The competition between brick and mortar retailers and online retailers is well known. Online retailers such as Amazon and Zappos.com are able to offer consumers convenience, personalization, and in many cases lower costs. One of […]
Category: Chapter 16 – The Marketing Dashboard: Metrics for Measuring Marketing Performance
For Some Marketers a Picture (or Selfie) Might be Worth More than a Thousand Words
Marketers have been, and always will be, interested in gaining a better understanding of consumers. Being able to communicate with those consumers who are most likely to find value in a specific product/service and doing […]
Getting to Know Marketing Automation
(The Sales Lion, 2014) Marketing Automation. Out of context and definition, it sounds like something that could replace all of us living, breathing marketing professionals, no? In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Marketing […]
Goal Setting and Big Data
The ability for companies to quickly gather massive amounts of data about consumers has truly exploded over the last few years. Imagine a buffet that suddenly expanded its offerings 100 times over! But can a […]
Here Come the Oscars…
(Digital Spy, 2013) We love this time of year. The curtain will rise on the film industry’s biggest night this coming Sunday and that means some excellent reporting and number-crunching hitting the wires, with two […]
Email Marketers Assess “Black Friday” Impact
Now that a little bit of the dust has settled from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, its appropriate to step back and ask, “How did everyone do?” Did consumers find value in the avalanche of […]
Are Pricing Models Changing?
An interesting article in Forbes this week (see link below) raises some interesting questions about how companies allocate capital for marketing functions. Adobe Pushes New Pricing Model for Marketing Campaigns Last week, we wrote at length […]
Paul Kemp-Robertson: Bitcoin. Sweat. Tide. Meet the future of branded currency
We found this fantastic Ted Talk from Scotland in June of this year. It raises some really interesting concepts that connect to some of the other trends we have been talking about – digital growth, […]
Everyone is buzzing about the upcoming Twitter IPO. When the company begins trading on the public exchange later this month, what will happen? Will it stumble out of the gate, echoing the challenges other social media platforms have faced? Or will it soar? Will it fail to meet, match, or exceed investor expectations?
All of this is great chatter for the talking heads on cable news. Even the casual consumer will be drawn in by the rapturous tale these pundits will weave, regardless of the outcome.
But beyond the headlines, beyond the “big numbers,” there is a real debate going on – one that has serious consequences for marketing managers at every major company. Does real, sustainable potential in this new wave of social media marketing exist?
More specifically – what does real-time marketing do for a company’s bottom line?
Noted author and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott, in his book, “Real-Time Marketing and PR” defines this concept in this way:
“… products or services instantly, based on feedback from customers or events in the marketplace. And it’s when businesses see an opportunity and are the first to act on it.”
Many of us remember the now infamous and timely Twitter post from Oreo that capitalized on this past February’s Super Bowl during the unexpected blackout.
It was a watershed moment for the company and for proponents of real-time marketing – the sheer interactions and touch points generated brought Oreo unparalleled exposure and viral connectivity.
And let’s face it – it was cool.
During the Emmys this year, AARP of all companies capitalized on a mention by winner Jeff Daniels during his acceptance speech:
Daniels: “”The last thing I won was a few years ago for ‘The Squid and the Whale.’ I won best actor over 50 from the AARP. With all due respect to the AARP, this is better.”
AARP’s response?
But again – does this exposure translate to the bottom line? Does this type of social marketing reach new customers or simply get batted around by current ones?
While marketing managers may be able to save money by capitalizing on these viral memes and hot buttons, the investment of time and energy to consistently stay abreast of the ever-changing social media landscape presents a whole bevy of new challenges.
This article from “AdWeek” crunches some more real-time marketing numbers. What do you think? Is the investment paying off? What would you do as the CMO of your company?
Marketing Management 