3 Examples of How to Use Moment Marketing

Newspapers do it all the time; they go to print based on predictions, which sometimes backfire. Promotional marketing companies print up sports memorabilia two ways in championship games, creating items for both teams listing them as the “National Champions.”

With newspapers and promotional marketing, they do this to get the product to market quickly. If the newspapers waited on the final results or the promotional marketing company waited to find out who won, they’d have to wait hours or even days to get the product into the hands of consumers and by that time, the desire for these products may have largely worn off.

These businesses capitalize on getting the right product into their customers’ hands at the right time, even if it means an initial loss based on printing a cap that will never be worn. “Moment Marketing” applies the same concept of right place, right time for maximum exposure at live sporting events.

What Is Moment Marketing?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, moment marketing capitalizes on having just the right message at just the right moment. While it appears to be magically spontaneous, and some is, most often it’s planned out weeks in advance. This “magic” and “spontaneity” yield great viral potential, but that same risk also creates the possibility for huge error.

Moment marketing uses offline experience, particularly in TV shows and sporting events, to drive or trigger online interaction. Moment marketing connects people to a brand as if they were all sitting together in the same room. But to do it successfully you must perfectly align the content and the context, not always an easy thing to do. You also need to be able to jump in when needed.  Here are some examples of how marketers have captured those golden opportunities.

Be Ready

During the 2013 Super Bowl, an unexpected power outage stopped play for nearly 30 minutes. This could’ve been disastrous for advertisers. Yet, there were some social media marketers who jumped in and seized the moment. Oreo was by far the winner when its team tweeted, “‘Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.” Oreo didn’t know the power outage would happen, nor did they prepare ahead of time for that, or any other utility disaster, but what they did do was have a 15-person team ready to share social media commentary during the game. They were in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the moment.

Insert Your Company and Brand

While the practice of moment marketing may seem very passive, it’s actually about inserting yourself into the center of things and your audience’s lives, but in a way that is very much fitting. If you blast your sales pitch in the middle of the World Cup, your message will be a mere interruption. If you join others as they are watching with your own fitting commentary, you start building a friendly relationship.

Time Advertising Based on Happenings

There are certain parts of a game that are predictable and the instantaneousness and social media makes them easy to capitalize on. In 2012, Red Bull paid Australian daredevil Felix Baumgartner to skydive through the atmosphere, to become the first person to break the speed of sound in a freefall. As one would expect, the mission had to be postponed several times. KitKat timed its Facebook post to play off of the many delays and align with their brand slogan, which touted taking a break with a KitKat bar.

Their Facebook post showed a person in an astronaut suit seated on a couch. The caption read, “It could be a long wait Felix… Have a break, have a KitKat.” This is the perfect combination of a timely occurrence, a branded opportunity, and the right social media platform to get noticed. This sort of advertising wouldn’t have worked in print or TV. Those platforms just don’t change rapidly enough. Social media and moment marketing can be as timely as the event itself.

Stretch Your Budget

Sporting events draw crowds. For many marketers, the advertising spots for live sports events are cost prohibitive but with moment marketing and social media, businesses and organizations are able to reach their audience and connect with them without the hefty price tag.

Do Not Hesitate

These sports moments are golden but end quickly. If you have a sign-off process on your social media that’s several people deep, you may not be able to capture those moments in time. Instead, keep everyone needed to make decisions available so that brilliance can be shared immediately. Oreo didn’t rely on one person to coordinate all the social media during the Super Bowl, it used a 15-person team. If you want to be ready for that perfect moment in time, you need more than one person orchestrating that moment and you need sign-offs to be non-existent or very quick.

Be Ready and Know Your Audience

Adidas plotted out its social media possibilities for the World Cup six months in advance. They planned reactions for some of the most predictable things that could happen in the game and how they would respond on social. While opportunities may not always present themselves, knowing what could happen and talking about how you will handle it makes you more prepared for the possibilities.

Finally, if you’re going to go for moment marketing in live events, it must fit your brand and the interests of your audience. If there’s a disconnect, you’ll seem like that desperate child on the playground pulling out all of his toys, hoping someone will notice him and come over to play. People will largely ignore you.

In Conclusion

Moment marketing is an ideal way to get attention and connect with an audience, particularly when it comes to live sporting events. But in order to be successful, you need to recognize the perfect opportunity and pair it with timely content.

The payoff can be huge because there are millions of eyes on the event. The potential to go viral is here but big risks always come with the potential for big losses. Sometimes those spur of the moment comments can backfire but if you keep your audience in mind, you’ll be more likely to hit your target and go home a winner.