Agile marketing is one of the latest trends in marketing but do you know what it is?
What is agile marketing?
Agile marketing is marketing activity that hasn't been several months in the planning but is a quick reaction to a situation or opportunity that can be used to your advantage.
Agile marketing is not a new concept but has been enabled and grown in importance/relevance by digital technology and social media.
You Can Still Dunk In The Dark
One of the best and widely shared examples of agile marketing is Oreo's Super Bowl Tweet: "You Can Still Dunk In The Dark". The tweet went out during a power cut in the Superdome during the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens and was retweeted 10,000 times in one hour!
The 70:20:10 rule
Last week I read a blog post by Econsultancy on agile marketing - "Agile marketing: the 70:20:10 rule", which concluded that the 70:20:10 rule should be applied to your marketing - 70% of your marketing should be planned ‘marketing as usual’ activity, 20% of your marketing should be programmatic (machine-driven marketing that automatically responds to various actions of the user) and 10% should be purely responsive.
At Straight Marketing we firmly believe in the importance of a comprehensive marketing plan that sets out what marketing activities you are going to do and when. Yet we also agree that there needs to be a degree of flexibility and some budget/resource set aside for a reactive approach when an opportunity presents itself.
You don't need to be a global brand with a large marketing budget to make this work.
Last week on the hottest day so far of 2014 we received a marketing email from a UK supplier of USB memory sticks. The email was promoting branded USB fans with the lead message: "why not keep your clients as cool as cucumbers with these nifty little USB fans branded with your logo?"
Selling USB memory sticks must be a tough job. The market is very competitive and it's not a very exciting product. I liked the fact that the company saw a potential opportunity and jumped on it. I wonder how many people sat at their desk on a sweltering hot afternoon took them up on the offer!
Agile marketing can easily be applied in your business. Just keep alert to opportunities and react quickly.
And if the heat is getting to you during this mini heatwave just let us know and we can put you in touch with a supplier of USB fans!