After the Oreo team’s big social media win dominated the post-Super Bowl buzz, a whole lot of people who had never used the phrase “real-time marketing” before started throwing it around like a hot potato.

The point is that pretty much any business whose description includes the words “firm” or “agency” now needs to claim that it has “real-time marketing capabilities” in order to win the interest of big-name clients. McCann Erickson, for example, named its new social media-only division “McCann Always On”. The “RTM” phrase doesn’t just apply to agencies that label themselves “ad” or “marketing”, either — PR wants to “own” social media too, remember?

The problem is that the whole phenomenon just isn’t that simple — and it’s not too terribly revolutionary either. Explaining that to clients, however, may be a bit of a challenge.

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Everybody loved the recent back-and-forth between Kit Kat and Oreo on Twitter, and we’re fond of the “is it an April Fool’s joke or not” concept behind Scope‘s new “bacon mouthwash” campaign. But this little interaction between Charmin (which we love) and Scope on Twitter today shows that sometimes tweeting really is like yelling into the vortex — there’s no one listening on the other end.

.@scopemouthwash We see a trend here.Get on it, Scope! #ScopeBacon #mmmmBacon

— Charmin(@Charmin) March 28, 2013

Our point isn’t to criticize either of these accounts, which are great (Charmin, for example, does potty humor quite well). It’s just to show that social media is an ever-evolving experiment and that social teams and clients can’t expect every single tweet to be a big hit. There’s plenty of room to test the waters as long as you stay on-brand — and therein lies the challenge.

Here’s the bacon mouthwash video for fun:

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Today AdAge brings news that 360i, the digital agency responsible for all those creative Oreo tweets you’ve read so much about this year, will now handle social media marketing for HBO — and this right after we posted on how Game of Thrones always has the best promo swag!

The premium cable giant, which brought its social operations in-house in 2007, chose 360i to create campaigns designed to stir the buzz among fans online. The agency’s team will rep HBO at the same time as the folks at Campfire, the NYC firm responsible for creating several innovative fan engagement campaigns on the channel’s behalf. According to an internal release, Campfire’s latest work for HBO involved the second annual “pledge your allegiance” campaign promoting the release of season 2 on DVD this February.

Click through for a case study video of the release date event, complete with awesome ice sculpture:

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We missed this social media branding win last week, but when the words “Oreo” and “social media” showed up together on our Twitter feed this morning we knew we had to check it out. Seems like the team at 360i (see below)** won again in a friendly exchange between the cookie guys, sort-of rival Kit Kat and a fan who can’t get enough of either. It all started with this:

Can tell I like chocolate abit too much when I’m following @kitkat and @oreo hahahahahah

— LauraEllen (@Laura_ellenxx) March 11, 2013

Kit Kat saw an opportunity and grabbed it two days later:

The fight for @laura_ellenxx‘s affections is on. @oreo your move #haveabreak twitpic.com/cb1g84

— Kit Kat (@KITKAT) March 13, 2013

That evening, Oreo came back and killed it:

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The press, which happens to consist of a bunch of nerds, gave President Obama a bit of flack today for supposedly confusing the Star Wars “Jedi Mind Trick” with the Star Trek “Vulcan Mind Meld”, thereby creating the “Jedi Mind Meld” meme during a speech on some extremely important topic that we’d rather not think about right now. But the White House communications team was more than ready:

We must bring balance to the Force. #Sequester #JediMindMeld twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…

— The White House (@whitehouse) March 1, 2013

Hey Oreo, looks like the folks in government know a thing or two about “real-time marketing”. And yes, the “mind meld” URL does link to a page detailing the President’s deficit reduction plan. The team may not have been as quick on the draw as Han Solo or the cookie guys, but they did paint their sci-fi critics as “a bunch of stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herders.”

The media has rendered its verdict: Despite receiving the message that it’s all about Oreo-style “real time marketing“, brands promoting themselves during last night’s Academy Awards (or “The Super Bowl for women” if you’re a sexist) did not measure up to their Game Day peers, despite paying premium prices for 30-second ad spots. They didn’t quite rock social media either.

The problem? On Twitter, at least, the content felt more than a little forced. We get it: spontaneous humor and topical commentary is hard; you really can’t fake it. Some examples:

We’re just saying: if we were nominated & had to remember a speech, we would probably write it on a #GalaxyNoteII. #GalaxyAtWork

— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) February 24, 2013

Samsung tried hard to be on top of things but mostly came up empty-handed.

Congratulations to Christoph Waltz. #oscars twitter.com/StellaArtois/s… — Stella Artois (@StellaArtois) February 25, 2013

Not quite relevant to the brand, is it? Read more

Twitter hacking is the big thing this week! After hackers turned Burger King into McDonald’s yesterday (and did their best to promote rappers T-Shyne and Chief Keef), the same team hijacked Jeep this morning and turned it into another joke-fest with tweets like this one, which we can only present to you in RT form:

RT @jeep: You’ll never catch @50cent ridin in a Dirty Ass @jeep !!!! #ForDaLuLz #FreeJeep

— PRNewser (@PRNewser) February 19, 2013

This afternoon, reports and tweets named MTV and BET as the latest victims of the hacker wave. One problem, though: they were faking it.

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Today we bring you a guest post from Kelsey Libert reviewing ten top smartphone apps that can help PR pros.

Kelsey is a speaker, entrepreneur, and Internet enthusiast. She’s a chief development officer for a diverse website portfolio, where she runs the content development strategy and execution for several websites.

Thinking on your feet is essential for any PR pro. For example, consider the NFL Super Bowl XLVII ads. When Oreo leveraged a current event the second it happened, it resulted in a free to low cost campaign that earned nearly 15,000 re-tweets and more than 20,000 Facebook likes.

The catch is, in order to be on top of these current events, sometimes you need to be plugged in. This quick line of communication and organization depends largely on people moving quickly with technology. Below you’ll find ten mobile apps that will help you become a PR champion on the go.

1. LogMeIn (iPhone) LogMeIn Ignition (Android)
Mainstream media stories don’t usually coincide with your 9-5 job–some big events will end up happening while you’re off the clock. This is why it’s important to be able to plug into your office computer even when you’re not behind your desk.

The LogMeIn app offers free remote access to your desktop so you can open files, check your email, run programs and stay productive from your mobile device or any computer over the Internet. The LogMeIn app has the same encryption used by online banks, so you don’t even have to worry about security issues.

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Don’t say we didn’t see this coming…

We have a very strong feeling that someone called the heads of Poland Spring‘s PR and marketing teams around 11 last night asking “Are you guys gonna Oreo this one or what?!?!”

While this Facebook post isn’t quite as quick or funny as the cookie company’s Super Bowl blackout messaging win, it’s still pretty good. More importantly, it adds fuel to the ongoing debate: How important will “real-time marketing” strategies be in the future–and what role will public relations play in their design and application?

No matter who’s in the Oval Office, State of the Union speeches always amount to a mishmash of bland platitudes and vague proposals for legislation that will never come to pass.

But they do address very serious matters, so we’re a little disappointed to report that the most buzzed-about moment of last night’s State of the Union events among pundits and legitimate journalists alike was the awkward water grab/sip in the middle of Sen. Marco Rubio‘s SOTU response speech. Still, this meme gives us a great excuse to bring up the importance of prepping clients for interviews and other live, unedited media appearances where they can’t ask for a re-take.

Of course your research must be thorough and the client’s speech must be flawless. He or she must be prepared to respond to any potential question, no matter how tough it might be (even if the response is a confident “no comment”). Finally, your client must be comfortable! A great, camera-friendly outfit won’t mean much if he or she is visibly nervous or jittery–or if a trusty water bottle is not comfortably within reach.

Seriously, who put the bottle so far away from the senator? Details matter! Now how did everyone deal with this little hiccup?

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