Over the past years, real-time marketing emerge as a popular and shinny buzzword among marketers and advertisers. It is more than a buzzword, an effective social media marketing tactic actually. Some few brands explored it very well and gained the fruits of higher engagement, fan growth and popularity. Oreo, DiGiorno Pizza, Nintendo gave some of the best examples of it. However, nowadays the trend is backwards due to misunderstanding and senseless overuse of it.

The most successful real-time marketing  actions are the ones unexpected, sincere, smart and on-brand! They have to be an instant response from a brand, but in a relevant & meaningful context. But here is the bad news! Many brands started to jump into it in nearly every event. And unfortunately, most of them are NOT clever, well-executed, on-brand. Because it can not!

Now there are dozens of real-time marketing attempts from various brands, whatever the topic is. Most of them are waste of time, done for being done and executed poorly. We all know that brands want to reflect their spontaneous identity and hint they are “up-to-date”, “in the conversation”, “on the same topic”. However it is not a necessity to jump into each & every topic for each brand. At the end of the day, real-time marketing should be sincere and spontaneous. It is a powerful tool drives great social reach. So use it wisely and true to itself. You don’t have to get something to tell for each social media meme.

Here are my advices:

– People want to hear from their friends about what’s going on that moment, not from every brand. Know to be out.

– Some brands attempt to utilize the topic in favor of a promotional content. Don’t do that.

– Most brands are pushing so hard to create a relevant connection, and it becomes artificial. If you don’t have the authentic connection with the topic, don’t intervene.

– Please don’t make it a competition among marketers/advertisers. It is about your consumers, not about being on marketing blogs with a pointless tweet.

Lastly, let me share with you a very clear-cut thoughts about the subject;

“The Oreo tweet was a great idea for a marketing execution, but it doesn’t mean it’s a great idea for a continuing strategy —  often marketers mistake seizing a moment in one instance and take that as how to execute in further events, but you can’t plan and manufacture that kind of serendipity,” said Matt Britton. So true!  “Brands declaring they are planning real-time marketing initiatives during high-profile events is the modern-day equivalent of saying ‘we’re going to make a viral video’– it’s poor form and 99 percent of the time it falls flat.” said Scott Monty, Ford’s global head of social media. Period.

Next time, enjoy the show, the event or the game going on. You can be out for that moment. No big deal. Really.

By the way, here is a showcase of fail real-time marketing attempts. It is fun, check it out.