2021 has been full of ups and downs. Brand and marketers like everyone else had no choice but to adapt. For some brands it turned out to be a year of insurmountable obstacles, but for those willing to take chances and actually be a part of culture even in turbulent times, there was no shortage of creativity and craft to be brought to bear. To gauge the impact of this shift on our businesses and to understand how brands are pivoting their strategies and realigning them in today’s digital-first world, Twitter looked at the most impactful and memorable marketing campaigns through #BestOfTweets 2021.

It is a known fact that Twitter has become the go-to space for brands to stay relevant among consumers, leveraging the service’s real-time conversational nature along with its customizable suite of ad products. This year, there was a pool of ground-breaking brand work that left a mark on audiences’ hearts and minds. Twitter has looked at some of the most memorable and impactful marketing campaigns throughout the year in #BestOfTweets 2021, Brands leading the way!

#BestOfTweets is an annual global property in which brands and their campaigns are recognised and celebrated. “We have always looked at brands at the year end and continued to celebrate the best in class work in order to demonstrate the service potential and inspire marketers to create human-centric work. Going forward, as with the majority of the products there is an ‘evolution life-cycle’ and same goes for ‘Best of Tweets’. What we noticed is what great work was a few years back, is table stakes now. That is the testament of creativity and the opportunity that the marketers have been leveraging across the timeline. When we look inside that, what we see is clear and emerging patterns on how brands are connecting and launching on Twitter,” says Rishabh Sharma, Head of Twitter NEXT India.

There are 10 different categories in #BestOfTweets 2021 in which a few brands stood out. “We were very intentional about how do we quality and bring these categories alive. One of it was to go beyond numbers-we wanted to see and unpack the layers of the campaign. If there was a video campaign-then what was beyond the numbers, how relevant the message was to the audience, what the media plan looked like, etc.,” says Sharma, adding how the intent was to look beyond the quantitative side.

Also, the winning brands across all the categories have leveraged Twitter’s ad offerings to strengthen their presence among their audience and engage better with them. This year several businesses launched digital-first campaigns, and Twitter emerged as a partner to launch something new, to connect consumers with what’s happening or be a part of a cultural event or a trend.

Category 1:

Best brand for driving meaningful impact

Winner: Google India

Understanding that people come to Twitter in search of information, Google India used their credibility and the service’s reach to share updates around COVID-19, encourage people to practice caution and enable them with updates around vaccination, made them aware of isolation protocols and more. Through Twitter, the brand not only enabled audiences to stay safe and informed, but also engaged them in a way that created meaningful, lasting impact – winning it a spot on this year’s #BestOfTweets.

Tweet examples:

Category 2:

Best #OnlyOnTwitter campaign

Joint Winners: Amazon Prime Video & Flipkart (@PrimeVideoIN) & (@flipkart)

For its flagship annual sale, Big Billion Days, Flipkart used a customised Events Page on Twitter, inviting people to the #BigBillionMuqabla. Creating this timeline of Tweets, the brand kept its audience engaged and excited by prompting them to Like the Tweets with their favourite products in order to unlock exciting offers every day.

Introducing the second season of #OneMicStandOnPrime, Amazon Prime Video also brought its audiences to the centre-stage, asking them to vote for their favourite celebrity from the season’s line-up by Liking Tweets in a four-day long, real-time voting thread. These votes – over 41K in just four days – were broadcasted in a Twitter livestream.

Tweet examples:

Flipkart (@flipkart) for #BigBillionMuqabla

Amazon Prime Video (@PrimeVideoIN) for #OneMicStandOnPrime

Category 3: Best brand connection to an event

Winner: Mobile Premier League (MPL)

(@PlayMPL)

One of the best ways for brands to stay relevant is to be a part of the biggest, most followed events from across the world. That’s what Mobile Premier League did with 2 of the biggest sports events of the year on ground – the Olympics and T20 World Cup. MPL inspired chatter around the #Tokyo2020 and #T20 games by creating a fan army of cheerleaders on Twitter. The brand took over Twitter’s premium real-estate of the Explore page with the #FanBannJaaoge and #ShowYourGame campaign video, and used influential members of its cheerleading army including Gul Panag, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and even the Kolkata Knight Riders, to create an exponential ripple effect across Twitter timelines, all for a great cause.

Tweet examples:

Mobile Premier League with #FanBannJaaoge and #ShowYourGame

Category 4: Best brand connection with premium content on Twitter

Winner: Microsoft India

(@MicrosoftIndia)

One Through Twitter Amplify, brands can align with premium content from publishers that their target audiences are interested in. That’s what Microsoft India did successfully, to become the brand leader leveraging premium content for its #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll campaigns. Microsoft aligned with premium content publishers on the service and leading tech influencers to produce custom content that engaged audiences in informed discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) and data security (DS). And what’s more, the brand strategically committed to this approach with a steady drum beat of content over three quarters — collaborating with marquee business publications to engage audiences in high-impact conversations and win this title.

Tweet examples:

Microsoft India for #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll

Category 5: Best brand connection to a cultural occasion

Winner: Amazon India

(@amazonIN)

To stay culturally relevant among consumers, brands must participate in conversations in real time — and what better an occasion to celebrate with audiences than Diwali? Ahead of the festive season, and acknowledging the challenging year the people of this nation have been through, Amazon India warmed people’s hearts with a moving video for their #DeliverTheLove campaign, which reminded audiences of the kindness of people during the pandemic. The brand also furthered its #DeliverThanks campaign this Diwali, encouraging people to express gratitude for its delivery partners by Tweeting with posters that said ‘Thank you’. Connecting with the spirit of the festival, Amazon ignited a ray of hope, love and humanity in the darkest times.

Tweet examples:

Amazon India with #DeliverTheLove

Amazon India with #DeliverThanks

Category 6: Best brand connect with regional audiences

Winner: Netflix India (South)

(@Netflix_INSouth)

Regional content has been on the rise, and as always, Netflix India was quick to adapt. Leaning into the diversity of conversation on Twitter, the brand strengthened its connection with audiences across the four states of South India to create buzz around its growing slate of properties in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. To become a part (and a driver) of entertainment conversations, the brand chose Twitter as its destination to launch a dedicated account – Netflix India South. The account debuted with a multilingual Tweet, and topped it with the launch of Namma Stories – a music video that celebrates stories from south India.

Tweet examples:

Category 7: Best product launch on Twitter

Joint Winners: Morris Garages India & Mahindra Auto

(@MGMotorIn) & (@Mahindra_Auto)

When it comes to launching products virtually, brands often face the challenge of building mass awareness while also driving consideration. Two auto brands stood out from the crowd this year — Mahindra Auto and Morris Garages India — becoming the joint winners of this title.

For the launch of the #MahindraXUV700, Mahindra leveraged a whole host of Twitter’s products across the launch cycle. It created awareness for the launch with a Reminder Card that doubled up as a teaser for the event, took over Twitter timelines on the day of the launch, and became the first auto brand to leverage Twitter’s Live Brand Studio and create a Live Events Page, which was the go-to destination for eager audiences to follow the big unveil. To keep up the conversation momentum, the brand used promoted Tweets to promote video snippets from the event into people’s timelines.

Morris Garages India also took the Twitter launch route to introduce the MG Astor – India’s first car with a personal AI assistant. Unveiling #TheAIAffair to Indian audiences, the brand leveraged Twitter’s takeover products across the launch cycle – pre-launch, launch day and post-launch – creating a continuum of conversations across timelines.

Tweet examples:

Mahindra (@Mahindra_Auto) with #HelloXUV700

Morris Garages India (@MGMotorIn) for the Astor with #TheAIAffair

Category 8: Best brand in the emerging category on Twitter

Winner: Unacademy

(@unacademy)

Edtech company Unacademy used a strategic mix of unconventional storytelling, creative execution and the credibility of voices such as that of Sachin Tendulkar, all while playing into the centre of trending moments and conversations during the cricket season. With campaigns like #TeachThemYoung and #MistakesTheGreatestTeacher, the brand’s great use of Twitter and success in attempting to redefine education for the country’s youth makes it the winner in this category.

Tweet examples:

Category 9: Best brand connect to audio

Winners: Star Sports India

(@StarSportsIndia)

Several brands made their debuts on Twitter Spaces – the service’s live audio product introduced this year. Bringing together the sports community in high-engagement conversations, Star Sports India hosted several Spaces with sports fans across the year. The brand also tapped into Spaces’ popularity across India’s cultural segments, hosting Spaces in regional languages to give fans a chance to connect with their favourite athletes, talk about the most exciting in-game moments, or just geek-out in sports banter with fellow fans.

Tweet examples:

Category 10: Best brand connect to a moment

Winner: State Bank of India

(@TheOfficialSBI )

Aligning with the cultural moment of #InternationalYogaDay, SBI engaged its audience in an interactive campaign to help them enhance positivity and well-being in their lives. Building interest through powerful video assets, the brand engaged people with an auto-reply Twitter campaign, asking them to choose the kind of yoga they wished to explore. Each Tweet that engaged with the campaign was rewarded with customized replies demonstrating relevant yoga asanas. To scale reach and impact, the brand also used Twitter’s takeover assets on #InternationalYogaDay – owning the moment on the service.

Tweet examples:

Speaking about some of the categories and winning brands, Sharma says “We not just look at brands that celebrate great work but show the potential that exists today when you actually connect with the public conversation in the timeline and inspire the marketer and agency alike.”

Apart from this, speaking about the highlights for the year, Sharma says, “There are a few moments that will continue to matter for years to come”. Referring to Twitter Trends India report which was launched earlier this year, Sharma said that there are 6 big trends that will shape our future. Wellbeing, Creator Culture, Everyday Wonder, One Planet, Tech Life and My Identity are the key trends that drove the conversations in the past year and will continue to do so.

This is a partnered post.

 

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