Gone are the days when the
marketing team could spend
weeks or even months perfecting
the ultimate ad and then release
it to the public. Yes, it's not
completely gone, but is now just
one component of a very different
landscape. Your brand needs to
be where the action is, even if the
action just started. The challenge
then becomes how to react quickly
but with the same high level of
quality and standards expected of
your company.
With more and more brands
jumping on the bandwagon of real-
time marketing (or 'RTM'), we've
seen many different examples
to learn from. Some have won
awards, while others have had
cringe-worthy failures that you
wouldn't wish on even your biggest
competitor (OK, maybe you would,
but you'd at least feel a little sorry
for them). The point is, it's not
enough to just decide that you're
going to market in real-time. You
need to approach the practice just
like you would anything else; with
creativity, strategy and ultimately, a
good reason to be contributing to
the conversation.
Now let's get the bad news out
of way: There's no scientifically
proven way to make your RTM go
viral. While some have had huge
successes, others have barely
reached anyone. And, chances
are, you're not going to magically
get 10 million retweets overnight.
But here's the good news - RTM
is still well worth the effort! Even if
you're not trending worldwide or
making headlines, there's still a lot
you can do to better reach people
in the moment. Looking at those
that have made a big impact and
adopting the key takeaways into
our own marketing strategies will
do wonders for better reaching our
audiences in new ways.
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