• by Derek Gordon , September 15, 2009

Within moments of shouting "You lie" at President Barack Obama during his speech last week to a joint session of Congress regarding healthcare reform efforts, Rep. Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, became the latest hot topic on the Internet. 

Almost instantly, the relatively obscure Congressman became the top search on Google, Yahoo Search and Bing.  His name dominated tweets on Twitter and became a top topic of posts to news streams on Facebook.  The blogosphere erupted.

His even less-well-known political opponent, Democrat Rob Miller, an Iraq war veteran who is running for Wilson's seat in the 2010 election, got his own online impact: as of last Friday, he had received $750,000 in unsolicited Web-based campaign contributions, according to Politico.com. 

After apologizing, Wilson appeared on the conservative talk show circuit on Thursday and began running PPC ads on Google. I did searches on "Joe Wilson" and "Rob Miller," and for both terms there were two PPC ads: one with the headline "Stand with Joe Wilson" and the URL JoeWilsonforCongress.com;  the other had the headline "Stop Obamacare" with the URL VoiceforFreedom.com.

As of Friday, Wilson had raised $200,000 since his outburst, according to Politico.  Though netting far fewer dollars than his opponent so far, Wilson had managed to add to his campaign coffers by acting quickly.  And VoiceforFreedom.com also got in on the action.

No matter how you may feel about the whole episode, this is of course, only the latest example of a totally unexpected meme rising on the Internet in the aftermath of an unexpected, unpredictable event.  But by being at the ready to exploit an opportunity in the event's aftermath, PPC managers can drive real value to their brands (or causes or candidates).

For instance, immediately following Michael Jackson's unexpected and untimely death, PPC results for a search on the singer mirrored what you might expect to see in a pre-MJ-has-died scenario: where to buy his music, associated videos and movies.  In the days that followed, however, advertisers included MTV, AARP, Biography and Bing, each capitalizing on his death for a number of perfectly legitimate reasons.

Here in the Bay Area, locals were mesmerized over the Labor Day weekend as a section the size of a football field on the eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge was cut out and moved away on rails suspended above the Bay.  A new, temporary detour section was then slid into its place as part of a huge bridge replacement effort.  But that wasn't the surprising thing.

What was surprising was the role a lowly household product played in this Herculean engineering feat.  It turns out the rails, which were conveying tons and tons of heavy steel, were lubricated by Dove dishwashing liquid.  Dove! 

Local bloggers and press loved this little unexpected detail.  A search for SF Bay Bridge during this time revealed a PPC ad by Dawn dishwashing liquid -- that's Dawn and not Dove. 

I can only guess  why Dove was asleep at the switch while Dawn was Johnny-on-the-spot with ads. You see, Dawn has its own San Francisco Bay claim to fame.  Over the years there have been a number of catastrophic oil and fuel spills in the Bay's busy shipping lanes.  When this happens (the latest was just a few years ago), birds and other wildlife are almost immediately covered in the stuff, and rescue and clean-up efforts spring into action.  The way those birds, sea lions and other creatures are cleaned up? Dawn dishwashing liquid.

Turns out, against all odds, there are countless ways the San Francisco Bay puts the magic elixir called dishwashing liquid to good use.  And Dawn knew it.

Marketers of all stripes must keep tabs on their key competitors, of course, and understand the day-to-day vagaries of their particular markets.  But in this increasingly interconnected world, where anything and everything can and will happen -- where the most unexpected memes pop up with absolutely no warning -- it's so important to pay attention to even the most unlikely information.

And to be ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. 

After all, you never know when two words, spoken inappropriately in the heat of passion, will provide a potentially golden opportunity.  Are you paying attention?