Understanding Real-Time Marketing

Oreo and the Super Bowl. Snickers and Luis Suarez' World Cup bite. By now you have probably read about brands winning big with real-time marketing (RTM) during major events. But real time happens every day, and any brand can succeed with RTM. Learn more about this social marketing strategy and how your brand can incorporate it into your playbook.

Understanding Real-Time Marketing

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Real-time marketing is the practice of actively engaging in social media conversations around a current topic, trend, or event. It’s about a brand contributing contextually relevant content to the conversation, while it’s happening.

RTM is a natural reflection of how social itself has evolved. Marketers have had to change the way they engage on social, because audience expectations have changed. In fact, social practitioners across multiple industries—including established corporations like Volkswagen, Visa®, Honda, and Nissan—have incorporated RTM into their strategic plans.

When you deliver the right message in the right place at the right moment, real-time marketing can be a powerful tool for achieving your social goals as well as your overall marketing objectives. In other words, RTM works really, really well.

RTM isn’t an audience reacting to a brand, it’s a brand reacting to its audience.

More than 3x as many major brands have adopted RTM this year.According to Spredfast Research2013 2014

260%

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Understanding Real-Time Marketing

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Major sporting events and awards shows attract marketers for good reason. Thousands of people are paying attention at the same time, and many of those people are on social media, talking about the event as it unfolds.

However, a good deal of social conversation takes place around smaller media-driven events, such as TV premieres and finales, as well as less well-known holidays and other interesting occasions. Some topics even trend spontaneously and become social events in their own rights. All of these can be tremendous RTM opportunities.

Want proof? Let’s look at pop star Beyoncé ’s birthday, which trended on Twitter across the United States.

Multiple brands participated in the social conversations and celebrations, contributing timely and relevant content in many different ways.

RTM can happen anytime, not just during big events.

// Is it too late to change our name to "BestBey" for the day? #BeyDay //

In this one Tweet, Best Buy earned 2,402% more retweets than its average and 1,558% more favorites.

Best Buy@BestBuy

// Happy birthday to the ever-so-smashing @Beyonce! #HappyBirthdayBeyonce #BeyDay //

Ticketmaster used an animated GIF to celebrate Beyoncé, generating a 2,893% increase in retweets and a 1,039% bump in favorites.

Ticketmaster@Ticketmaster

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// #RISEandGRIND Happy Birthday to the QUEEN. It's a national holiday #BeyDay //

Pop-culture site GlobalGrind.com bowed down to the Queen on her birthday and garnered a regal 857% increase over its average retweet rate.

Global Grind@GlobalGrind

// "Do what you were born to do. You just have to trust yourself." - @beyonce #HappyBirthdayBeyonce #BeyDay //

Free People’s #BeyDay Tweet — a simple Beyoncé quote — earned a 386% increase over the brand’s average retweet rate.

Free People@FreePeople

According to Spredfast research, ten big brands joined the #BeyDay conversation—including Best Buy, Ticketmaster, Global Grind, and Free People. The majority of these birthday Tweets succeeded quite impressively, significantly outperforming each brand's average engagement and sharing numbers.

In fact, nine out of ten brand Tweets received increased retweets, by an average of 842%. Eight of out ten brand Tweets earned increased favorites, by an average of 361%.

Each brand generated real results from RTM around a relatively small occasion that nevertheless had strong social appeal.

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You probably already plan and publish "real-time" content around foreseeable occasions—such as holidays, company milestones, or pop-culture events. But your social community is also talking about a huge number of daily or even momentary topics and memes. As these social trends spread rapidly and build a momentum of their own, they create valuable moments to market.

Real time happens every single moment.

// Obligatory weather app pic. //

Wendy’s® linked the brand’s hot sandwiches to the “Polar Vortex” meme with great success, earning 2,310 retweets and 3,564 favorites.

Wendy's@Wendys

// Polar Vortex just sounds like a sequel to Sharknado //

“Polar Vortex” trended on social for about a week during a nationwide cold snap. Comedy Central won big by injecting humor into the conversation.

Comedy Central@ComedyCentral

To uncover these opportunities, your social team has to stay on top of what’s happening across social—especially the trends and topics that are most relevant to your audience. Then, you can join the right conversations with relevant content, right when they are happening.

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From the outside, real-time marketing looks spontaneous. Behind the scenes, a carefully planned, data-driven approach is actually the best way to protect your brand, minimize risk, and maximize results. Follow what’s trending across social and use active listening to understand the context around hot topics. Use social data to understand what your audience really cares about, not just what’s trending.

Success is a blend of smart analytics and great creative.

// Mobile ready pants. Big enough for your new iPhone, a baby Kangaroo, your imagination! Only at Zappos. zapwow.me/DDnk #iphone #apple //

Zappos’ iPhone-related Tweet was perfectly in line with the brand’s wacky, irreverent voice—and earned the retailer a 685% boost over its average retweet rates and a 160% bump in favorites.

Zappos@Zappos

As with any new marketing initiative or strategy, it’s critical to establish clear goals from the outset and select metrics to measure against, so you can improve over time.

That isn’t to say that data is everything. It takes creative skill to come up with fresh content ideas that align with what your brand represents and what the data is telling you. Each brand can and should bring its own unique voice to the conversation.

// Bigger screen. Better performance. Elegant design. Welcome to the party #iPhone6. //

Smartphone maker HTC used a dignified tone to take a jab at Apple, earning a 5,381% bump in retweets and a 2,335% increase in favorites.

HTC@HTC

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// #MobilePayments in the @MLB app will be possible soon w/ #ApplePay + MasterCard. That's Priceless! #AppleLive //

MasterCard went straightforward with its #AppleLive Tweet, promoting its participation in mobile payments. The result? A 2,563% bump in retweets and a 2,512% improvement in favorites.

MasterCard@MasterCard

*Retweet rate compared with the average retweet rate over each brand’s previous 3,200 Tweets

For example, according to Spredfast research, 13 out of 15 brands that participated in RTM during the Apple iPhone 6 and Apple Watch launch event saw positive results—including Chili’s, MasterCard®, and HTC. Taken together, these brands experienced a roughly 1,300% increase in retweets.*

The most successful brands applied creativity while retaining their overall brand voice and messaging.

Chili’s and Zappos deployed humor and whimsy, MasterCard remained true to its overarching campaign themes, and HTC took a straightforward competitive stance. Each one used RTM to drive engagement and sharing in ways that were brand-appropriate as well as relevant.

// Giving you more options in wristwear... Introducing the iGuac, the future of wearable fresh. //

Chili’s shared its own fresh take on the Apple Watch. Fans ate up the humorous approach, as evidenced by a major leap in retweets and favorites.

Chili's Grill & Bar@Chilis

You can do this. Spredfast can help. Succeeding with real-time marketing looks different for every brand. During major media, entertainment, and sporting events, there are multiple RTM success stories. Some brands make a big splash and are celebrated in the news, but many more also generate real business results with their RTM efforts.

You don’t have to achieve Everest-like heights with every post. Consistent, day-to-day wins can add up to tremendous impact. Measure your RTM efforts against your unique goals, not against everybody else on social.

At Spredfast, we have the expertise and solutions to help you take advantage of even more moments to market—wherever and whenever they occur. Let’s get started. Contact info@spredfast.com today.

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Understanding Real-Time Marketing