It’s no stretch to say, branding as we know it is jumping on-board the online bandwagon faster than a teenager discovering twerking for the first time, and with every right to! It is the most accessible and most interactive platform for a brand to communicate with its consumer, as the entire general populous live there too.
However this new and wondrous land that hold so much promise, can also be eerily mysterious and bewildering as the prospect of endless possibility and boundless creativeness coupled hand-in-hand with cutting edge technology, programs and apps sounds utterly confusing and terrifying.
That is why the majority of brands take the safest route down this puzzling path as they transition themselves onto the online medium:
Start a Facebook page, garner LIKES, post up promotions and deals, upload pictures, get more LIKES, and now you have won at the Internet. Wrong.
This will be the first instalment of our 3 part series of brands that have done it RIGHT on social media, redesigning the way a brand interacts with their consumer and changing the online game entirely.
Let’s start off with the black and white cookie will all know and love, Oreo! Although a very standard household brand name, they are anything but black and white on their social media pages, using extremely colourful and innovative methods to capture our attention.
With over 36 million Likes on Facebook, 82 thousand followers on Twitter, 87 thousand fans on Instagram and 14 million views on Youtube, let’s take a look at this social media powerhouse and consider the lessons that can be learned by some of their memorable milestones.
Oreo’s Super Bowl Tweet
During the Super Bowl, the New Orleans Superdome experienced a power outage that left football fans distraught for a full 34 minutes, looking elsewhere for a glimmer of light and entertainment.
Within 5 minutes the Oreo team had composed, created, approved and tweeted this simple yet brilliant blackout-related ad for the world to see, earning themselves over 16,000 retweets as well as being the main topic of conversation, stealing the spotlight during this momentous event.
Oreo’s Daily Twist Campaign
Each day from June 25 to October 2, 2012, Oreo posted a quirky redesigned image of their cookie to commemorate an event that had happened on that day.
From celebrating gay pride to the mars rover landing safely, Oreo stood for something and displayed it in such a simple but eye-catching manner, this campaign managed to increase customer engagement by 110%, gaining nearly 5 million likes during its course.
Twitter Banter with Kit-Kat
As we have seen so many social media battles go down in spectacular flames, this spur-of-the-moment Twitter banter with their archenemy Kit Kat, displayed Oreo’s quick wit and improvisational skills to win the hearts of many!
It all began with twitter post:
In which Kit Kat publically extended a challenge to Oreo two days later:
And several hours later, Oreo responded with a win of epic proportions (the hashtag being the cherry on top of this amazing burn):
That is what we’d like to call; game, set and match!
If we have learnt anything from these online masters, is that the content you create have to be timely and topical in which the consistency and frequency of these posts are vital to engage with your fans and to build a solid social community that your brand will be the base of.
By also using eye-catching graphics and simple concepts, the most important thing Oreo includes (and that so many brands often forget) is that element of fun in all their content. Social media is supposed to be social, and its no surprise people who exist on it enjoy a smile every once in awhile.
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