There are moments in everyone’s lives when they are uniquely open and predisposed to messaging pertaining to a particular subject, occasion or event at hand.

Our lives are like a book with the chapters representing a series of events, experiences and anecdotes from a particular time or stage in our lives.

Momentous stepping stones such as going to college, moving out of the family home, getting married, buying a house, having a baby or changing jobs all carry corresponding sets of challenges, characteristics and consumer-centric implications from buying a car to taking out life insurance; from purchasing real estate to planning ahead for retirement; from acquiring a new spiffy wardrobe to taking out a 529.

From a marketing perspective, these milestones or nodes on the roller-coaster of life are so much more than marketing opportunities. They are in fact moments of truth in which contextual relevance is off the charts as consumers are uniquely open and predisposed to messaging pertaining to the subject, occasion or event at hand.

“There are few marketing techniques that can capture such a high level of consumer (self-) interest at a point of time as with life event-based marketing,” states Laurence Hickey, Senior Strategist at Organic. “Typically purchase decisions associated with life events represent a degree of complexity and unfamiliar decisions and those brands that can wrap their messages in with helpful advice stand to win the heart and wallet of the consumer.”

Often times, life changes invoke an entirely new consideration set of impending purchases. The associated product categories are in many instances the first time a consumer comes into contact with a defined set of brands that make up the category. For example, when a consumer has a baby, she must deal with decisions regarding purchases of car seats, high chairs etc., and brands like Avent or Peg Perego which have never been remotely relevant to her before now become super relevant.

It is a time when loyalties can and will be formed and conceivably, once these bonds are formed, it could take years, decades or a lifetime to erode the preference associated with a simple first choice.

This is first mover advantage on steroids.

Marketers love to think of ways to entice “switchers”, but in many cases once the train leaves the station, it’s pretty much impossible. In our warped world, we’d like to believe we can get consumers to jump ship on a dime, but like Halley’s Comet it’s going to take close to a lifetime to get a second chance at making a first impression.

“We must remember that life events represent significant milestones in one's life,” explains Hickey, “and the brands that are part of the associated purchases at these milestones can take on greater meaning in the consumer's life as a result of the experience. For example, think of your first new auto purchase after graduation. That auto brand will represent something more to you for the rest of your life -- a symbol of a rite of passage and a stage in your life.”

Online introduces a whole new set of alternatives open to marketers, through which to harness, leverage and utilize the fork in the road that is marked by a particular life stage or change.

The first and most obvious best practice tactic is search. The ability for consumers to volunteer the fact that they are about to hit a life stage milestone is way too important and mission critical to be summed up in any single text hyperlink. It is the beginning of a process in which marketers can establish a dialogue and rapport never possible before.

“Contextual relevancy” from the perspective of customizing and marrying the message to the specific segment is another natural fit. Progressive Insurance did this to great effect by creating specific messages for golf enthusiasts, newly weds, and new parents – with each segment representing an opportunity for various insurance offerings.

Leveraging community is an additional sweet spot in terms of tapping into this best practice. “Targeting at key life events is the very core of (our business),” says Michael Streefland, VP, Sales Marketing & Client Services at iVillage. “Women like to gather and share with one another about events in their life that are mile markers.”

Here’s a case study from Kelloggs:

Background:

• Kelloggs wanted to get the word out to women at a particular opportune moment: the point in time when resolutions to lose weight are typically being made – the New Year.

Objective:

• Generate awareness of the two-week challenge: “Eat two bowls a day of Special K Cereal for two weeks and lose up to 6 pounds”
• Inspire immediate member participation in the program
• Increase purchase intent for Special K

Approach:

• Partner with StarcomIP and iVillage to create a community where women could try the Special K diet together, and share their successes with others online.
• Produce interactive tools such as a diet tracker, online support group and recipe ideas.

Results:

• By end of the five-week campaign, 20,511 consumers had signed up
• 50% of those enrolled opted in for more information from Kelloggs
• The Kick-Start you Diet message board received over 1,400 postings
• There was a 33% purchase intent lift versus MarketNorm of 8%.

Closely linked to this is a combination of sponsorship and content integration, such as in the Monster-Fidelity partnership. It’s strange to think that boom and recessionary times have anything in common, but one such commonality is that people tend to change (or be forced to change) jobs pretty rapidly during extreme times.

What better opportunity than for a financial services company to “be where the ball” is in terms of talking to job seekers actively engaged in the search process? Helping consumers rollover their 401(k)s or evaluating the benefits of an IRA is more than a sponsorship, it’s a public service!

Classic catalog-based marketers epitomized by LL Bean have always pivoted their focus around the relationship and their customers’ lifetime value. What better way to fulfill against this promise than to begin a dialogue with an expectant mom by offering a customized email personalized to the specific week of her pregnancy? (Once the baby is born, the content is newborn-focused and this continues from infant to toddler and beyond.) Babycenter.com or AmericanBaby.com are just two of the resources that target moms-to-be in this way. Products or advertising messages on offer are naturally suited to the audience.

“The biggest challenge (with regards to this week’s best practice) is dedication to the medium,” says Streefland. “In many cases, what is artful to us in the industry is not relevant to consumers. Advertisers who become part of the community (on the other hand) and provide valuable information and options for women are ten steps ahead of marketers who get hooked on impressions and mass reach numbers.”

Hickey agrees: “The marketing context provided by life event marketing provides the marketer the ultimate in relevance, and it is 'personal', and there is no more important context than one's own life. These factors further support a favorable brand impression by making the advertising/marketing experience a welcome and helpful one rather than a disruptive, intrusive, hammer-over-the-head type of experience.”