Diet Coke was one of the top brands that took advantage of social media buzz during Sunday night?s Academy Awards by offering viewers a tweetable red carpet bingo board to use during the ceremony, proving that interactive strategies receive the most positive attention on Twitter.

A slew of other food and beverage brands, including Coors Light and Subway, also took to Twitter to relive parts of last year?s Oscars, while marketers such as Cottonelle aimed to stay relevant by live-tweeting moments from this year?s awards show. Leveraging live events has become a viable strategy for many top brands, as the amount of consumers visiting social media to share and browse people?s reactions is at an all-time high during frequently-watched programs such as the Oscars.

?It is definitely smart for a brand such as Diet Coke to create customized content for a trending event such as the Oscars in order to interact with their audience in a relevant and meaningful way,? said Esha Shah, manager of mobile and strategy at Fetch, San Francisco, CA. ?Brands that don?t take advantage of real-time marketing during important events are definitely at a disadvantage- increasingly we?re seeing that a during these live television events audiences are increasingly dual screening- staying up to date and participating in the conversation on their mobile or tablet devices on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

?Brands need to make sure they are leveraging this behavior in real-time if they want to stay relevant and capitalize on this engaged audience.?

Interactive Tweets
Diet Coke?s strategy of leveraging an interactive Tweet that prompted users to print out a bingo board and play it with their family and friends worked positively on Twitter, with the brand telling users whenever a moment happened that corresponded with a square on the board.

Although many marketers are using Twitter to drive engagement with television viewers, Diet Coke is taking that tactic one step further by driving engagement to print as well.

The beverage brand tweeted out phrases such as ?Square 4E: Why have one outfit when you can have two? We feel the same way about Diet Coke. #GetATaste #Bingo.?

The bingo board contained squares labeled with ?Award recipient trips,? ?Flashy bling,? ?Kicked off stage by musical cue? and ?Nervous acceptance speech? among others. Meanwhile, the free space in the center of the board was the Diet Coke logo, ensuring that the game would be a branded experience.

The brand then suggested that participating bingo players reward themselves after the ceremony with an ice-cold Diet Coke. It also stirred up interest by showcasing two new television spots during the Oscars, and offering users the chance to enter a sweepstakes online leading up to the ceremony.

Users could potentially win a crystal-studded bottle of Diet Coke by tweeting their Oscar predictions alongside the #GetATasteSweeps hashtag. This strategy may resonate well with millennials, a demographic that is needed to raise the beverage brand?s flagging sales.

Branded moments
Many other brands also joined in the Oscars fun with their own tongue-in-cheek jokes and images that were passed around on social media. Coors Light mimicked last year?s infamous Oscars selfie, which saw host Ellen DeGeneres use a Samsung smartphone to snap a selfie with a slew of nominees, including Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts and Lupita Nyong?o.

The selfie became known as the image that broke the Internet, and snagged the spot as the most retweeted Tweet of all time. The Coors Light advertisement arranged beer cans in similar positions as the featured celebrities, with the caption ?Who?s ready for another #selfie??

Subway dabbled in the same strategy, featuring an image of several hands holding up several six-inch sandwiches together, which was labeled as a throwback to last year?s show.

Snapchat is another optimal platform for brands to leverage during live events, as they ultimately provide quick access to a myriad of potential customers and offer the ability to create an unforgettable mobile moment (see story).

?Social media lives and happens in real-time, thus the most successful brands who want to capitalize on big events are going to be those that have a social team ready to interact with their audience in real-time,? Ms. Shah said. ?The obvious example of this is Oreo?s ingenious ?you can still dunk in the dark? tweet during the blackout at the SLVII Super Bowl. 

?Although it?s great to have customized and tailored content for these events the brands that see the most success are those, like Oreo, who respond to the action in real-time,? she said.

?With TV viewers increasingly consulting a second-screen during these huge televised events such as the Super Bowl and the Oscars where advertisers spend upwards of $4 million to run a TV ad, having a team in place to respond in real-time on social media is the smartest and most relevant way for brands to reach and connect with people.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York