Social media are increasingly populated with brand messages that are linked to timely events, a practice that is also known as real-time marketing (RTM). In this study, we examine whether RTM is an effective strategy to boost sharing behaviour, and if so, what moment-and content-related characteristics contribute to its effectiveness. A content analysis of brand tweets from Nielsen's top-100 advertisers (n ¼ 1500) shows that RTM positively affects word of mouth. RTM is especially a more effective strategy when brand messages are linked with unpredictable events (vs. predictable). This can be explained by the meaningfulness dimension of creativity; brands make a more meaningful connection to timely moments in unpredictable RTM than in predictable RTM. Furthermore, we found support for the beneficial effects of moment-driven visuals; RTM messages are shared more when public events are visually integrated with those messages. No such effect was found for moment-driven hashtags.

A challenge in digital content marketing is to create meaningful messages on meaningful moments. To do so, brands frequently align social media messages with topical moments, also known as Real-time Marketing (RTM). While RTM aims to make meaningful connections, the creative development is subject to time pressure due to its real-time nature, which could have a negative effect on originality and craftsmanship, two other creativity dimensions besides meaningfulness which drive consumer responses. We address this tension by examining the creative crafting of RTM on Instagram and its consequences. Based on a content analysis of 516 Instagram messages, we indeed found a meaningfulness bias for RTM, such that meaningfulness comes at the expense of originality and craftsmanship. However, the findings from the content analysis, as well as an additional experiment (N = 245), showed that only craftsmanship and originality, and not meaningfulness, positively induced consumer responses. Implications are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract