What PRs think of Twitter’s ‘See What’s Happening?’ campaign
See what’s happening — politics on Twitter.https://t.co/xaJo3PmYn5
— Twitter (@twitter) July 25, 2016
Twitter is the social tool that allows PRs to tell brand stories every day, but what do comms pros think of Twitter’s own brand story in the new ‘See What’s Happening?’ campaign? Eulogy, Wern PR, Dynamo and Portland tell Gorkana what they think.
On Monday Twitter’s chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, stated in a company blog post that its market research showed that, while 90% of people globally recognise the Twitter brand, many of those not using the product still don’t understand its functionality.
Berland stated in the post: “Twitter is where you go to see what’s happening everywhere in the world right now.”
This is the message that will lead the campaign that Twitter is due to release ‘over the next coming days and weeks’. The campaign will include videos (such as the one above) and digital ads that centre around ‘what happens’ on the platform such as commentary around breaking news, political and sporting events.
The blog post was published prior to Twitter’s earnings results, released last night (26 July), which showed that the growth of monthly active users is slower than expected by the stock market, rising to only 313 million from 310 million earlier this year.
Comms pros from Wern PR, Eulogy, Dynamo and Portland give Gorkana their feedback on how well this essential PR tool is telling its own brand story.
Lucy Werner, director, Wern PR
“The problem isn’t that people haven’t heard of Twitter it’s that they don’t know what it does. This is a good stab at trying to explain what Twitter is but if the entire campaign is dominated by videos and digital ads then it might miss the target audience.
“If this campaign was renamed it could be “Twitter resolves to tell the world what Twitter does through the medium of Twitter”. Instead of a series of videos or digital ads, something non-digital might be the best way to educate those consumers who don’t understand or use it.”
Gregor Poynton, head of content & brand at Portland
“It’s a good illustration of how Twitter is no longer pretending to be a social network and has woken up to the fact that it’s primarily a content distribution network. When you have fast moving stories or events, as we’ve seen in the past weeks in the UK, Twitter is the place the stories break.
“But this is not for current users of Twitter, they know and love it, but the problem it may address is getting new users to sign up and stick with the service.”
Ellen Powell-Chandler, account director, Dynamo
“Getting potential users to understand Twitter’s value has always been a big issue for them – some people just struggle with the format. The new ad campaign is a colourful, fun step in the right direction for Twitter to carve their spot in the world of Snapchat, Instagram, and more.”
Jacqueline Potter, digital account director, Eulogy
“We use Moments to round up the top trending news topics in the world every morning and afternoon to ensure we are fully up-to-speed with breaking news that could affect our clients or provide opportunity for them.
“This has been especially relevant in the travel sector in recent months where we’ve had to make decisions to pause or pull digital campaign activity, due to the sensitivity of what’s currently happening in the world.
“All of this in turn has made Twitter a very valuable news channel for us to react to, rather than tell a story as a top priority.”
- This July, Gorkana released a White Paper, ‘9 Key insights into journalism and social media in the UK’ which investigates how journalists are using social media today.
