Moment marketing or real-time marketing is a particular marketing tactic centered on distributing marketing messages at the moment it matters to the target audience or the consumers. It is simply about sending the right message at the right moment.
However, a more specific definition centers on taking advantage of a particular socially relevant circumstance or situation, creating marketing messages or collaterals around such, and inserting the brand or idea that a particular marketer intends to promote.
Marketers approach this tactic in numerous ways. The most common approach is to take advantage of an ongoing widely recognized event. Examples of these events include Halloween, Christmas, and New Year celebrations.
In digital marketing and the specific social media marketing subset, this can also be done alongside viral marketing in which digital marketers leverage viral or trending topics on social media platforms and other online channels for marketing promotion.
The Pros: Advantages of Moment Marketing
Building and maintaining relevance is central to the advantage of moment marketing. A particular and widely recognized event or much-talked-about topic can serve as a medium for conveying information or distributing marketing messages.
Below are the specific advantages or benefits:
1. Create or Raise Awareness About a Particular Brand or Cause
Remember that a major event or a viral topic can help in the transmission of marketing messages. To be more specific, when marketers align their brand, products, or ideas with a particular moment, they are inserting themselves into an ongoing conversation.
The act of riding on the popularity of a specific moment can help not only in maintaining awareness about a particular brand or cause but also in reaching new people, thereby creating and raising awareness further among the untapped audience.
2. Satisfies Hyper-Vigilant Audience While Benefitting From Doing So
A lot of people are enthusiastically reading the news. They love to know what is happening and they are actively looking for information. Because of the digital information age and the rise of social media, these people also want to be part of an ongoing conversation.
Moment marketing can satiate the aforesaid incessant need of individuals to stay in the loop. It is interesting to note that it enables marketers to be a source of relevant information while allowing them to pursue specific promotional goals and objectives.
3. Captures the Attention of the Audience and Promotes Conversation
People are naturally tuned in to an ongoing event or a current topic. By creating marketing messages or collaterals around such, there is no need for marketers to create an event or start a discussion from scratch themselves. This saves a lot of time.
Furthermore, because people have already made themselves part of an ongoing conversation, it is easier to catch their attention. The use of hooks and call-to-action prompts or the creation of appealing collaterals can further encourage engagement.
4. Maintains and Improves Relationship with Existing Audience or Consumers
Widely recognized events, including social and political situations, or ongoing topics serve not only as a conversation starter but also as an instrument for creating a real-time connection or reconnecting with an existing audience or consumers.
Examples of relational outreach include sending out greetings during holidays via email or text messaging or posting updates and encouraging messages about an ongoing sociopolitical affair, such as an ongoing public health emergency.
5. Complements Social Media Marketing Strategy and Specific Activities
Another advantage of moment marketing is that it not only complements the overall social media marketing of a marketer but also bolsters overall social media efforts. Note that events or ongoing topics can serve as an inspiration for creating online content.
Because an ongoing conversation or a trending topic helps in encouraging conversation, it can increase social media engagement. Contents built around moments have a higher chance to be shared and become viral, thereby making it a non-paid promotional activity.
The Cons: Disadvantages of Moment Marketing
Moment marketing has undeniable advantages. However, it does not guarantee success in reaching specified marketing goals and objectives because it still depends on the way marketers have optimized their messages and collaterals.
The following are the specific disadvantages or drawbacks:
1. Requires Marketers to Be as Hyper-Vigilant and Remain in the Loop
Of course, to create marketing messages and collaterals about a particular event or an ongoing trending topic, marketers need to be aware that such moment exists. This means being vigilant about what is happening around and remaining in the loop.
Marketers need to utilize all sources of information to remain updated constantly. These include traditional mass media such as broadcast and newspaper, as well as digital media, including the internet and specific social media platforms.
2. It Can Backfire When Done Wrong or When Content is Forced
Another disadvantage of moment marketing is that it can backfire and result in negative publicity. A prime example is when a marketer uses a sensitive trending topic about politics to insert a brand he or she intends to promote.
The public can accuse the brand of either being too insensitive or simply capitalizing on an intensely debated issue for mileage or clout. Marketers should carefully select which events or topics they can safely utilize to their benefit.
3. Moment Marketing Can Also Create Noise and Does not Guarantee Reach
Remember that contents based on a particular moment have a higher chance of receiving engagement or getting shared across different platforms. However, some of them can become unnoticeable due to the influx of participation in an ongoing conversation.
A particular content can also drown alongside other marketing messages and collaterals from other marketers. These contents are fundamentally competing against one another. Proper positioning and right timing are always essential.
4. Effective as a Tactic for Supplementing Overall Marketing Strategy
Using moments to leverage marketing messages should not be the primary or lone tactic in an overall marketing strategy, especially in a specific marketing promotion strategy. It is most effective when used to supplement other marketing activities.
It can make marketers or the image of brands or causes they represent become too predictable when overused, thereby losing the interest of an existing audience. Because it is also reactive in nature, overdoing it can create an impression of clout-chasing among the public.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Balis, J. 2021. “10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic.” Harvard Business Review. Available online
- C. 2021. “Tips: Do’s and Don’ts of Moment Marketing.” Konsyse. Available online
- Willemsen, L. M., Mazerant, K., Kamphuis, A.-L., and van der Veen, G. 2018. “Let’s Get Real (Time)! The Potential of Real-time Marketing to Catalyze the Sharing of Brand Messages. International Journal of Advertising. 37(5): 928-848. DOI: 1080/02650487.2018.1485214
