Picture this, it is the third quarter of the Superbowl playoffs and the power goes out. The spectators and viewers are restless, they reach for their smart phones and tablets to find out what is going on, what do they see?
Oreo had the situation covered. It transpires that they had a 15 person Social Media team ready to respond to the events of the evening. Their copyrighters, strategists and artists reacted to the situation in less than ten minutes by creating and tweeting the advert, “You can still Dunk in the Dark”. Almost immediately the message was widely re-tweeted and “Liked” reaching an international audience of millions.
The impact of the advertisement via social media was immense and obvious, given the combination of speed and cultural relevance. For the promoters of a brand to be able to respond in real time on social media brings the benefits of cost savings and a uniquely targeted audience. The ramifications for the future as to how brands will be marketed can only be speculated.
A final thought, the situation described above involved a company spreading positive publicity about its own brand. Think how different the situation would be if negative publicity about a brand was spread with equal speed and magnitude.