November 12, 2014
This post has been inspired this week by a hell of a lot of model drawing, inter-brand and agency conversations – scoping the models that will shape our clients in 2015 based on sterling work during this year so far in the real-time social arena. Then this video came up, it’s tongue in cheek nature made me literally laugh out loud – yeah that’s right a literal LOL. I love the fact they have depicted some of the key challenges of real-time in this way – in no uncertain words saying – “it ain’t that easy!”. Now, I am not saying that Reactvertising haven’t nailed the approach to real-time advertising, social listening, content creation, approval processes and sign off etc… I am saying that that it is the holy grail and therefore it is bloody tricky. Watch the video to get your mind whirring a second…
The Oreo example used in the video above (you know the one, the Super Bowl blackout) was incredibly effective, but as we heard from Jerry Daykin from Mondelez at one of Social Speakeasy events last year – if you think it was that simple then you are very wrong. Time, resource, bucket loads of budget, more time, more thinking, more resource.
The reality is that in the age of social media and mobile, a connected customer, whether it be in B2B or B2C expects a great deal more from us as marketers. That means brands internally working in conjunction with their agencies need to breakdown traditional working models, team structures, approval processes and use techniques (social media included) that they aren’t familiar with to really have the desired impact. So how do we go about breaking these traditional models and making the move to real-time? Here are 7 things to think about to help you on your journey…
Smart people
Let’s face it, unless you have smart people you aren’t going to be able to do the job. In order to respond effectively in real-time you have to spot the opportunity and interpret that into content that engages the audience, the brand tone of voice, the overarching objectives, under-arching objectives, considers wider marketplace conversation or market conditions, is sensitive to the individual(s). Before you can identify the right opportunity those people need to fully embrace the backstory to the brand, the means of communication, the channel, the community. You get my point? This is a big responsibility, not to be handled by just anybody…
Added to this, smart people will plan and go a way to predicted such opportunities, laying the foundations in order to execute that on-point piece of communication at the right moment and see it through without a hitch. Smart people are not just quick at reacting, they are very thorough and strategic planners too.
Creative people
In context of the above, these people also need to be creative. The out of the box thinkers. Just bear in mind these might not be the same people – planners aren’t always creative thinkers too. You need a mix of skills (that should be a point in its own right…)
Content like the below that came from KitKat (and perhaps the agency who made this video) is both smart and highly creative, executed at pace.
Empowered people
Sign off. Need I say any more? Smart, creative, on-point, real-time marketing doesn’t happen at the pace of a snail. You can have all of the creative smarts in the world but if the approval process is slow, unclear, complicated or the people in the chain are marginally accessible – think again. And let’s be realistic, there are not many people who like doing approvals from bed…
The right technology
I won’t go so far as to call out technology solutions or providers, but essentially the technology needs to take the work out of crunching volumes of data and isolate conversations that matter, can group, chop and contextualise the conversation and effectively analyse trends. And it is not just the social listening, think about how technology can help the internal process of approvals, speedily allow multiple teams to collaborate and how technology can be used to distribute content…
Remember it’s not NEW technology necessarily, it’s the right technology… “the jonny” in the Reactvertising video is probably a step too far (but it is funny)…
The right time
Again, brilliantly depicted in the video. Obviously the team sleep in shifts, in bunk beds and your can’t #neversleep – well not atleast in your current models. When is the right time? How far do you want to take this? Can you really resource it? Remember, in the connected world people don’t ever stop – but they might have some downtime… maximise the opportunity by understanding the best times to be present and build a model that fits.
Reacting not listening
Stop using the term social listening, we can all listen, doesn’t mean we take it in, doesn’t mean we learn from it, and certainly doesn’t mean we react does it? See smart people above…
Wait a minute, just wait a minute, is it all worth it?
I am being serious now. What is the opportunity in real-time engagement, does your customer base demand it? What will the business impact be? How will it work in real-life in real-time? Take the time to do your research before you embark on your journey, understand about how your customer communicates, what they demand and expect from you. If you still think it is a good idea, start small, test it, measure it and learn from it and go from there…