What is Reactive marketing & PR, and why you need it?

💥 It’s time to be reactive…

What we’ll cover in this blog;

👉🏽 An understanding of what reactive marketing and PR is and the role it plays

👉🏽 Why you need it in your business

👉🏽 Who needs to be teams/people who can implement it

👉🏽 The Do’s and Don’ts

Social media has been a force to be reckon with over the past years. It plays such a big part in consumer buying behaviour and their decisions on where, what and who to buy from.

With a fast moving world, comes first moving marketing and PR and being able to take advantage of that adds more brand value and equity.

Reactive marketing and PR is a great way to get your brand out there in a engaging and meaningful way. Yes, there is a place for standard marketing and PR, but having the ability to be able to jump on topics, conversations and provide expertise and insights is so valuable. It’s also a chance to be creative and get your brand involved in a way your competitors might not be.

Building this function into your marketing plan is sometimes overlooked or not even thought about. Yes, having a strong online presence is a key part to any brand in this day and age, but it should be working in conjunction with all of your marketing efforts (multi-channel of course).

One of things that we believe is that it should be part of any marketing plan, having a ‘reactive’ strategy built in. This is such an integral part to a business and by having a team in place that can be responsive in ‘real time’ can ensure that your always in consumers minds and the forefront of conversations.

Depending on where your audience(s) sits and what they engage with, consumers are savvy and love to see the brands they love getting involved in topics, news and events that are trending.

Just look at AU Vodka social content with Jake Paul leading up to #PaulvsFuryfight 👇🏽:

(📸 AU Vodka Instagram)

KFC 'FCK' reactive campaign 2018. 📹 Ad week YouTube

So, what do you need to be reactive?

💥 If you’re going managing this in-house - make sure your team are clear on what topics/news to be reactive to. Making sure that it relates to your business and/or industry that you work in

💥 If you’re working with an external agency (like us for example). They should be briefed and clear on what areas, topics and news they should be reacting too

💥 You have the TIME to be reactive. Yes, if you’re a leader/owner or spokesperson for the company and you’re required to provide a comment for any media outlet (print, radio, TV, jump on a call etc). You have the time to do it. The media doesn’t wait and won’t wait for you. If you can’t do it, someone else will (could be your competitor 😬)

💥 Whatever the topic and/or news angle, you should use this to show your brands personality, creativity, expertise, knowledge and insight

💥 You can reach more (even potential) consumers who might not be engaged with you on socials or in general

💥 It’s a great way to engage in conversations and even create conversations with your audience(s) across all channels

💥 Make sure that your getting involved in the right topics that are aligned with your brand/values and personality

💥 Creativity… the team can turn around strong creative in a timely manner (which is also important.) There are some things that can’t wait for the next day. So, if you have an in-house creator or even work with an agency, having a team that can turn around assets like Insta posts, Reels, TikToks and even Memes quickly is great for engaging with live conversations.

All of the above will help build brand reach and presence.

What you should avoid❗️

😬 Jumping on things because ‘everyone else is’. If it’s not suitable for your brand it will look inauthentic and kinda desperate.

Just like when everyone jumps on awareness days! It’s not needed.

😬 The topic does not related to your business - honestly just don’t do it

😬 Not understanding culturally references or approaching them in the wrong way - again, just don’t do it

😬 Anything that isn’t suited to your brands personality, values and ethos

😬 Conversations that aren’t suitable for your brand or could offend your audience(s) and/or cultures and sub-cultures

😬 Controversial topics or lack of understanding on topics - again this could offend so don’t do it

If you’re unsure or you know this isn’t going to go down well, our advice ❌ is just avoid.

🏝️LoveIsland on Twitter (not at peak time)

💨 Speed is key

When it comes to being reactive, yes speed is key. But, you need to trust your team or agency to produce and upload without having to go through a approve process.

Example, if your brand targets Gen Z consumers and can be linked to Love Island 🏝️, that content needs to be up between 9pm - 10pm #peakpostingtime. Any later the impact, relevance and conversation would of died down. These conversations and reactiveness needs to be LIVE updated and tweeted while the show is on and audience conversation is peak! Some brands who are good at this are EBay, Pretty Little Thing, Look Fantastic, Boots etc.

When it comes to this strategy, not having an approval process is important as you can jump on relevant conversations, trends and topics when it’s happening.

Just like the example above, being seen and getting involved in conversations and TV shows with your audience shows that you understand them and builds brand personality and equity in their eyes.

We find that sometimes brands aren’t really clear if their marketing is working or bringing in results. That’s why when we work with clients we carry out regular reporting, idea generation and create a reactive marketing and PR function. The real benefit in this, is that it starts to build a picture of how successful marketing efforts are, what content is and has worked, but also builds a picture of what isn’t working and what we can learn from that.

As we mentioned above the world of marketing is fast moving and as a brand you not only need a solid marketing plan in place, but a reactive strategy to build more reach and engagement. Having a solid in-house or external team that can help keep track of trends, topics and conversations and create solid social content in a timely manner and not lose track of what’s happening is so valuable as it will build brand value.

🗣️ If you’re interested in reactive marketing and PR and looking for support with your in-house team or work with an agency - like us, get in touch or check out our services.