Eclipse 2017

Real-time marketing. Responsive marketing. Live marketing. Reactive marketing. Call it what you want, except for strategic and original - in the case of how many brands "reacted" to the solar eclipse in August. This area of social media has been a hot commodity ever since that tweet when the lights went out at Super Bowl XLVII. Brands want to "be relevant" and "take advantage of current conversations" when engaging in this type of execution. But what happens when many brands are doing this surrounding the same event?

You get a twitter feed flooded of cookies, pizzas, hamburgers, chicken rings and logos all covering up the sun. It turns into a sea of sameness (pardon my industry buzz-term) and you end up being part of the clutter, rather than your original intention of breaking through it. 

Some examples below. You get the idea. 

And then you have this piece of non-searched insensitivity. 

For those of you who don't know one of the best European defensive midfielders of his time, that's Edgar Davids. He was also diagnosed with glaucoma during his tenure with Juventus. He has said that this was a major blow to him during the time in his career and he was extremely worried that he would have to retire.

This type of marketing can have a huge impact for your brand, good OR bad. The key is to have a strong and relevant connection to your brand in the conversation. Like one of my favorite tweets during the eclipse from the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Just because you can chime into a trendy conversation doesn't mean you should. The world doesn't need a post from Olive Garden in support of National Dentists Day, having breadsticks photoshopped as toothbrushes. 

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