There are numerous marketing tactics that have been around for years. Some of these tactics work well for B2B brands and some that resonate well with the B2C audience.
Today, it is imperative for brands to be proactive, in sync with the trends, and be relevant. For the last few years, digital marketing and social media have taken center stage in majority of marketing plans. According to a report, nearly 70 percent of online customers believe that the quality, timing or relevance of a brand’s message influences their perception about it. Brands are focusing to not only have a large follower base, but also to have a huge number of engaged audience. Brands understand that it is important to get the right message to the customer at the right time. Hence, many companies are leveraging moment marketing to be able to make the maximum impact in the micro moment when a customer opens a social media platform to act on a need to know, go, do, or buy something.
Moment marketing is making the difference!
Moment marketing has emerged as one of the differentiated marketing strategies, being adopted by brands primarily in the B2C space. Moment marketing is about the brand being proactive and responding if a customer reacts to an advertising campaign, a brand post, a recent brand association, or any other topical news. It capitalises on having the right message at the right time, so much so that it seems like a spontaneous response.
Moment marketing helps a brand to embrace the latest events by creating campaigns around it. It can also use offline events or experiences to create online conversations. Social media posts designed to capture micro moments generally do much better than regular content and have the potential to go viral.
Companies are using moment marketing respond to a television advertisement, an ongoing sports event or another important event. They are leveraging memes, witty content and interesting videos to grab the users’ attention. This strategy works well as customers feel more connected with the brand that is responsive and proactive, and is not only pushing brand specific information through its brand pages/ handles. Moment marketing goes well with the Millennial and the Gen Z who spend a lot of their time on social media. These customers are always on the lookout for latest trending topics and hence, a post by a brand around a top trend acts like an instant connect.
Moment marketing is a cost effective strategy and can drive viral content. Another advantage of moment marketing is high customer engagement and increase in two-way communication. However, it is important for the brand to have an in-depth understanding of its customers’ emotions and expectations. With the right knowledge of what will connect best with the customers, moment marketing can be a big hit.
Success stories
Globally, brands like Oreo, Adidas, Pepsi, Coca Cola, as well as travel and ecommerce companies have launched really successful moment marketing campaigns in the past. This is not a new concept in India also. A number of brands in India have also leveraged moment marketing well. These include brands like Zomato, Uber Eats, Fevicol and Parle. The best case study of moment marketing is Amul. It has been posting interesting content on the latest and most trending developments in India for over 5 decades. The only change now is that instead of putting up hoardings with interesting content, they post creatives on social media actively.
Paytm’s famous tweet post the announcement of demonetisation in November 2017 was a classic example. It read ‘We have got two words for you: Paytm Karo’. It did not take long for the tweet to go viral.
Another example is that of a random conversation between two friends on Twitter mentioning Good day biscuits reminding one of the Spotify logo. Spotify and Britannia did a great job of moment marketing. While Britannia went ahead with a post that did 8 times better than its regular post, Spotify changed its profile image to include the image of the biscuit.
How to get it right?
Here are some tips on succeeding in moment marketing:
Be proactive
Whenever a user tags you in a post, respond to him/her. Even if it is a totally random post, it is okay to respond. However, do keep in mind that the response should be in sync with the brand values and personality.
Be Ready
It is good to be aware of the latest marketing campaigns, TVC launches, new upcoming OTT series, big events, or topical developments that can trigger conversations. The Marketing team should plan its campaigns in advance and also be ready to change its course in case of any unplanned activity. Brands generally plan in advance for big sporting events like Cricket World Cup, IPL etc. They plan reactions for the most predictable things. However, they need to be on standby to ensure they tweak the messaging to incorporate any last minute changes. A recent example is that of Chandrayaan 2. A number of brands had scheduled the posts around the success of Chandrayaan 2, which went live on the brands’ social pages, even though things did not work out as per the plan. Such incidents can result in negative posts, thereby impacting the overall brand sentiment.
Flat hierarchy
Moment marketing cannot work if you have a long drawn list of approvers for every social media post that goes out. It is about getting it out there real time. Also, the team should be more than 1 person so as to juggle between multiple incidents that may be taking place at the same time. A small yet empowered team with either super quick or non-existent sign offs is the key.
Keep track
It is a good idea to keep track of the social conversations that are around your brand so you can respond as deemed fit. It is advisable to allocate half an hour each in the morning and afternoon to keep track of the conversations taking place on the social media platforms.
Compliment
As a brand, you should not have reservations in complimenting even a competitor on some great content. This helps position the brand as one that is confident about it and respects its competitors.
Friendly conversations can work well
This is a very common tactic where 2 or more from the same industry can indulge in a friendly conversation with each other. There are numerous examples of brands doing this well including telecom companies in India, as well as conversations between food delivery giants. An engaging conversation can attract audience and keep them engaged.
Be witty
It is good to be witty and post content that can be fun, to ensure better success of moment marketing campaign. However, brands should remember that the content does not harm the sentiment of anyone, and is in line with the brand’s values.
Moment marketing is a sure shot strategy to increase interactions beyond the realm of the brand and its products and services. It is imperative to plan the moment marketing well and ensure that it is in sync with what the brand stands for. Also, speed of execution is the key. One needs to pick the trending topic, whether it is latest season of Game of Thrones or the demonetisation, and build the moment marketing campaign around it. Lastly, it is also recommended that the moment (topic) is evaluated to ensure it is worth it, and not decide on running a moment marketing campaign because you want to be seen as ‘one of the crowd’.
Moment marketing is here to stay. There will be an increasing use of moment marketing by brands in the times to come, as they fight to grab their customers’ attention in an already cluttered digital world. More and more brands will try to capture the micro moments with the aim to accelerate brand connect and increase their business.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
In the past, Akanksha has successfully planned and executed public relations/brands campaigns across India and over 30 other countries. She is a start-up specialist and has extensive experience of working with emerging brands. She has been associated with brands like Pine Labs, MobiKwik, VLCC and Power2SME and spearheaded their PR/brand/communication campaigns.
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