Opinion: Live in the Moment - Five ways to make impactful topical campaigns

Shivani Kamdar of SoCheers talks about how successful moment marketing campaigns can help brands build a positive image in the industry and shares five tips to make topical campaigns impactful.

“Relatability” is the key element in almost every marketing campaign today. Customers connect with those brands who seem to speak the same language as they do (metaphorically and literally), that too about issues that are important to them. How are brands able to establish this connection with their target audience? The answer is topical campaigns or in other words, moment marketing.

Reports define moment marketing as the ability to take advantage of an event to deliver relevant, engaging, spontaneous, and often fleeting interactions with customers in real-time.

Brands today are leveraging moment marketing as a strategy to gain visibility and boost engagement. Therefore, every campaign and its corresponding social media posts and/or events becomes an opportunity for them to strike an emotional chord with their audience and have a conversation. Successful moment marketing campaigns can help brands build a positive image in the industry.

What makes moment marketing different from other approaches is its prerequisite for both agility and accuracy.

Here are the five tips, which can make topical campaigns very impactful.

Keep your brand’s message at the forefront of everything

Moment marketing can turn heads. However, to do this, you need to ensure that the brand’s message isn’t lost in translation. The message is the core of your campaign. In this case, Amul is the first brand that comes to my mind. Every time something catches the eye of people domestically or around the world, Amul is ready with its own “Utterly Butterly” take that captures the imagination of the audience.

Cater to the customer, creatively

The most successful social media campaign is one that’s thoughtfully crafted to reach a target audience, evoke emotions and elicit a response. Whatever moment you’re trying to chase, make sure the campaign communication appeals to the audience. For example, in the case of Pepsi, the brand has managed to evolve its communication with time and stayed relevant to its young adult audience. The “Har Ghoont Mein Swag Hai” anthem launch with Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani and Badshah, “Swag Se Solo” and “Salaam Namaste,” were not only socially relevant and timely but also gave consumers an opportunity to express themselves in a fun and creative way while engaging with the brand.

Also read: Why brands need Moment Marketing & how should they approach it

Infuse humour and engage in brand banters

A little bit of wit, tongue-in-cheek humour coupled with spontaneity dazzles the audiences like none other. For example – Swiggy did a fantastic job, from supporting the farmers' protest or cheering for their competitor brand Zomato for its IPO. The food delivery app not only made the most of these topical moments but also stood out with its communication keeping the brand attribution at the forefront.

Time it well

It’s called moment marketing for a reason, right? If you can’t time it well, you miss the train. Hence, it’s extremely important to be proactive in jumping onto the trend wagon. Amid all the million-dollar commercials that ran during the Super Bowl in 2013, Oreo pulled off a marketing triumph by timely capitalizing on the game's blackout on Twitter. The result of this campaign was off the charts.

Don’t try too hard

In order to chase a trend, or even a micro-moment, don’t take the risk of diluting your brand message or compromising the values it stands for. In other words, don’t overthink it. In many cases, simplicity is the answer. Not all campaigns need clever wordplay or overtly subtle pop culture references. A simple (and direct) sentence can go a long way towards creating a buzz. So, it’s good to get the creative juices flowing, but don’t let the juice flood your brain.

This article piece is authored by Shivani Kamdar, Associate Creative Director, SoCheers