National Post (National Edition)
TWEET
TWITTER LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO BATTLE BRAND CONFUSION.
SAN FRANCISCO •Twitter has launched a major marketing campaign to correct “misperceptions” about its brand, while at the same time launching anti-abuse features to ensure that trolls don’t damage the brand further.
Joel Lunenfeld, vicepresident of global brand strategy for Twitter Inc., said consumers and advertisers are finally starting to realize what the social platform is best used for, but incorrect perceptions remain.
When the social network was founded in March 2006, tweets were primarily sent and read through text messages in personal circles with little corporate interest.
But things have evolved in its 11 years, and Twitter sees itself more as a news and marketing platform than a traditional social network such as Facebook.
“For those who have been in advertising for a long time, we used to have the exercise of, ‘If your brand could speak, what would it say?’ and now the expectation is that people can talk directly to (them),” Lunenfeld said during an interview in San Francisco.
“That’s something that really never existed before Twitter started bringing that relationship to brands.”
The average person follows at least five brands on Twitter and wants to hear what’s new or exclusive while still being entertained and informed, according to Lunenfeld, adding that some of the biggest shifts in marketing strategies over the past decade were fuelled by the company.
“People now have the expectation to talk to brands directly, and the brands have really had to turn up not just their listening but their active discussions and conversations with customers,” he said. “A brand used to be just what you say it is, but now a brand is what people say about you as well.”
Twitter has seen its own share of brand confusion over the years though, and Lunenfeld admits it has been a struggle on both the advertiser and consumer side.
“There is this assumption that Twitter is just a social network similar to that of other major ones like Facebook,” he said. “When we did research, we realized we have a misperception problem. There is a giant awareness problem and an understanding issue we had to tackle.”
Last year, the company launched its own marketing push in the U.S. with a new logo, font and vibrant colours that included minimalistic outdoor advertisements. By the end of the year, billboards and posters could be seen throughout Canada as well.
“We partnered with iconic brands, iconic franchises and entertainment properties,” Lunenfeld said, with one example including characters from Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story seen on a billboard above Toronto’s CF Eaton Centre with a simple hashtag to invite discussion.
“We wanted to really show everyone that Twitter is about the most important issues and conversations in the world.”
But as Twitter was embarking on a marketing campaign to fine tune its public brand with consumers and advertisers — which included moving its mobile apps from the ‘Social Network’ category to ‘News’ in app stores — the company was facing its own PR crisis.
Abuse and harassment on the service continued to dominate headlines last year, with celebrities such as Leslie Jones publicly shaming Twitter for not having better safety guidelines after receiving racist and misogynistic comments.
At the time, Twitter cited free speech as the reason for being hands-off, but the company has recently been changing its stance.
Over the past few months, the company has been introducing new safety features and tools for filtering, muting, blocking and reporting harassment. Though Twitter said its studies showed the issue didn’t hit a point where it saw a decline in users or brands, the company is still trying to stay ahead of it.
“If you look back even a couple of years ago where there were issues of any kind of issue like spam or porn, we really have taken steps along the way to make sure we get in front of them to clean them up,” Lunenfeld said.
Canada continues to be an important market for Twitter, Lunenfeld said, particularly due to high video adoption rates and the success of sports marketing campaigns.
“What we see in Canada is a lot more innovation and experimentation in the marketplace. Canada is a great market to be able to test something in a really progressive place that is also somewhat self-contained,” he said.
Twenty-four of the 25 top valuable brands in Canada use Twitter, according to Lunenfeld. Sports organizations like the CFL have experimented with in-stadium Twitter integration while brands such as Tostitos have experimented with an autoresponse campaign for dip recipes.
“If you look at the top advertisers in Canada, it’s a pretty strong mix of local — like a Canadian Tire — and global brands that have set up shop,” Lunenfeld said. “It’s also a very mobile-first type of region for us and one of our top 10 revenue markets in the world.” Last year, Twitter launched its own marketing push in the U.S. with a new logo, font and vibrant colours.
IF YOUR BRAND COULD SPEAK, WHAT WOULD IT SAY?