Ephemeral content has presented an incredible opportunity for marketers. While some see it as a threat to the traditional ways of marketing campaigns, others see it as almost as revolutionary as when Google first introduced Adwords.

To cut a long story short, Ephemeral content is content that only exists for a very short time. Imagine a marketing campaign that only lasts a day, or an advertisement that only lasts for the few seconds that you see it.

Ephemeral content was popularised by Snapchat and Instagram (inadvertently copying Snapchat), who use their story features to interweave advertisements that only last a few seconds. The concept behind Snapchat’s own ghost icon comes from the idea that their content is ephemeral, much like a ghost who appears and disappears.

A colleague of mine recently described ephemeral content as being like the “radio advertising” for digital content. If you consider how radio advertisements work on a show such as 2Day FM’s Kyle and Jackie O show, or even the classic soap operas of old, advertisements are interwoven into the story.

As radio is a constant stream of information, more often than not the most effective advertisements don’t come from the breaks in between conversations, but strategically placed phrases put directly into the content. In a sense, Snapchat is no different. It is a continuous broadcast of “stories” produced by people from around the world, woven together to create a continuous stream. This presents marketers with the ability to react to the content that is being produced directly, and make adjustments to their campaigns in real time. This is incredibly powerful when you consider the impulse that goes in to applications like Snapchat. If Snapchat can use data such as geolocation to pinpoint that a potential customer is in a shop, and on snapchat at the same time, a digital marketer could use that to create ephemeral content to impulse the purchase of the product they are selling in that given shop.

Put that on a wide scale, and you have a very powerful tool. Campaigns can adjust in real time, and they can work on a mere 24-hour cycle. Imagine not having to run a bill board campaign to raise awareness of a product, but instead just using ephemeral content to impulse customers in the moment. That type of brave new world is one in which digital marketing becomes an “interceptor”, able to intercept customers purchasing decisions at the last second.

This is the really amazing thing about ephemeral marketing. Ephemeral marketing doesn’t just have to be on phones. Even traditional billboard marketers like Ooh! Media are buying into the concept that campaigns don’t have to last for months. With Adshel stands littered throughout Westfield Shopping Centres, campaigns can be broadcast with only a 24-hour lead time.

Not only is Ephemeral content creating a world of real-time campaigns and marketing solutions that stretch way beyond the traditional methods, but it is giving marketers a chance to continuously review campaigns to re-evaluate success. This is the future.