Yousef Tuqan Tuqan is Leo Burnett’s regional chief innovation officer
“The Oreo moment. You know it, I know you do. You’ve seen it in every presentation in every marketing conference you’ve been to this year.
And every client has held it up and asked their agency why they can’t give her brand an ‘Oreo moment’ as well. And that was before Ellen took her Samsung Selfie.
The growth of Twitter’s popularity and the speed of timeline analysis that Facebook now offers means that brands have the ability to live in their audience’s streams and capture moments of excitement or interest as they happen in real-time.
Suddenly, the concept of cycles of client approvals and long-term content calendars seem outdated in a world where consumers see an increasingly blurred line in their social streams between their friends and their brands. They expect brands to wade into conversation, and serve as the connectors between as they live moments of excitement or disappointment.
The opportunity to have our own Oreo moments is incredible, so long as we can get past our fears. Working in an era of ‘always-on’ marketing means that since brands have the opportunity to engage their audience in real-time, consumers will increasingly expect it.
In March, Cheeto’s Arabia jumped on the ‘Shut Up Your Mouse Obama!’ meme’s bandwagon with the tweet “Cheesy yes, cheesy yes! Salty no, salty no!” This was made even more hilarious by the Lay’s Arabia Twitter response – “Shut up your mouse, Chester! Salty yes!” – combined, those messages were retweeted more than 800 times.
And in May, during the recent opening of the iconic Jawhara (Jewel) Stadium in Jeddah, the halftime show led to a delay in the resumption of the final of the King Abdullah Cup between the Al Shabab and Al Ahli football teams.
As numerous fans sarcastically waded in with their tweets via the (translated) “#Jewel_Stadium_Opening” hashtag about all the things they could have done between the two halves – like going home for a nap – McDonald’s Arabia spotted the trend and added its own voice to the conversation with a tweet that said “You could go to McDonald’s and come back between the two halves”.
That was it. A simple joke that captured the spirit of the moment. Within 24 hours, the brand had received 1,719 retweets, 2,900 new followers and lots of love from their Saudi fans.
What these two stories have in common is that they represent small ‘Oreo moments’ for our own regional brands. They are the expression of a new mode of thinking in which brands can target moments instead of markets, and be ‘always on’ for their fans.
It’s a brave brand that is ready to adopt this new way of thinking, but it’s here to stay, and if you are ready to accept the occasional misstep along the way, we can all find our Oreo moments.”
