192 THE POWER OF VISUAL STORYTELLING research and testing before campaigns get the go-ahead. RTM demands a more flexible approach, often with more autonomy than these depart- ments are used to. Even if a brand’s products are not suited to on-the-fly promotion or quick responses (for example, many companies in highly regulated indus- tries have heavy involvement from the legal team before anything can be released), RTM can still be used to monitor responses, gauge customer involvement, or provide market research. If you think past the more headline-grabbing examples and you look into how data and analytics can work for you, you may find that there are many ways you can make use of the insights they provide. Obviously, RTM gone wrong can lead to negative buzz. There have been some notable tweets or Facebook posts in response to events that have been in particularly bad taste. Kenneth Cole famously made a joke at the expense of the violent Cairo uprisings, and the food website Epicurious sent out a tweet that seemed to make light of the Boston bombings. The marketers behind them had jumped on the RTM bandwagon too eagerly. There is a time and a place for promotion, and this wasn’t the time or the place. Some companies’ unfortunately prescheduled tweets have caused cus- tomers’ indignation. News of supermarket giant Tesco’s involvement in the horsemeat scandal had just broken when this tweet came from its account: “It’s sleepy time so we’re off to hit the hay! See you at 8 a.m. for more #TescoTweets.” There was public outrage at what looked like a horse-re- lated pun at a time when the company’s customers were shocked that they may have eaten contaminated meat. Tesco quickly apologized, saying that 17 the “tweet was scheduled before we knew of the current situation.” Real-time marketing is not just about composing messages. It is also about monitoring output as it relates to the public mood. In the exam- ples just cited, a more receptive strategy would have made sure that future tweets were filtered against social and topical information before they went out, which would have prevented an embarrassing situation. Not all RTM social media fails have been quite so badly judged. Sometimes coming across as unoriginal or tacky can be detrimental to a