There’s a reason tickets to the World Series sell out so quickly: it’s about more than just the baseball. The thrill of watching a live event, the chance to celebrate with other fans: it’s an extraordinary experience that everyone can share. Modern technology now delivers that same experience to the comfort of home, empowering friends and strangers, rivals and fans to share the magic the moment it happens.
Our world is now constantly connected in real time. Everyone can interact about anything, anytime from anywhere on any device. The concept presents exciting and promising new opportunities for businesses – and every marketer wants a piece of the action. It’s no walk in the park, but marketing in real time has the potential to reach massive audiences at the most opportune moment: right now.
Still, real time marketing is a tricky beast. It requires both fast action and planning ahead. There’s a complexity to real time marketing, a paradox that explains the limited number of success stories. It seems the marketing world is still searching for the best way to harness the power of real time. Fortunately, we are getting closer to the solution.
The Rise of the Second Screen
In 2010, 18% of all Google searches happened on a smartphone. In 2014, that number more than tripled to 70% of total volume. This is more than just a dramatic shift in consumer behavior – it’s a bombshell that dropped on modern marketers practically overnight. It’s no wonder we are still trying to decipher real time marketing on the mobile web. Today, there’s an elephant in the marketing boardroom, and his name is Mobile.
Smartphone users no longer watch just one TV screen in their living rooms. Our second screen is finding its way out of our pockets and into our hands. You know the drill: a big event happens (on TV or right in front of us) and we turn to our convenient, search engine enabled smartphones. Satisfied with our search, we then turn to YouTube for the highlights. The next day, maybe we visit our favorite online retailer to shop for the latest pair of Nike shoes. We now watch two devices at once. Exactly how many smartphone users browse their second devices while watching TV? Just shy of 85%.
Connecting In the Moment
It’s evident that mobile plays a powerful role in real time marketing. The world now seeks to connect in the moment. Gone are the days when we had to choose between watching TV in the living room and browsing the web on an office computer. Mobile has merged the world together, making it a prime target for modern marketers.
Still, mobile “in the moment” may only be half the equation. What completes the real time marketing quandary? Relevance.
Motivations for Relevance
Relevance is without a doubt a key ingredient in the real time marketing recipe. How do we its potential? First, we need to understand what motivates us to use mobile devices while watching sporting events, reality TV shows, award shows, season premieres and other prime time TV moments.
The bottom line: most of us want to feel closer to the action; to interact on social networks for a more intense, visceral and real experience. We jump into chat, social streams and fan forums to share our feelings with likeminded individuals. We also want information about the event: fact finding and statistic searching to sound smart at the water cooler the following day. All of these motivations are real and none of them are possible without relevance.
Putting It All Together
Real time marketing is not about just reaching an audience but resonating with them in that given moment. Connecting with people in the moment, without taking them out of it, creates a win-win scenario for everyone. This is the mindset modern marketers need to adopt to succeed in real time marketing. Here’s a breakdown of a forward-thinking real time marketing strategy:
- Start with search. Real time data reflects our thoughts and interests in the most vast, timely and authentic way. Consumers are searching right now for ways to satisfy their need for curiosity. Focus on the data and real time marketing can reach its greatest potential.
- Add to the experience. Marketers have all the technologies needed to reach the right people at the right moment: but we still must find a way to stay relevant and add to the experience. Technology is powerful but relevance leads to exponential gains.
- Adjust on the fly. No one can predict the future: but you can build a plan ready for it. The merging of creativity and dynamic adjustment is where marketers succeed in real time marketing. Plan ahead but also plan for all possibilities.
- Adopt a mobile-first mindset. The mobile device singlehandedly cemented constant connectivity into the real time marketing mix. The once secondary screen is now a first priority. Learn to go big on the small screen. Market to mobile first with ads and content made for mobile.
- Know your role. Succeeding in real time marketing means cheering on the team, not calling the plays. Relevance is about being a companion to the main event, rather than another distraction. Avoid creating whole new campaigns that distract users from the action. Instead, find a way to fuel the passion without getting in the way.
Linx is More…
- Than an advertising agency. Ad agencies rely on traditional executions because it’s what they know. Linx relies on market-driven business strategies to give your organization a competitive edge.
- Than a marketing consultancy. More than “marketing advice” – Linx can test, pull back and adjust, perform risk/reward calculations and implement a plethora of our own market-driven business strategies.
- Than a design company. Is there value in creating art for art’s sake? We think not. Linx combines decades of real-world experience to take creative design to a whole new level of AWESOME!
Linx unifies world-class strategic consulting with cutting edge marketing communications to build a market driven business strategy. Contact us today for strategic marketing solutions with 1,000X ROI.
