How to use Real Time Marketing effectively

During our lecture we had the opportunity (and a task) to portray the concept of Real Time Marketing. Armed with our experience and current promotional activities, we went to conquer Warsaw. But no one likes it when people only talk about themselves, therefore, we were prepared very well and made use of some of our favorite examples of real-time marketing. Our presentation was not all about theory, you could find funny pictures there too! The goal of our speech was to present one of ours biggest recruitment actions, MerixWars, which has all the signs of Real Time Marketing (RTM).

Fortunately, we were warmly welcomed by the crowd, what greatly reduced the stress connected with public speeking. We're extremely grateful to the audience that they took a liking to our jokes and that they laughed at them (more or less). I want to also thank all of the participants for many questions we got afterwards. It made me realize that a short guide will be helpful to some people who don't know how to use RTM in their communication and where to find the inspiration.

What is Real Time Marketing?

Let's start with explanation of the concept. Real Time Marketing, as the name suggests it, should be based on real-time, especially on fast responding. What is it all about? RTM is as quick as possible and based on outstanding (usually just funny) comment relating to popular events. It is marketing “on-the-fly”. A good example is 'The Dress', about the color of which internet users from all over the world argued some time ago or even the last Kanye West's tweet, in which he begged Mark Zuckerberg to give him billion dollars.

Because, as previously mentioned, these are events that appear suddenly, there's no place for long-term strategies in the RTM. Well, I guess that you can artificially create some news and prepare the catchy repost. Instead of the strategy, action should focus on trends and quick reaction (as well as on feedback of customers).

In conclusion, RTM is about being up-to-date with everything that is happening right now. In a perfect scenario, brand's response appears when the event has the highest popularity, or a little time after. This requires vigilance and attentive media monitoring.

Let's see how it works on the basis of selected examples.

What will happen if there is a blackout during Super Bowl

This tweet is considered to be an example of one of the first RTM. It's untrue, because Real Time Marketing has been known for a long time before, but, thanks to social media, it has gained a new meaning and new ways of using. But still, it’s undeniable that Oreo has created a new trend in marketing.

During the Super Bowls 2013 something bad happened… a power outage caused some of the lights to go out for 34 minutes. The Oreo's social media team jumped on the cultural bandwagon, tweeting an ad with a starkly-lit image of a solitary Oreo with the caption “You can still dunk in the dark”. The simple tweet that was created and posted in only few minutes made people talk about the brand for weeks, months… (and, as you can see, even years ;-) ).

The Salvation Army solved the problem of the famous dress

Gold and white or black and blue? This question disunited the Internet last year. The Salvation Army launched a powerful campaign against domestic violence using 'The Dress'. The charity produced an image portraying a young woman covered in bruises, wearing a white and gold version of the dress. The advert asks: “Why is so hard to see black and blue”. The Salvation Army used RTM and also focused the attention on the big problem.

#RoyalBaby travels by Nissan

Rumors about expecting the second child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge (aka Kate) spread around the world. A mere seven minutes after the Duke and Kate announced they were pregnant with their second child, Nissan's marketers had the perfect post circulating on the Twitter. They tweeted a picture of the interior of its vehicle with a crown placed on each seat and the caption “Room for all the family”. The tweet reads: “It could be triplets and there would still be enough room for the Queen”. What is important, brand used #RoyalBaby hashtag and thanks to that all people, who were interested in information about royal family, saw their ad.

Tymbark is looking for Niunia

In October 2014 the tragedy happened in Gdansk. A 7-year-old girl and her younger 4-year-old sister lost their beloved pet – a guinea pig named Niunia. Because girls were demined to find their little friend, they organized the search operation. And this is how Gdansk was flooded with dozens of posters with the drawing of the guinea pig that were made by Edyta and Malwinka. Thanks to the Internet, these posters quickly went viral and were seen by the entire country. The Tymbark brand also joined in to the search. They drew their own version of Niunia and promised 100 of theirs juices for the finder and the new house for the pet. Unfortunately, this story has no happy ending – nobody found Niunia. However, the girls were given new pets.

May the web be with you - test your Force with MerixStudio

We were invited to the WDR conference to speek about Real Time Marketing because we're using that kind of marketing in our company. The IT industry is always looking for new specialists, so it's no surprise that we are constantly conducting new recruitment actions. This requires creativity and usage of catchy, unique actions. This is why at MerixStudio we are emphasizing employer branding and always trying out new, different forms of promotion. This is how we stepped in the world of Real Time Marketing.

For the first time we we had attended WRD in 2015, where wewe had been talking about “The Developers” - our previous recruitment campaign. This time we had the opportunity to boast about MerxWars, which is connected to the release of the next episode of the Star Wars. We had noticed that the saga displaced Frozen and that, instead of potatoes with picture of Olaf, in stores you could buy energy drinks with Yoda on the can. This, and the fact that in IT industry people love Star Wars, were the reasons we had decided to take the chance and created the landing page where candidates could test their Force. To each position we have chosen the character that, according to us, fits the job best. Everything in the campaign was Star Wars-themed– we modified the suitable quotes form the films , createdtasks for the candidates that relate to the saga, we even tried to write the offers in the famous Yoda style.

I could go on forever about the great examples of RTM, but you can find a lot of them in the Internet. Of course they are always fun to watch and I'm sure that many of you are facepalming yourselves now and thinking “it's so simple! Why didn't I come up with it before?” Don't worry, even the best marketers think the same exact thing! :-)

Real Time Marketing - how to do it

I would like to present you a few advices which (I hope!) will make creating RTM content much easier for you.

Plan the communication, stupid!

It may be at odds with the lack of strategy I have mentioned before. “Oh come on! Make up your mind, woman! What's your problem?!”. Well, I just want to say that the message you want to share can't be just a SOME message. It has to be consistent with the existing communication strategy and brand image. What is worth the notice is the fact that if you hadn't communicated with your customers before, even the best and funniest post wouldn't attract attention. RTM should arise from the previously adopted strategy. The selection of the events is important too!

Remember, some happenings are predictable: the score of the big match, holidays or even birth (like in the Nissan example) – you can easily prepare something in advance. Check out our Facebook post, which commented Polish legislative election 2015 or Back to the Frontend project – they were compired before mentioned events.

Content is king

As previously mentioned, the published content need to be brilliant and connected with a commented event, but that's not all folks. Don't forget about the brand and its communication strategy! Content has to match both the brand and the communication channel.

Content tailored to the recepients needs

When it comes to RTM, the most popular tools used by marketers are memes and simple pictures. Seems like a piece of cake, doesn’t it? No, it doesn't! Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the message has to fit one image, so it should contain only few words. In addition, it has to be understandable for your target at first glance. Thoughtful audience research (that allows you to learn about the language of your customers, their behavior and needs) will help you to gain this goal. And again it comes back to the communication strategy, which is based on defining the target.

Fast and furious

There's no place for meditation and reflections on the brand's actions in RTM. There's no hope for companies with long decision-making – they will always end up as a goner. If you want to stand out from the competition, you need to act fast and boldly. The first will be the winner and hit the lottery. The others will be only the followers.

One, two, three, the brand sees thee

In order to take RTM actions, you need to keep your finger on the pulse and always know what's the most popular at this moment – there is nothing you can’t know about trends. Are you wondering how to do it and still have time for a personal life? Trends monitoring is not as difficult as it looks. There are tools on the market like Monitori or Brand24 that will help you with media monitoring and being switched on. Pay attention not only to the business environment, but also to what audience thinks about the company.

So, what is it for?

Of course, RTM is not for the sake of it. Like everything in marketing, it has to entail visible and tangible results. If we want to gain new fans, RTM may prove to be a perfect tool for this goal. Such activity also supports both the sales communication and the employer branding, improves brand's image by going viral and, as a result, promotes the brand. The main advantage of Real Time Marketing is the image of the brand. One brilliant meme could change customer's attitude towards the company.

What was the effect of MerixWars, the aforementioned recruitment campaign? In a really short time we've received over 50 CV's and enriched our team by 6 new Jedi warriors. Is it convincing?

OK, I understand… what now?

Just do it! With all this knowledge I've shared with you I can now let you go to hunt! Let's sniff out the opportunities and catch it as soon as possible. Do not let your competition to get ahead of you. Good luck!