Timing it right: What Oswald’s ‘Our Day’ moment can teach brands about moment marketing
- quagrainej
- Oct 24, 2022
- 2 min read
Sometimes the best blessings come when you least expect it.
That was the story of Oswald Gennuh, a young boy who just wanted to have a fun ‘Our Day’ at school but ended up being one of the biggest stories of 2020 in Ghana and showed local brands a thing or two about the power of moment marketing.
Moment marketing is just as the name sounds -taking advantage of a unique event or trending topic to enhance your brand’s awareness ‘in the moment’ through clever brand communication and relevant content that fits the occasion.
With the right timing and clever communication it has the tendency to go viral. Around the world brands have created some memorable campaigns. Take for example, Oreo’s blackout tweet that generated six thousand likes.
But this is the first time in recent times that such a campaign has gone overwhelmingly viral in Ghana.
Over 50 companies in Ghana jumped aboard this cute story and got the whole nation talking about it on Twitter. The original tweet that sparked the virality currently has almost 24000 likes and 9000 retweets. Find the tweet below:
There are numerous lessons brands can pick up for their marketing strategy but I want to highlight just two that stood out for me.
1. TIMING MATTERS A LOT
The timing of your involvement in a trending issue or topic is the biggest factor in moment marketing. Jump in too early and you might appear like a fish out of water. Jump in too late, and you might miss the train.
Also, you need to be sure the occasion is something that won’t hurt your brand if you do decide to jump in. Some small business owners make this mistake all too often. It makes you appear desperate. That’s a cringe move!
Remember, in your growth stage you have to be strategic with every step you take, and being everywhere on every topic shouldn’t be one of them.
2. BE HUMAN
The goal of every brand’s communication should be to establish a human connection with their audience. After all, you are communicating with human beings who are going to buy from you.
How you appeal to the emotional factor in a buyer’s decision making is critical.
Being human also means not being salesy.
Moment marketing thrives on just that — the moment. It’s not a time to let people know you have a new product.
Your goal should be to get them to notice you for anything other than making profit off them. Acts of kindness, empathy or genuine humour should be at the heart of your communication if you really want to have that positive effect. Then in the long term, you will be rewarded with their money.
CONCLUSION
Oswald’s moment taught brands a great deal on how to take charge of occasions to go viral.
It shows how effective moment marketing, coupled with other marketing techniques can be.
In Ghana, we don’t see brands utilize this very often, but don’t be afraid to venture into lesser known territories. There could be a treasure in store for you. But remember to be human first, while timing it right.
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