34% of brands have switched to ‘moment marketing’

We are in an era when a consumer’s attention span has dropped to sub-goldfish levels, and advertising through traditional channels is becoming more and more prohibitive. Capturing a customer’s attention ‘in the moment’ is increasingly vital.

According to new research from TVTY, 93% of brand-side marketers say it has become more expensive to gain the same level of audience attention compared to this time last year.  

The research mirrors Harvard Business Review’s research from 2014, which said the return on investment of advertising had meant that getting a consumer’s attention was now a currency in its own right.

As a result, many brands are switching to ‘moment marketing’, focusing larger pools of resource into engaging audiences in more real-time moments – through reacting to events such as sports matches, tv programmes and political announcements.   

A third (34%) of brands involved in TVTY’s study are now taking an even more granular approach, by targeting ‘moments within moments’ or  ‘micro moments’ like “when a specific footballer scores a goal during a match”. 52% say they are now using automated processes to do so, creating adverts to cover off eventualities in the moment and launching display campaigns as a result of certain events.

The research also found that three top triggers for capturing attention were changes in the weather (21%); the TV advertising of competitors (17%); and travel metrics such as flight delays (10%).

“The rapid adoption of moment marketing  has been driven - at least in part - by continuing pressure to optimise ad spend, against a backdrop of the rising cost of consumer attention,” says Eliott Reilhac, CEO at TVTY.  But undoubtedly, moment marketing is also allowing brands to launch highly innovative campaigns that are delivering amazing results.

“Over the next 12 months we expect to see brands widen the variety of triggers they use and launch even more ‘Always Ready’ campaign strategies. The automation trend will continue - clearly, when brands are wanting to react instantly, 24/7, to such triggers, it is virtually impossible to do so manually.”

Not just the Oreo effect

One brand campaign fabled for the ultimate piece of moment marketing, is Oreo with its ‘Dunk in the Dark’ advert during 2013’s Superbowl.

However, whilst Oreo's advert was a piece of spontaneous brilliance, TVTY’s research highlights that success can equally be derived from more carefully planned campaigns.

One example was Actimel, the health drink company, which created an online advertising campaign to highlight its products during what it called more ‘stressful’ moments during the day, such as just before peak commuting time, or if it started raining outside.   

With automated triggers in place, i.e. when the weather trigger was activated, the ad served was of a music band singing a song with the lyrics, “It’s raining, it’s pouring, commuting is boring”.

The results of the campaign were impressive with the number of brand mentions up 218% on social media, and the click-through-rate increasing 39%.

Another example was Walkers Crisps, which, in reaction to a tweet from Gary Lineker earlier in the year that stated he’d present Match of the Day in his underpants if Leicester City won the league, presented a series of adverts up until the Match of the Day that proceeded Leicester City’s subsequent title win.
 Despite already being a globally-renowned brand, Walkers states that the campaign achieved its overall objective with the increase in brand awareness hitting 9%.

Oreo's original piece of 'moment marketing'