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Seizing The Moment
July 23, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. The art of injecting yourself and your brand into a breaking news story, trending event or real life experience is something every radio personality and station should be looking to do. You should always be focused on informing, entertaining and reflecting on 'the moment.' The most successful stations understand that being part of the narrative around real-life events drives relevance and often the memorability of your station. Make a commitment to find interesting and surprising ways to reflect what is happening in the moment. You can achieve that through personality content, promotions, imaging, social media, events, marketing, or all of the above
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With consumers literally being pummelled daily by thousands of pieces of content, cutting through is becoming harder and harder. However, smart brands understand the importance of seizing moments; recognizing that a shortcut to cutting through successfully is to "piggyback" on a real-life event the audience is already engaging in or with. These smart brands are continually searching for opportunities to seize the moment and embed themselves into our memory of that event.
The concept of seizing the moment isn't new. There have been many examples over the years where brands have inserted themselves into the narrative around a real-life event. You must remember Oreo and how they embedded themselves into the 2013 Super Bowl between the 49ers and the Ravens when there was a power blackout...
This is not the only time Oreo have been able to insert themselves into the narrative of a trending news story. They were right there when Kate Middleton gave birth...
And it's not just Oreo that have figured out the importance of seizing the moment, many other brands have as well. When the same sex marriage bill passed Virgin Holidays were there...
When Brad & Angelina split Norwegian Airlines were there...
Now, once again we find ourselves reminded of the importance of seizing the moment. It seems like everyone in the last week has become obsessed with how they're going to look when they're older thanks to FaceApp. For the record, I was already obsessing about the number of grey hairs that seem to be launching a focused invasion of my beard and head so, the last thing I wanted to see was how bad things would get. So, I didn't partake. However, the rest of the world seemed hell-bent on scaring themselves by leaping forward in time to see what old age delight would be staring back at them from the other side of the mirror one day.
There were many brands that recognized that the FaceApp challenge was something their consumers we're engaging with and took the initiative to embed themselves in the narrative. The winner had to be Nivea:
Well done Nivea. (Insert applause here).
Nivea weren't alone, they were joined by many brands like LEGO...
... and many celebrities like the Jonas Brothers...
But, it's not just big brands and celebrities that understand the importance of this. Look at this Animal Shelter in Oklahoma who jumped on the Storm Area 51 story. They chose to dress dogs & cats up as aliens and launched the hashtag #stormtheshelter. Of course they got noticed and talked about...
*Special thanks to Hannah W for tipping me off to this one!
The art of injecting yourself and your brand into a breaking news story, trending event or real life experience is something every radio personality and station should be looking to do. You should always be focused on informing, entertaining and reflecting on 'the moment.' The most successful stations understand that being part of the narrative around real-life events drives relevance and often the memorability of your station. Make a commitment to find interesting and surprising ways to reflect what is happening in the moment. You can achieve that through personality content, promotions, imaging, social media, events, marketing, or all of the above.
The question to be asking yourself; what are you, as a personality, show, or station doing to inject yourself into the conversations the audience are already having?
How are you seizing the moment?
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