Online Marketing Blog

Real-time social engagement is a great way for brands to stay top of mind, build their social audience and even influence the buying decisions of consumers. On-the-fly upsets to content plans and rapid response content creation are counterintuitive for most brands, though.

At TopRank, we coach brands on careful planning, implementation, measurement and ongoing improvement based on insights. But how can brands maintain quality and ensure thoughtful content if they’re expected to produce and launch it in minutes?

Perhaps the best known example of this strategy recently was Oreo’s infamous Superbowl tweet. They showed just how effective social listening is, when their “You can still dunk in the dark” branded image was retweeted over 16,000 times.

“We’re moving from a world where we plan campaigns for the future, to one where we adapt campaigns to the moment.” – Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s VP of Global Brand Strategy and the keynote speaker this morning at SES New York.

Lunenfeld shared his vast experience and insight in real-time marketing in Optimizing Second Screen Engagement: Trends, Data & Insights. Mobile has certainly changed the way people find, consume and engage with information. Twitter came of age with the right tools, at just the right time, to answer the need for a real-time communication platform.

Now, said Lunenfeld, 85 percent of users say the phone is their primary way to access Twitter and the average mobile user follows 11 brands. Every 2.5 days, there are a billion tweets sent and over the past year, the amount of Twitter users has doubled.

If you are like most Americans, Sunday night was spent in front of the television watching Seth McFarland sing songs that ran much too long and make awkward jokes.  I was actually one of the few that did not watch the Oscars (I don’t have the attention span) but I did follow the buzz online.

As an online marketer, it’s always interesting to see how companies take advantage of events such as the Super Bowl, Oscars, Grammy’s, etc.  Many viewers are just as interested in seeing the glamorous outfits and train wrecks which can all be found on the red carpet.  Similarly, there were a select number of companies that successfully carried off an integrated Oscars marketing campaign, as well as some that just didn’t hit the mark.  Below you’ll find what I consider to be the best and worst “dressed” social media marketing moments from the Oscars.