care about your war room – but they do care about its output. And if the output (the message) doesn’t relate to them (the audience) then the speed (timing) of the tweet post doesn’t come into play.

The most buzz-worthy ‘reactive’ post during the Luis Suarez biting incident (above) came out a full sixteen hours after the event. The time gave Specsavers’ creative team the breathing space to craft great content – their authenticity established from their long term platform of humorous tactical advertising – and their media agency set up a cross-media buy, whilst still being in the moment.

Yes, if they published the content within minutes of the event, it might have been more successful – but it would have likely been at the expense of the message quality, and that’s what the consumer recalls.

THE BRAND CONvERSATION CuRvE

HOW BRANDS ACT HOW BRANDS SHOuLD ACT

3

needstoknow monthly briefing OCtOBeR 2014

The successful real time brands during the World Cup had one thing in common – they were football brands or they were brands that had established credibility in the sports/ football space.

Successful ‘non-football’ brands, such as SMG client Heineken, have been establishing their credentials well before the World Cup started, with football sponsorships, sideboard advertising, and many more. They may have appeared to score real time success with ‘reactive’ campaign #sharethesofa – but the process was anything but reactive. It was a conversation built over the long term (and continues now). And that ongoing conversation leads to sales in and after the event – a +9% increase in purchase intent following the event.

THE MOMENT OF OPPORTuNITY MAP

When we use the word ‘real-time’, it implies that to be successful, we must be ‘unplanned’ and act in the moment. When in fact there are conversations going on all the time – and that opportunity is far bigger and can be more easily pre-planned for.

Nasal spray brand Otrivine (SMG client) wanted to raise awareness of its product to those suffering from the effects of cold and flu. We monitored everyday conversations around colds and reactively pushed humorous pre-created content around the topic (tailored using insights on the audience) to consumers on Twitter. The tailored content was pushed at the right moment to the right audience – but appears reactive to the recipient. It is part of an ongoing conversation, looking at consumer signals for triggers rather than jumping on big social buzz moments. Tools like SMG’s Community Igniter can help understand these passion points, what the audience talks about, with whom and how often.

a BRave neW WORld aWaits

We are greatly limiting ourselves by thinking that agile marketing begins and ends with activity on Twitter. We can take the concept of ‘real time triggers’ and apply that to other creative mediums. Take the humble digital banner. We can change display creative far quicker than before. For example, SMG product DOT (used by Heineken in #ShareTheSofa) allows you to remotely alter live copy without the need for re-trafficking. Down the line, this could be automated, using social moments and other

external trigger signals to change messaging. And advancements in digital out of home mean we can use live data and other technology to alter creative in real time. British Airway’s #Lookup billboards are a great example of this – using GPS and flight data to change the creative as their planes flew over.

4

By Liam Brennan DIGITAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR, STARCOM

needstoknow monthly briefing OCtOBeR 2014

One of the most impressive World Cup real time campaigns was the Phenomenal Shot project created by Nike & Google. Ads would change in real time based on signals from matches – if Neymar scored, all Nike Football banners running across all devices would change in an instant to feature the Brazilian striker, with appropriate copy to match.

The Phenomenal Shot project represents the future of agile marketing – creative is altered due to external signals (little human involvement) and is amplified by a platform-agnostic media buy, targeted at the right audience. Importantly – technology is the enabler of putting a relevant message to the consumer. It’s not about using technology to speed up an old process.

We should stop talking about real time marketing as a discipline, and start talk about how we can improve our marketing strategy to allow us to be more agile with our messaging. We should be using new technology to create stronger connections with consumers via relevant messaging, not letting the technology dictate our marketing strategy.

let’s talk aBOut Being mORe agile in OuR maRketing