Are you going with the trend?

While digital marketing is a boon for marketers, moment marketing has introduced a whole new dimension in recent years. Running static marketing ideas are practices of the past. Consideration of current events and happenings is the current trend and this trend is here to stay.

Moment marketing is embracing current events by creating campaigns around it that people can relate to. Through this, you are more likely to reach your target audience. In other words, moment marketing is delivering the right message at the right time to hit people’s consciences. Moment marketing uses offline and online experiences of events for online interactions. Brands have become reactive to the momentary happenings.

With Pepsi starting a campaign of "Har ghoonth me swag" for the high DU cut-offs to Manforce immediately capitalizing on Arnab’s Sunny Deol to the legendary Oreo, ‘dunk in the dark’ tweet during the Super Bowl in 2013, these popular brands try to be in a constant loop with the common people. Brands have always found ways to be a part of people's lives and they try to leverage the events and use in their advertisements to be a part of the moment.

We spoke to industry experts to get their opinion on this trend.

Moment marketing works in an environment where it should be relevant to both the consumers and the brand. Brands are very spontaneous in leveraging their position by encashing the latest happenings in the offline world. It has become necessary for brands to associate and it is not a one-way channel. Both ways interactivity is a new way out because power has shifted from brands to consumers. Brands are no longer in an authoritative position.

By using puns and references, brands do market the moment. In my opinion, a brand is strong if it touches lives. The brand must touch the consumer emotionally, aspirationally, physically and spiritually. Every moment can be a touchpoint. Brands using the REAPS model do well. Brands are not built in factories or shelves of stores. They are built in the intentions and hearts of consumers. Many people call these interactive moments as ‘moments of truth‘. 

How beneficial is moment marketing for brands?

This is an era where most often the world is hooked on to all kinds of screens, almost for everything, it's important to keep in mind which moment is relevant for a brand to come in contact with their audience. Moment marketing works great if the brand knows and understands its audience's emotions. So with the right data, and some bit of quick planning, latching on to a particular moment/event can work wonders for the brand. 

This is the best thing that has happened to the digital space in a long time. It has opened up a new window that allows brands to engage with its consumers in a space of their own liking. Also, conversation points that would previously create a spike, but just end by being a headline in a newspaper, now has the potential to become creative for a brand that its audiences can engage with. 

It has become very necessary for brands to associate, to be a part of the moment. As the Internet audience continues to grow and be more engaged with topical activities, brands will constantly find newer channels to engage through conversation points of their audience's choice. Be it the launch of a movie, a new government coming to power, or a celebrity kid wearing a certain brand of clothing, the new dialogue would be one between the brand and the audience discussing it. One of the earliest brands that jumped on the phenomenon was Amul Butter. Every nineties kids' nostalgia is filled with illustrations that were on the back of the butter packs and spoke about something that was trending at that time. Decades later, it is still a case study for moment marketing, with brands hoping to reach that level of recall value with their marketing efforts”. 

Keeping all the positive aspects, moment marketing must be done extremely carefully as to not hurt the sentiments. It should be done to break the clutter.