How can brands lead the conversation on Twitter?

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As things start to open and online space becomes cluttered with brand messages and new campaign launches, it has become crucial for brands to stay ahead of the curve. How can brands to that effectively on Twitter? Storyboard18 special ‘The Conversation: Twitter for Brands’with  Kanika Mittal, Head, Large Clients Solutions, Twitter India, Damyant Singh Khanoria, CMO, Oppo India and Sidharth Shakdher from Disney+ Hotstar share a few insights.

-Shibani Gharat

After a roller coaster start, the year 2022 has finally begun and things are looking positive. Countries around the world are slowly  opening borders and all of us have slowly started crawling back to normalcy with public places, schools, colleges, offices opening doors again. In this changing environment, it’s imperative for brands to stay top-of-mind and relevant to their consumers. Twitter in one such place where a lot of conversations are happening and Twitterati does have a lot of say in events of cultural relevance be it Diwali, Holi or Women’s Day. How can brands partake in these conversations and stay culturally relevant?

In a Storyboard18 special ‘The Conversation: Twitter for Brands’, Kanika Mittal, Head, Large Clients Solutions, Twitter India says the biggest super power that Twitter has is its audience. “The audience is very influential and receptive. When they come out on the platform they come with the intent to participate, react or to have a discussion or to inspire a debate. They are not just there to scroll or passively listen in. The fact that this audience is so receptive means that they can drive results for brands,” says Mittal.

Specially during times like the past two years, when several launches from tech to auto, big ticket films and campaign launches happened on Twitter, Mittal suggests that launch KPIs are better met on Twitter. “Leverage the power of our influential audience for the launch and to break through the clutter is what brands need to do.”

Apart from launch, another pillar that works well on twitter is connect where brands can take part in the events of cultural significance that are big conversation drivers on the platform.

“In cricket alone there are 96 million conversations and 30 percent growth year on year. We are also  putting together a narrative for Women’s World Cup coming up next month and then built it through the summer of cricket. Mittal tells us that the other piece that is exciting is the online shopping. “We have seen how people are coming and talking about what they like to shop or buy. Before people are making a decision to purchase they are coming on the platform and talking about it. The other thing that is recent and interesting is Valentine’s Day. Recently we ran a campaign called #WeMetOnTwitter which saw an increase of over 300 percent in terms of conversations around it. It was not just about people meeting on Twitter and falling in love but it was also about co-founders, co-workers or anyone who had story to tell about how they met on Twitter,” she says adding how it has become so important to be culturally relevant.

With the platform buzzing right now with several passion points from Indian consumers how effectively are brands taking part in the narrative?

Sidharth Shakdher from Disney+ Hotstar feels stories have a great power. “Stories have a power to uplift you, stories have a power to make you feel better, more energized, more optimistic about the future. To take our stories to the widest audience possible, to the most influential audience possible, Twitter has been an instrumental tool in achieving that.” He adds how Twitter has enabled two-way conversations. “It is increasingly important at this difficult time to be very intent led, not just bombard the consumer, to be led by their intent rather than having a one-way conversation with them. Twitter through various tools, features on the platform allows you to respond to signals and intent given by the consumer.” And Disney+ Hotstar has been effectively using Twitter for some of their key property launches and big releases whether it is sports or entertainment.

Damyant Singh Khanoria, CMO, Oppo India says that for any smartphone player to have a successful launch it is important to have an authentic voice on Twitter. Oppo India in fact has had several successful and innovative launches on the platform. “A couple of launches back, we had something called as the ‘emoji’ to unbox a phone. The whole unboxing experience is the one that you do in person, which you kind of experience in a store. But given the pandemic we had to rely on Twitter’s innovation to create a new way for driving intent for purchase by using emojis in a very unique and creative way to help people discover more about our product.” Oppo India also had a live e-commerce sale on the platform where they had celebs talking about product features, talk about what products allow them to do etc. and the conversation was mirrored live on Twitter. “These are examples of how we broke the mold in how Twitter is used,” he adds.

Mittal wraps up by saying for all sorts of innovations Twitter is proving solutions across the funnel. “Whether it is top of the funnel through Twitter Spotlight, Video promotions, Twitter Amplify etc. brands can simply pick and choose and have a very strategic plan. But also, we are very well positioned and available for brands to take advantage for those from the bottom of the funnel. Be it carousel ads or website cards optimized campaigns that actually deliver your performance matrix, Twitter serves the need for all.”

This is a Partnered Post