What is Fastvertising?

Marketing’s New “F” Word.

 Fastvertising is the strategic art of turning real-time cultural moments into immediate, shareable brand relevance. The term is relatively new, but the concept has been around for decades. Fastvertising has always existed. Algorithms simply turned it into a race. It’s Agility Marketing on a legal dose of steroids and speed.

“The tactic is old. The velocity is new.”

It’s the practice of creating and deploying advertising at the speed of culture rather than on long, pre-planned campaign timelines.

What Fastvertising Means

Fastvertising is real-time, rapid-response advertising that reacts to:

• Cultural moments

• Breaking news

• Social trends

• Sports, entertainment, and pop-culture events

• Viral conversations

Instead of months of planning, Fastvertising operates on hours, or even minutes, to create relevance when attention is at its peak.

It sits at the intersection of:

• Agility

• Cultural fluency

• Earned & owned media

• Shareability

• Emotional, instinctive processing

Why Fastvertising Works Psychologically

Fastvertising performs because it taps directly into:

• Emotional immediacy – People feel part of a moment

• Social currency – Sharing makes people relevant

• Pattern interruption – Unexpected brand presence in real time

• Collective attention spikes – Everyone’s watching the same thing at once

• FOMO – “You had to be there” energy

It converts cultural velocity into brand velocity.

Classic Examples

• Oreo – “You can still dunk in the dark” (Super Bowl blackout)

• Arby’s reacting to pop culture in real time on X

• Ryanair’s fast meme responses

• Duolingo’s TikTok trend hijacks

• Wendy’s real-time social clapbacks

These weren’t pre-scheduled “campaigns.” They were brand reflexes.

How Fastvertising Is Different from Traditional Campaigns

Traditional Advertising

·       Planned months ahead

·       High production costs

·       Heavy media buying

·       Controlled narrative

·       Predictable

Fastvertising

·       Created in real time

·       Speed over polish

·       Earned media driven

·       Participatory conversation

·       Improvisational

Fastvertising doesn’t replace brand strategy. When done well, it exploits it in real time.

The Strategic Risk (Where Many Brands Fail)

Fastvertising only works when a brand has:

• A strong POV

• A clear tone of voice

• Cultural permissions

• Fast legal & approval workflows

• A team empowered to act

Without that foundation, brands either:

• Miss the moment

• Sound inauthentic

• Trigger backlash

In other words:

You can’t improvise well if you don’t know your character.

The Deeper Truth (Aligned with Your Work)

Fastvertising on its own creates:

• Buzz

• Attention

• Short-term spikes

But it does NOT automatically create Word-of-Mouth Advocacy unless it connects to:

• A deeper Reason to Care

• A meaningful Reason to Share

• Emotional Permission

• And brand-earned Courage to Share

Fastvertising can light the match, but advocacy fuels the fire.

About GDJ Brands

 GDJ Brands helps visionary founders and business leaders get the most out of their brands by taking a holistic, tailored, ground-up approach to brand-building. Its founder, Gary De Jesus, excels in Brand Development and Marketing, uniquely incorporating principles of Biological and Cognitive Sciences, and Psychology to build strong brands that customers will advocate for and fulfill founders' visions. His goal is to make dreams come true.