4 Reasons Why Our Real-Time Marketing Worked Like Oreo

Oreo became famous on social media when the lights went out in New Orleans. During the third quarter of Super Bowl 2013, where Baltimore battled San Francisco, the lights shut off causing a delay of over 30 minutes at the biggest game in the world.

Oreo wasted no time capitalizing on the famous moment. They tweeted a graphic of a “Lone Oreo” sitting in the dark with the line: You Can Still Dunk in the Dark. Fans loved it, and according to AdAge, the message was retweeted over 10,000 times in one hour. Pretty impressive.

The Tweet went on to get more buzz than most of the commercials that aired during the telecast. Thinking on their feet paid off for Oreo, but will it work for you? Well… It depends.

Real-time marketing got a lot of buzz after Oreo’s tweet. Many companies tried to replicate the viral tweet with a real-time marketing message of their own. They had little or no impact on social media. The most buzz they got was the trade publications commenting on their failed attempt to copy Oreo. Not the kind of press they were looking for.

The main problem with real-time marketing is that you should never go looking for things to go “Viral”. It’s going to happen if it is going to happen. Never create something thinking it is a VIRAL message. People like what they like, and they can smell unoriginality a mile away.

You also need to remember that you should not deviate from your overall brand message just to capitalize on a moment. If it fits your message, great, if it does not, do not force it. My advice is to count to ten before you try any real time marketing messages. Most of the time it is going to fail. And in turn, your message will fail.

Here is one that worked for us.

Here is my break down of why it worked, and why we tried it.

BACKGROUND

On November 23rd, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the New York Giants, but that is not what is remembered by the viewers. The highlight of the game was a catch by New York Giants rookie receiver Odell Beckham Jr. that some are considering the best in NFL history. The one handed touchdown grab was replayed over 20 times moments after it happened. And we took advantage of that moment.

We are a school district just outside of Dallas, so we knew our audience was watching the game. Minutes after the famous catch we tweeted the message below:

HERE ARE FOUR REASONS OF WHY IT WORKED:

1. Localized Message- like I mentioned above, we knew our audience was watching. Texas is obsessed with football, and Dallas fans love their Cowboys. It was pretty safe to assume that many of our followers were tuned into the game or knew it was happening.

2. Do it Fast- if we waited until that night or the next day to Tweet our message, it would have been lost in the clutter. To do real-time marketing well, it has to be real-time. The quicker you send your message, the more original it will seem to your audience. If you wait too long, someone else has already used it in their message.

3. Think Before You Send- even though you need to be fast, you need to think before you Tweet or post to Facebook. Is this the message I want to send? Is this message part of my overall brand message?

4. What is the Message- is what you are about to tweet aligned with your overall brand’s message? It has to be. Do not do real-time marketing because you want to be hip or cool. Do it because it is going to help your message.  We praised our teachers with our message. We love our teachers, and we gave them a high-five that day using “The Catch” as our catalyst.

My final words are, School districts and companies beware. Real-time marketing does not work 99% of the time. Find your time and capitalized, but do not get carried away.