Today all brands want to be the first to jump on a trend, but what are the rules in this world of immediacy? We joined the winning team of the Real Time Engagement category of the recent edition of IAB Mixx 2019 with the case “La Suerte Está Con México”. We spoke with Ignacio Márquez, Omar Martínez (Strategic Intelligence Manager) and José Carlos Hernandez (Digital Intelligence Coordinator) from the agency Beker/Socialand.
AW360: What is the secret behind the success of a Real Time action?
OM: Well, I think that first of all there has to be timely detection of the trends, that is, having the right tools and the sensitivity of the team is vital to be able to have a map of what is happening in the world and has the potential, after that you also have to be an expert and master the brands you work with, because beyond wanting to get on a trend is to understand which of them is really doing a match with your tone and manner, with your positioning, even with your philosophy or brand essence.
JC: Of course, trend detection is probably the easiest thing to do. Our differential is that the Intelligence team today also takes a position of “curator” of the information. It is very important that there is a filter before arriving with internal and external clients, because there will be thousands of trends per day or even per hour, however, it is not possible to join all of them for legal, social or simply because they do not go with the image or values of the brand. Our team knows these premises and with this awareness, the opportunity of each trend is defined.
IM: A concrete example is “The luck is with Mexico”, we already had a clear strategy for the brand to build around the special edition bottle of the World Cup as a talisman for the selection, so when the “luck” of Mexico depended on Korea it made all the sense to go to the embassy even if we did not know clearly what was going to happen there.
AW360: What is the dynamic between creative and intelligence?
OM: We try not to work by blocks or areas, we don’t have that vision that Intelligence and planning start the research and then creative works the idea. Rather, all of us, working in an advertising and digital world, have a certain sensitivity that allows us to give input or suggestions of possible trends or things that we see on our Facebook wall or Instagram etc… later, the specialty of each one comes in: Intelligence and Planning seek to test these hypotheses of the teams and the alignment to the brand, constantly touching base with the creative team to get to know the findings or part of the research in real time and inspire ideas, to have a proposal as soon as possible and presentable to the client.
AW360: How is the dynamic with the brand?
OM: Same as our internal dynamics, the client is part of the team so once we identify an opportunity or potential trend, we touch base with the brand team so that they are aligned and know what is happening on our side and that they also give us feedback on the focus of the actions we propose.
AW360: How do you convince a brand to do something in Real Time?
IM: Convincing them is not very difficult, I believe that 95% of brands want and choose teams that propose this type of action.
JC: It happens almost spontaneously, for example, during the World Cup other actions had been agreed upon and during the development of the game other actions were proposed. Today we know (because we have verified it several times) that when we detect a trend, we have the opportunity to “capitalize” the moment by generating engagement, scope, interactions, visualizations, etc. It is very important to explain in detail the potential of an action of this type, give the customer peace of mind by telling that exposing your brand in this way has multiple benefits by taking advantage of the massiveness of “eyes” attentive to the subject.
There is a lot of work behind such an action, however, decisions must be made at the moment and of course there is a feeling of great uncertainty that can permeate the client as well, because they must be perfectly coordinated Brand Managers and internally to the Digital Intelligence team with the Creative and Operative team.
AW360: What are the risks?
IM: It depends on the idea, but the risks are not very different from those of any campaign or any type of action. The difference is that there are fewer eyes and filters, and online anything can be a meme in 5 minutes, everything is very fast. That’s why we have to be very intelligent in what we propose and anticipate how it can go wrong and put that kind of scenario on the table, it would be completely irresponsible from the agency not to talk about the risks of whatever we propose. There can always be results that no one imagined, negative as positive, with Traditional we never imagined that the video would appear on news around the world.
JC: Our mission is to be guardians of the brand and to be congruent with our communication. Possible risks can also be measured or found through a perception listening on an action.
AW360: Can any brand do Real Time Creativity?
OM: Yes, we believe that with the right tools and teamwork between agency and brands you can generate proposals that stand out in real time issues, always bearing in mind that it is not about just using the tendency or contingency, but as we said before with a planning and brand focus, but only result in communication and inconsistent efforts.
JC: Trends and opportunities are out there being formed, and part of our job is to understand them and apply them as appropriate to the brands. Creativity is a highly moldable tool, and the data we can collect beforehand helps us land a more detailed approach.
AW360: What are the benefits for the brand?
OM: Well, we think there are different kinds of benefits, the most attractive for everyone is: the brand presence in the conversation of what’s happening, that translated into reach, impressions and interaction with our content, but I think something even more valuable than that is that the brand proves to be culturally and socially relevant, as someone who lives and interacts in the same way and at the same pace as the consumers themselves.
JC: Actions of this kind with so much impact help strengthen the presence of a brand like José Cuervo around the world. Today we know that gaining relevance has a very high monetary and temporal cost, however, thanks to the possibilities given us today by the immediacy of the Internet and social networks, we can gain those spaces without an investment, that is also a great benefit.
IM: We can even change the perception of the brand, especially with actions of good will, with Viva Aerobús we have created several opportunities that have become news, for example at the beginning of the summer that we took the child who dreamed of making sand castles to the beach, and while other brands climbed doing memes we built brand reputation.