Are you working on your real-time marketing with your brand? With all the hype around the term of “real time marketing”, I wonder how many brands are actually taking it seriously? Naturally, real-time is just another facet of a marketing strategy. It can only work as part of a more fundamental marketing eco-system. But, for some companies, I have to believe it is a logical, if not obligatory, part of their mix. Take Google, for example.
Happy new year à la Google
This new year’s eve, as it was coming on midnight, I used my iPhone to check the time (SOP, right?). As the witching hour was approaching, I just wanted to make sure that my iPhone clock was precise, so I went to find the “definitive source” of Greenwich Mean Time. My first port of call? With Chrome opened up, I went to old reliable Google, naturally. Below is the Google homepage I fell upon at 23h59 of December 31, 2014:
No surprises there, right?
My mobile = watching in real-time
Then I got fixated with what Google itself was going to do at midnight. So, I kept checking until well past midnight. I was quite surprised to see that Google UK had not updated its homepage once 2014 was history. At well past midnight (see below), Google was still showing its 2014 homepage. Yet, Google knew that I was in London (after I had certified my location). Obviously, Google knew what time it was. And, still, the 2014 number was top & center.
Talk about not real-time marketing. As much as my mobile phone is a also a timekeeper and the Internet has the exact time, it was logical for me to go on to Google to verify the time at midnight. [I am sure I was not alone in doing that.]
Real-time marketing & the mobile
When it comes to real time marketing, the mobile is a real game changer. {Tweet this!} The mobile is, in its essence, more available and, therefore, more real-time than the desktop. The mobile is very much about being in the now. Any brand whose customers are using their mobile frequently as a way of consuming and/or communicating, real-time marketing is bound to become an important way to engage with your customers. Google may have bigger fish to fry (China, Russia, North Korea…); but, for the rest of us, I take note of companies that are (or are not) executing appropriate real-time marketing.
Tell me your opinion: In the above case, do you think Google just doesn’t care? Did it on purpose? Screwed up? And, more importantly, how do you think real-time marketing could be relevant for your brand? Please do drop in a comment!
[In case you’re wondering, here is the 2014 “Year in Search” video link that was under the search bar]
