Social Media: Brands Celebrate Newsworthy Events

With social media’s ever-growing influence over the past decade, brands have been able to more quickly align themselves to major news events or human accomplishments than possible in the past. Using social channels and digital advertising, brands can reach the masses almost immediately after a relevant news story breaks.

For example, when the lights went out at the SuperBowl earlier this year, Oreo made a deliberate and brilliant move to link the brand back to the Twitter trending topic.  Posting on their Twitter page, “You can still dunk in the dark”, they reached the SuperBowl audience with a relevant and pithy message in real time. This was a simple and inexpensive tactic, generating a great deal of awareness on the social channel and also positive PR. Plus, Oreo was able to generate comparable buzz without spending a dime on media fees.

Most recently with the repeal of DOMA, numerous marketers have utilized brand imagery to support their viewpoint and align themselves to social change. For example, Kraft’s Grey Poupon altered their classic scene of two wealthy gentlemen sharing mustard into a simple, straightforward message of acceptance. Implying their support of the decision, Poupon and its ad has generated much discussion and attention on its Facebook page along with praise from the industry and public news outlets.

These successful examples were possible through trusting relationships between agencies and their clients. Without this trust, the element of surprise would be impossible and the message would be stale and lagged.

Images are copyright of their originators. Images here obtained from:

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/digital-marketers-jump-doma-decision-150759

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/oreos-super-bowl-tweet-dunk-dark_n_2615333.html

-Jordan Bainer is a senior account executive at d.trio marketing group