The Emmys take place this upcoming Sunday, September 20th. For this week’s Two for Tuesday, we take a look at how other awards shows have proven to be great opportunities for brands looking to make a mark on pop culture.
Marketing and advertising departments spend a lot of time and money creating new campaigns and communication plans to promote their brands. Brands plan these strategies carefully and exert substantial efforts to execute them, but these steps do not ensure successful outcxomes
There is a challenge to engaging people based on current events and news, but creative thinking and careful monitoring of major trends and events around the globe can result in what’s known as Real Time Marketing (RTM).
RTM gives products or services the possibility to build a relationship with the public. It offers a rewarding method where consumers are introduced to the brand and they take it viral by word of mouth, spreading (ideally) the exact positive reputation that companies want.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Maid service in Los Angeles, and any social media network are excellent tools to reach and engage audiences eager to reply, retweet, repost or simply share what they’ve seen. Brands create original, witty and humorous content that leverages all the advantages of being part of news or events. Social media offers an ever-growing way to actively promote products or people.
Because of the “Anything Can Happen” nature of live television, awards shows often provide some of the best opportunities for RTM. Let’s look some of the best examples of brands using real-time marketing during two of the major entertainment award ceremonies:
Arby’s
One of the most awaited nights for brands to advertise is The Grammy Awards, and last year the undoubted winner was Arby’s with its ingenious tweet. The opportunity for this brand showed up with Pharrell Williams wearing a hat that resembled their logo. The next morning this tweet had 78,287 retweets and 49.298 favorites.
Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYs
— Arby’s (@Arbys) January 27, 2014
Arby’s saw this moment and took the opportunity to instantaneously link the event with its brand, taking the sandwich shop viral. The strategy captured enough attention that some brands even tried to tie themselves to the viral moment:
Well played, @Arbys. Well played. #GRAMMYs#HyundaiTweetAwardspic.twitter.com/xGBT3lmPbm
— Hyundai USA (@Hyundai) January 27, 2014
Lego
Phil Lord, director of the smash hit The Lego Movie, had an ace up his sleeve for people to remember his movie, even if the film was not up for the top prizes of Best Picture or Best Director at The Academy Awards. Not only did the movie make waves upon its premiere, but its featured song seemed to be stuck in everyone’s head for the months after. Naturally then, when Tegan and Sara performed the song “Everything is Awesome” from the film, Lego handed out Oscar statuettes made of Legos for the audience, and the little plastic figure became more desirable than the one made of gold.
Lego had this tweet ready to post following the performance:
#EverythingIsAwesome at the #Oscars! pic.twitter.com/A7HzK7FOGG
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) February 23, 2015
All brands want to find out the best way to be closer to their target markets, but marketing strategies are getting harder because of the wealth of options at marketers’ disposal. Sometimes, spontaneity is the best strategy, and advertisers have to be ready to take advantage of the curveballs presented to them in real life.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Our-Space-The-San-Jose-Group.png[/author_image] [author_info]Paula Patiño is a Junior Executive at The San Jose Group. Originally from Colombia, where she was a TV producer for 5 years, Paula is currently taking courses in marketing and advertising in the U.S. with the goal of taking her skills back to Colombia and discovering new marketing opportunities.[/author_info] [/author]
Cover Photo Source: Pavel L Photos and Videos / Shutterstock