Real Time Marketing - The Power of Now

Some years ago, it was rare to get information or news around the world just when it happened. When an event happened in one part of the world, it took days or sometimes months before the news got to the other part of the world. However, the story is different today, the world has become, what some experts call, ‘a global village;’ information reaches people from one continent to the other within a blink of an eye. Now you can get access to information concerning new inventions and you do not necessarily have to be in the country where it took place. Why? Because we live in a real time now.

People all over the world have become very sophisticated. When they want something, it has to be now or forget it. Marketers have also learnt to adapt to the changing trends by providing solutions to the growing needs of consumers. They are always researching and looking for new ways of doing things that will bring satisfaction to the customer. One of such new ways is using real time marketing.

There are companies who have used real time adverts to connect with customers and potential customers. In the 2013 Super bowl for example, Oreo, a sandwich cookie produced by the Nabisco division of Mondelēz International, got other competitors, customers and anyone who mattered in the world of marketing talking by pulling up a brilliant marketing stunt. Call it a moment of serendipity or whatever you wish but Oreo made it happen for them when the lights in the stadium went off for about ten minutes. Their marketing geniuses took advantage of the moment and made an epic move by twittering “You can still dunk in the dark.” This sent the entire twitter world on a tweeting spree. It got a lot of retweets and Wall Street Journal could not stop talking about it for days.

In America and Europe, real time marketing, using social media, is fast becoming the ‘big deal’ for marketers. On the contrary, when it comes to sub Saharan Africa and Ghana to be precise, real time marketing has not picked up with marketers. People have put in efforts at being creative when it comes to adverts on traditional media, but there is a considerable amount of gap when it comes social media. Some companies like Unique Trust Financial Services have used real time advertising like their “A Loan in less than 48 hours campaign,” but that was with the traditional media.

There may be a number of reasons why marketers in Ghana have not paid close attention to real time advertising. I can confidently hazard a thought, “their target audience may not be online?” That is not a problem, statistics done in June 2012 by Wild Fusion, the pioneer online marketers in Africa, showed that there was a 14.1% internet penetration in Ghana, with 3G mobile broadband services representing majority of internet connections and over 3,568,757 active internet users and 1,630, 420 people patronizing Facebook in Ghana. So engaging people with real time can be effective if marketers try. Popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have proven to be an effective way to market your products and connect with customers on a ‘now’ basis.

Like a double edged sword, it can build or destroy a company’s reputation. In as much as real time marketing can work well for a company or a brand like it did for Oreo, it can go bad if the necessary caution is not applied.  A case of real time marketing gone wrong is that of Home Depot- an American retailer of home improvement, construction products and services – when their social media store associates tweeted something that was perceived to be racist. This led to the termination of the agency and the individual who posted it.

Observing situations and being able to give quick responses to issues has become important to the marketer because it matters where the customer is concerned. The Oreo super bowl stunt is a clear example that any company seeking to succeed with real time should have a team of people who are proactive and can think on their feet. However, in wanting to get to customers, certain considerations must be taken before you commit a social media suicide like Home Depot.