When Maverick and Goose used those immortal words in the film Top Gun, little did they know that Just Enough Brave would be quoting them back in a blog piece over 30 years later.
Well, the moment’s arrived and the reason we’re using them is that they’re a perfect summary for an emerging part of the modern-day marketing strategy called ‘Reactive Marketing’ … you see, without speed it’s nothing.
Let’s give you a few examples. Snickers cheekily ‘made hay when the ex-BBC Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson went off the rails and ultimately got himself sacked. Bringing to life the ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry campaign, Snickers sent a box of the nutty chocolate bars over to Jezza’s office in West London but crucially, a snapshot was taken before it left, posted on social media, and the rest, as they say, is priceless engagement.
Likes, retweets, and responses soon started flowing and a witty idea was later deemed a huge success for the brand. The secret to its success was ‘speed’ as it was done almost instantly, creating the best possible reactive impact. Better still the budget was nothing more than the cost of a 48-bar box of Snickers … not a lot we suspect.
Talking of cheap, how much do we think was spent on Paddy Power’s ‘six best horse meat recipes’ campaign during the European meat scandal or even Nando’s famous ‘Fergie time’ campaign where restaurants in Manchester stayed open for five extra minutes? The appeal of this marketing activity is the cost or more accurately the lack of it.
Possibly the best example of how speed is central to this highly effective form of agile marketing is the US biscuit brand Oreo. Famously as the lights went out on the Superbowl in 2013, Oreo tweeted instantly ‘You can still dunk in the dark’.
This cheap and simple tweet made a mockery of the huge TV ad budgets that brands line up to spend during this American sporting extravaganza.
Even measuring the success of this sort of marketing activity comes with its own unique criteria … it’s called the ‘watercooler effect’. There’s no real science to it, it literally asks the question ‘are people talking about our campaign in the office when they grab a plastic cup of cool, refreshing water?’
The appeal of Reactive Marketing is obvious, especially to brands challenging for engagement… it costs very little and offers huge rewards. The industry is starting to find a home for this sort of thing. What used to be known as ‘word of mouth marketing’ is now known as ‘Public Reactions’, ‘Real-time marketing’, ‘Reactive Relations’, and even ‘Talkability’.
But the real question is how’s it done? What’s the secret of this dark art? Well, the simple truth is we could tell you but of course, we’d have to kill you. However, in an attempt to have a sneaky peak behind the curtain here are a few very simple tips if you’re thinking of having a go:
1) Be aware of what’s going on out there and react with speed
2) Be concise with the content
3) Do it with a sense of humour (your customers love to laugh)
If we were to give you another piece of advice it would be ‘talk to us at Just Enough Brave’ Our Art Directors and copywriters are just brimming with ideas and our team are adept at seizing the moment before it’s lost. It may well cost you more than a big box of Snickers but the potential rewards are massive … think about it.