Twitter has come of age as a marketing platform- but with more than half a billion tweets a day how does a brand get heard above the noise? Rebecca Crowe, Marketing Assistant at FM Outsource, takes a look at five of the best recent Twitter campaigns to help provide inspiration.
Extra, extra, tweet all about it – Twitter is the platform to be on if you want a campaign worth seeing. But, with 320 million active users, 100 million of which use the site daily, how do you get your brand noticed?
From hashtags, to pop up events, to interactivity with users and customers, there’s plenty of ways that you can use Twitter to boost your business’ presence. Be warned though, to get noticed above the noise and rabble, creativity is key.
Here’s a few companies who know where it’s at when it comes to Twitter advertising:
Wales FA – #TogetherStronger
During the recent Euro’s in France, Wales made their first appearance in the tournament since 1958, with many not expecting them to qualify past the group stages. But, in true Welsh fashion, the fans and the players were ecstatic just to be there – surpassing everyone’s expectations to reach the semi-finals was just the icing on the cake.
The Welsh FA’s hashtag, #TogetherStronger, quickly caught on, with it serving as a way for fans to engage with the team and share their support and excitement, even if they didn’t actually fly over to France to enjoy the games. This included supporters sending in their profile pictures that eventually made up a mosaic of the players’ faces. And then, even when they were knocked out by Portugal, the tweets of pride were still rolling in, and were used to organise and promote the team’s homecoming event in Cardiff.
Coca-Cola – #HolidaysAreComing
We all know that Coca-Cola are masters of the advertising game, from #ShareACoke to #TasteTheFeeling, but #HolidaysAreComing has to be their best one ever. This hashtag was timed to perfection to coincide with the launch of their iconic Christmas truck ad; I’m sorry John Lewis, but this is the advert that signifies the arrival of Christmas. Coca-Cola are experts at integrating events with social strategy and flashy TV ads and the results are huge. The Coca-Cola truck has a nationwide tour in the weeks leading up to Christmas, meaning that consumers can witness and interact with the advertising campaign in person. You simply can’t go on Twitter in December and not see this hashtag. The fact that the Coca-Cola truck from the campaign has a huge 54,023 followers is a testament to the power of this campaign.
Game of Thrones – #RoastJoffrey
If you don’t know how big Game of Thrones (GoT) is, you must’ve been living under a rock for the past 5 years. And, if you’re a fan, you know how long the gap is in between seasons – white walkers don’t CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) themselves! So, in order to keep the hype going whilst they were off-air, the GoT social media team started the #RoastJoffrey campaign. Now, for the uninitiated (no spoilers, I promise), Joffrey is one of the most universally hated characters on the show. Fans could use the hashtag, or the accompanying website www.roastjoffrey.com, to slam the character and interact with other fans. This was then turned into a ‘best of’ reel that HBO shared across multiple channels.
It now has over 635,5000 views on YouTube – not bad for a teaser to keep fans going over the series break.
Samsung Mobile – #DoWhatYouCant
Samsung Mobile are huge on Twitter; they’re the second largest brand with just under 12 million followers, only surpassed by fashion powerhouse, Chanel. They’re also a massive sponsor of the Rio 2016 Olympics. Combine those two things and you get #DoWhatYouCant.
This mixes the launch of Samsung’s new phone with the promotion of Olympians who have defied the odds to get on the road to Rio. By combining your Twitter campaign with an upcoming event that people can get behind and excited for, you can create a buzz that not only works within the lead up to the event but throughout it and beyond. With this campaign being so current, we can’t know what kind of impact it will have, but with links to the Greatest Show on earth, it’s sure to go far.
Starbucks UK – #RedCupsAreComing
Oh hello, #RedCups Welcome back. pic.twitter.com/eHfllRdLDt
— Starbucks UK (@StarbucksUK) November 3, 2015
Much like the Coca-Cola Christmas truck, Starbucks’ Red Cups have become a sign of the holidays. Filled with tasty seasonal favourites, it’s a highlight of many-a-coffee-lovers’ year. Last year, Starbucks UK’s tweet, announcing the return of the Red Cup season amassed a huge 3,909 retweets and 7,615 likes. But, the more interesting thing with the Starbucks’ Red Cup Twitter campaign is the spin-offs that users themselves have coined and revived. In 2011, Starbucks UK used the hashtag #RedCupsAreComing as a build up towards the annual launch. However, after 2011, there’s no sign of the Starbucks UK account using that hashtag, and yet, the hashtag #RedCupsAreComing is used every year by thousands of users, whereas the official Starbucks’ accounts just use #RedCups. This is a testament to the power of a well-organised seasonal campaign – users know it’s coming and do all the lead-up promotion for you!
The bottom line
Basically, Twitter is a big deal. Whether you’re creating your own hashtags, jumping on the back of current trends, or sharing actual content on your account, it all adds up. Now, you might not have the sponsorship power of Samsung, or the hype level of Game of Thrones, but everyone started somewhere. By integrating your events or product launches with your Twitter campaigns – and making sure your customers and users are interacting with your campaign – you can guarantee that the sharing capabilities of Twitter will do the rest! And, if you’re still not convinced that Twitter can provide high engagement rates, Twitters’ ads are used by over 80% of US marketers – that’s too many experts to ignore. And finally, remember to be creative – thinking inside of the box doesn’t trend – the bolder, the more outlandish, the better.
By Rebecca Crowe
Marketing Assistant
FM Outsource