Politics and Oreos

The President gave his State of the Union Speech on Tuesday. While the rhetoric was basically the same old same, plenty of folks still found inspiration or hope in his words. Not me. It’s not that I’m jaded to words like “Hope” or “progress” I just have’t seen a whole lot of either out of this administration. Take this headline from USA Today:

“Obama’s State of the Union shifts focus to economy, jobs”

Shifts focus? Where has it been? I could have sworn this guy’s been “talking” about the economy and jobs since day one. Perhaps that’s the problem, too much talk. Oh oh, and my favorite, he’s finally talking about infrastructure again! Maybe while campaigning around the country he was actually privy to the deteriorating conditions of our nation’s roads and bridges and wants to do something about it? No? Just another filler line for the press? Shucks.

One major change in the past few years has been the increasing influence and prevalence of Twitter. The social network has altered the way we as a country partake in national events like the #SOTU. Unfamiliar with Twitter still? Tsk Tsk. The greatest part about Twitter for me is how people are using it to comment instantly on what’s happening, as it happens. Not only do you get some great jokes and commentary, but it also makes fact checking a bit easier.

Another thing about Twitter is that it really is instant. The way we communicate and even the way brands communicate with us is evolving every day. Instead of waiting for a letter or email from a large company, you can now “tweet” their customer service teams, and in most cases  get an answer in minutes, not hours or days. One great brand success story came during the Super Bowl when the stadium lost power. One of the quickest to respond was Oreo® with the tweet seen to the right.

“You can still dunk in the dark”. Sounds simple, but it went viral, fast. A win for their marketing team and likely a larger return for them than the millions spent on their actual Super Bowl ad.

These opportunities come fast, and brands, politicians, and the like now know that they need to seize them.

One missed opportunity came during the State of the Union response from the GOP when Marco Rubio grabbed for his bottle of Poland Springs water mid speech. Twitter went wild for it. Rubio even posted a little tweet poking fun at himself afterwards. Unfortunately Poland Spring didn’t jump on it and missed out on a HUGE opportunity.

Our society’s demand for instant gratification isn’t going away. We want things and we want them quickly. Now if we could only leverage that demand and turn it into something good… you know… like roads and bridges maybe?

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