Superbowl is always a showcase of the state of marketing. This year’s Superbowl was dominated by social media war rooms all trying to replicate last year’s Oreo moment. During the Superbowl power outage in 2013, Oreo tweeted “Power out? No problem” with an image that simply said “You can still dunk in the dark”.
Oreo was signaled out as a brand that stole the marketing show on marketing’s most expensive day of the year. Real-time marketing has been on the rise ever since, with brands chiming in to any major cultural event, from the Emmy’s to the Oscars, to the 9/11 anniversary. Digiday live-blogged real-time marketing examples from the Superbowl this year.
As Victor Pineiro put it in Ad Age:
“Brands are going to be surrounding the Super Bowl like a thousand hyenas circling their prey, ready to pounce at any semi-memorable moment. Your brand’s jokes and commentary will be competing against countless others, choking up your audience’s feeds. Don’t get drowned out in the cacophony.”
We are sure to see a number of awkward real-time marketing attempts in the year ahead, as brands try to “join the conversation” as it happens. I think the key to remember is that brands are guests of those conversations, which means that it’s not all about the brand. Brands can easily come across as party crashers.
I see more of an opportunity for brands to invest in long-term relationships with their audiences, not just the one-off war rooms. Instead of chasing the Oreo moment, they should find the moment that’s right for their brand.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on real-time marketing, and any stand-outs, good or bad.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)