Brands Try, Fail to Capitalize on Royal Baby Hype

Real-time marketing is all the rage these days, and Monday's much-anticipated announcement of the birth of Prince William's and Kate Middleton's first child gave marketers plenty of leadway to craft "real-time" responses on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Often these of-the-moment responses are clever and conversational: Think Oreo's response to the Super Bowl blackout and LGBT Pride Month, or Tic-Tac-Toe's and Kit Kat's spontaneous play over a comment posted to Twitter

But many brand responses to the birth of Prince William's and Kate Middleton's son on Monday fell flat. They were too forced, too obvious. It didn't help that many appeared to be turned off by the amount of coverage around the birth. Brands' pre-cooked messages only added to the sense of tyranny.