Cookies and Noodles: Moment Marketing 101

During the power outage that halted Super Bowl XLVII, one tweet made a bright impression, becoming one of the most retweeted messages of all time. The tweet itself: “Power out? No problem.” It was accompanied by an image of a dimly lit Oreo and the caption “You can still dunk in the dark.”

In addition to the 16,000+ retweets, it received widespread (mostly positive) media coverage. It’s considered by many the quintessential example of moment marketing.

In another instance, when the chairman of pasta company Barilla Group spoke out against featuring gay families in its advertisements, a social media firestorm ensued. Two days later, Bertolli, a Barilla competitor, posted an image to its social media feeds with the message “Pasta and love for all.”

While Bertolli’s response wasn’t lightning-fast like Oreo’s, it still produced heaps of earned media and garnered a great deal of goodwill, all with minimal resources.

It pays to listen to your competitors, and it pays to monitor current events. If your company can use its unique voice to respond with something novel, funny, insightful, and/or inspiring, the return on resources can be substantial.

Oreo-level buzz is unlikely for most companies; any tweet or Facebook post (from anyone) needs a small miracle of confluence to reach that far. But a message or tweet doesn’t have to take the world by storm to make it meaningful for a brand. This is about proportion, amplification, and reward-to-risk.

Part of the value of social media is that everyone has access to the same set of tools, thus minimizing investment and, thus, fiscal risk compared to the potential reward. One basic set of tools can easily set you up to monitor current events, your competitive environment, or specific topics, and one person’s intelligence, insight, creativity, and good taste is all that’s required to turn that moment into marketing momentum.

We would say “seize the moment” (after encouraging you to contact us if you want to discuss how we can help you set up those tools), but “market the moment” is probably more accurate. So, whether you’re a B2B ingredients company or a large consumer pet products company, go ahead and market the moment—we look forward to retweeting you.