One of the best ways to promote your company is by following sports events in real-time. Why? Because, when you have a campaign such as ones mentioned below, people don’t think it’s an ad, they are focused on this story, and they are more likely to share it. I love this kind of marketing and I believe that all future big events will (or at least should) have some real-time marketing (Super Bowl, EURO 2016, Olympic games…).
Why don’t all events have real-time marketing? If you’ve ever attempted to run a real-time marketing campaign, you know how challenging it can be. There are so many factors involved in getting it right: creating compelling content, understanding your audience, connecting to your audience at the right time, choosing the right real-time events to engage with…(socialmediatoday.com) You need to have a team of professionals for every such event, which is expensive and one of the reasons this isn’t possible every time.
Why should companies do real-time marketing during sports events? Because all companies want to turn their customers into their fans. When customers become your fans, everything else, even selling, is easier. On the other side, you have clubs and athletes, who already have fans, and they can easily sell them everything they want. It’s a fact.
Because of that, companies and brands need to invest (and they doing this are more and more) in sports. Despite all the challenges, real-time marketing offers up some serious benefits. It has the potential to be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal (socialmediatoday.com).
Below, you will see some examples of real-time sports marketing. I believe you will like these and maybe get an idea for your real-time marketing campaign.
HEATHROW AIRPORT
February 1st was the last day for football transfers in Europe. Deadline Day is always interesting in English Premier League, because many big transfers happen “last minute”.
Heathrow airport made a great real-time marketing campaign for Deadline Day. Focus of their campaign were clubs from London, because every new player who comes to any of the clubs from London (Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal etc.) probably comes in through Heathrow airport.
SPOTTED: Wenger reaches new heights in @Arsenal striker search… #thisisgettingawkward #DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/f8jedXOiFN
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) February 1, 2016
We’ve heard reports of two famous faces waiting in the Madrid arrivals hall #DeadlineDay #RealMadridFeederClub #COYS pic.twitter.com/SAN4qzrTcF
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) February 1, 2016
@ShamzyCFC @ChelseaFC We know there’s still time to get a Europa League place… pic.twitter.com/rVLneusgcI
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) February 1, 2016
Don’t worry @ChelseaFC fans, it’s going to be a busy summer for you (and for us)… #DeadlineDay #13thintheleague pic.twitter.com/QpLYUbIpsu
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) February 1, 2016
Some liked this communication, some didn’t. But, something is for sure, they attracted attention. What do you think? Please share your opinions in comments below.
OREO
I don’t know if you remember a great example from the Super Bowl XLVII that was played in New Orleans. When the lights went out in the Superdome for a torturous 34 minutes, Oreo was ready.
“Power out? No problem,” their tweet read, accompanied by a hero image that pointed out, “You can still dunk in the dark.”
They reacted quickly, and almost everyone in the world saw it. With this tweet, they changed advertising on social media, forever! They promoted product with a story that happened in real-time. People retweeted the story, not the brand.
You can only imagine how many people saw this ad in the real-time, and how many media had an article about them just because of this Tweet.
WORLD CUP
During 2014 World cup, Luis Suarez bit Giorgio Chiellini at the end of the game Urugvay – Italy. While everyone in the world was wondering if this actually happened during a football match, Snickers marketing team had something ready.
They tweeted him, “Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers”. And you can imagine how viral it has gone!
After Snickers, there were a few other ads mentioning this particular situation, but it was too late. Snickers marketing team reacted first and their ad grabbed all the attention. 45.093 retweets looks really impressive.
VICTOR VALDES
One more interesting example comes from the football world. When Manchester United moved Victor Valdes from first team to reserves, he was unhappy and decided to show this on his Twitter account.
…..? #respect pic.twitter.com/LSnwz1HfDB
— Victor Valdes (@1victorvaldes) July 16, 2015
Company Jet 2 saw this as a great opportunity to make an ad. They had a funny reply to Victor Valdes’ tweet, and they caught a lot of attention with it. Along with a message mocking Victor Valdes, they’ve attached a map of Europe with possible destinations for the Spanish goalkeeper. Just to be clear, cities showed on the map below are destinations to which you can fly with Jet 2. Clever and fast, isn’t it?
Real-time marketing looks really easy when you look at these exaples. Now try it, and experience how difficult it is to make such graat ads in short period of time. If you succeed, you will have great visibility on the internet and in the media, because everyone likes interesting stories.
