Xtraordinary Women Magazine April 2015 | Page 28

BEING RELEVANT IN A BUSY MARKET Dictionary Meaning of Topical: of immediate relevance, interest, or importance owing to its relation to current events Synonym: Current, up to date, up to the minute, contemporary, recent, newsworthy, in the news, vital, timely, popular, trendy,, buzzworthy. April 2015 Topical Advertising Topical advertising is the idea of taking tactical advantage of a news story or something current and creating a piece of communication that would resonate with your direct target audience. Topical communications can get the business extra coverage and business exposure that they would not ordinarily have received. This exposure can grow organically if it’s something that the business’s target audience is interested in and talking about. Linking any piece of communication to a topical or relevant news story allows the brand to show off their ability to react to their community’s needs and vested interests. It allows for the business culture, ethics, values and voice to be heard through the style of the communication shared. Whether it’s via creative humour, empathy or just making a human rights statement – it shows their target market that they’re on the ball and have their customer’s best interests and needs at heart. There is of course the added opportunity of gaining media coverage from your piece of communication – due to its creative direction and public statement – be it smart, funny, controversial or an activists dream…where there’s a statement there’s a potential news story. The key in being topical and relevant in a fast and highly engaged market is to ensure that you surruound yourself with marketing support team who will see the opportunity and immediate act on it. It is vital to have a public statement within the first 8 hours of the topic hitting the media or community.