As we entered 2014 many people have predicted real time marketing to play a big role this year. Already we've seen a number of high profile events that have resulted in a number of examples of real time marketing. This highlights what an important component RT marketing has become to top brands, as clearly they look incorporate it into their marketing strategies.

Bruce Daisley, Managing Director at Twitter, recently came out and declared that, the now infamous, Oreo 'Dunk in the Dark' tweet was 'a red herring' and something of a 'set back'. 

How so? Well, Daisley states that: "The problem with the tweet by Oreos is that effectively it largely tells marketers that to succeed in short term marketing you've got to be the fastest, the wittiest person who puts out the best line quickest." As popular as this tweet was, it almost defeats the whole purpose of marketing and encouraging the idea of just employing a few comedians to knock out one liners during popular events.

Speaking at SES London, Bruce added: "That's why it was interesting that this year Oreos tweeted out that they were not going to be live tweeting during the Super Bowl. That was almost a point of emphasis to say that "actually we don't want to compete and be compared to what we did last year. We're going to look and change that."  

Daisley went on to mention +Arby's example, in which they referenced Pharrell William's trending Grammy's hat in comparison to their own logo. It went on to receive over 80,000 retweets including one from Pharrell himself!


This is what Daisley described as 'unplanned' real time marketing, he broke down RT marketing into three moments; everyday moments (most neglected), live moments, and unpredictable moments. Although part of a live event, Arby's tweet was an unpredictable moment as there is no way they could of prepared for the fact that Pharrell was going to wear a hat that resembled their logo. Daisley suggests "you can build your capabilities and your real-time mindset to try to take advantage" of these sort of situations.

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'Live moments' are popular events, these are likely to create engagement and online conversations. This allows for companies to prepare for a number of potential scenarios. Transfer deadline day was mentioned as an example; Innocent (Advertising Gods!) focused on the Gareth Bale transfer to Real Madrid, this had been building all summer and resulted in a world record transfer fee which Innocent capitalized on. Simple but very effective.

The World Cup will be a huge event that most brands will look to take advantage off, I imagine many brands will have marketing plans relating to their own nation and star players. English brands should look at the idea of going out on a penalty shootout, it's very likely! The key to a successful real time marketing campaign is being innovative and remaining relevant to the brand or product.

In regards to 'everyday moments', Daisley believes brands are neglecting the fact that two thirds of users use Twitter's search everyday. Brands can benefit from social insights of their target market to find out what they are doing and when they do it. PG Tips often focuses on Monday's and how the general public usually despise them, this is a great topic that a number of people take to social media to vent their anger. PG take advantage of this while relating it back to their product.


Other notable mentions:

Adidas taking advantage of the tube strike, an event that generated a lot of social media activity. Adidas weren't the only ones to prepare for this event, with Nike, Innocent, and Pizza Express all reacting socially to the strike.


AirBnB took advantage of a negative situation (#SochiProblems) and turned it into a positive one, this time relating the poor hotel accommodation to their available hotels.


No doubt brands will now be looking at upcoming events such as London Fashion Week and The Oscars and trying to gain as much exposure as possible.