• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, February 19, 2014

The “always-on” consumer must be matched by the “always-on” marketer, but that second part is often overlooked.

Is an always-on marketer one that is ready to send tweets during the Super Bowl? I guess, but there’s more to it than that. I’ve recently written about the importance of real-time analytics -- of how they are “in,” and how they might keep you from being out. This post further highlights real-time analytics and how marketers are receiving and using data faster.

FlxOne, a marketing automation platform, recently released a mobile app that syncs with a Pebble smartwatch for real-time campaign updates. The company sent me the materials to test it out.

In demo mode, I couldn’t get the full effect of what it’s like to be always-on, but I got the gist of it. I was told my app’s functionality would be “limited” because FlxOne couldn’t share specific production data from clients.

So I was limited to two tests alerts -- one for the buy-side and one for the sell-side -- both of which were near-doomsday scenarios.

On the sell-side, the alert informed me that my fill-rate was below 10%, which meant over 90% of my hypothetical ad space was not being monetized. It gets worse… 90% of my hypothetic ad space was not being monetized on Christmas day!

My demo-crisis had a whole story to go along with it: “Apparently a trafficker accidentally set a $5 floor price instead of $0.50. Since buyers bid $2.30 CPM on average, they were no longer able to win any impressions. The publisher was about to miss out on $20,000 revenue per day, but because the alert came on time, damage was reduced to a minimum.”

Whew. Good thing I was wearing my smartwatch when this happened. Also, that trafficker totally got fired.

On the buy-side, the app-smartwatch combination informed me of a 900% increase in spend right before Christmas “because someone didn’t apply the right geo filters to just one campaign.”

Way to go, “someone.”

FlxOne, an AppNexus partner, picked some dire scenarios to drive home its point, but I understand why. The point is that large sums of money could be lost in short periods of time because of mistakes. More importantly, FlxOne is pointing out that we have the technology available to stop leaks before they turn into floods.

I’m guessing most campaign managers don’t need a Pebble smartwatch and FlxOne’s app to notice and solve these types of problems, but this application of technology does nothing to hurt.

Matthijs Keij, the company’s CEO, spoke with me about FlxOne’s platform and the app. The company does no media buying or selling. Instead, it optimizes campaigns based on available data sources. “It’s just technology,” he said.

Keij also sees the smartwatch integration as something that automates what campaign managers do anyway -- constantly check key figures to make sure everything is in order. “They will want to know exactly what’s happening without having to check an interface every 10 minutes,” he said. “That’s where the alerts come into play.”

That reminds me of “push” emails on smartphones; it’s nice to know when you have an email without having to check every few minutes. It’s easy to see how that same peace-of-mind principle can be applied to someone in charge of real-time analytics.

Of course, you don’t have to have a smartwatch to get these updates -- you could simply use your phone, which most people have with them all the time anyway. The smartwatch integration simply adds another layer.

That fits perfectly with the consumer side of things. They don’t have to be reached on their smartphone and tablet, but each channel adds another layer. It just goes to show that each time a consumer becomes reachable in a new manner, so too must a marketer.