#Neuland - Real-time Marketing

Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Heat pours through the tilted windows into the office – today's summer has Eichenzell firmly in its grip. Suddenly, there's a "ping" and a Twitter message pops up on Guido Neuland's screen: "The Chancellor is advertising for @_neuland — that something like that is allowed :D"

What? The Chancellor is promoting Neuland?

One thing is clear – Obama is in Berlin that day and there's a public appearance in front of the Brandenburg Gate. But that the Chancellor would be doing "product placement" with Neuland products there? That can't be right. So, let's investigate. And indeed – she simply said, "The internet is uncharted territory for all of us." So, no advertising after all. What a shame!

#Neuland

The online community quickly and intensely reacted to the phrase from Berlin, making "Neuland" (new territory) the word of the day, even displacing "Obama Berlin." We could quickly see the surge of interest in this term reflected in the traffic to the Neuland website. A well-disposed SEO expert sent an email suggesting we capitalize on this momentum.

So it is advertising after all?

Yes – a little. But is this positive for us? If the online community is upset about this remark, it's because the term "uncharted territory" doesn't have positive connotations in this context. But it doesn't have to stay that way. So how can you rephrase a sentence to give it a positive meaning? Brandy Agerbeck likes to use this method and calls it the "positive twist."

Successful thanks to a "positive twist"

In fact, with a slight rearrangement of the sentence, something can be done with it. Initial drafts are created, along with a slider for the website. And lo and behold: Ms. Merkel's sentence actually works as advertising for us. Just a little fine-tuning – and already "likes" are piling up on the Facebook page and positive comments are filling our email inbox.
Eventually, the press takes notice and questions this real-time marketing campaign, which we hadn't planned at all. But you don't always have to plan everything – sometimes you just have to react.

Our heartfelt thanks therefore go to: Angela Merkel, @reichweite, @helgethomas, @peterhense, @lang_bene, ‏@SebastianHalm, Jan P. Zink and everyone else who contributed in some small way to this spontaneous project.