Social Media

What’s Buzzing: #SochiProblems, Tweethearts & More

February 14, 2014

We kicked off the week with the Sochi Winter Olympics creating lots of opportunities for new brand initiatives, and end the work week with Valentine’s Day, another opportune time for brands to connect with people over fun, relevant content. In agency news, we were honored to be named one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies for Advertising. Keep reading to recap the week’s top stories in marketing.

AirBnB Seeks to Assuage #SochiProblems

Accompanying the start of the Olympic Games in Sochi last week was the emergence of a new Twitter hashtag: #SochiProblems. As more and more journalists took to Twitter to complain about their less than desirable accommodations, the hashtag gained traction and started trending on the platform. AirBnB recognized an opportunity to help the disgruntled travelers, and put out a general notice using the hashtag and a link to their available listings in Sochi. The house-sharing platform then went on to contact many of the journalists who had publicly complained, directly offering them suggestions on alternative digs. The housing issues have become a focal point of the games, and as such have provided AirBnB with a prime opportunity to display its convenience factor and spread the word.

 

NECCO’s Tweethearts for a Sweetheart

For years, Valentine’s Day has been synonymous with heart-shaped candy – and this year is no different. A new initiative from classic candy company, NECCO, allows users to send personalized candy love notes to their friends and loved ones. Upon tweeting their message to @tweethearts, fans are provided a screenshot of the candy hearts customized with their message. They are then given the opportunity to order the real thing (for $29.99) and have the candies delivered directly to their Valentine within five days.

Tweethearts from NECCO on Vimeo.
 

Target Taps Pinterest Influencers to Design Party-Planning Collections
Target has announced a partnership with three top Pinterest influencers in which the tastemakers will be invited to design exclusive party-planning collections for the retailer. The pinners, who also all happen to be top design bloggers, will compile collections that will be available online and in Target stores this spring. Although the retailer has already been closely using the platform to monitor top pins and identify popular items in-store, this will be its first attempt at bringing in such influential figures to inspire customers. And for some context on their reach: one bloggers currently has more than 13 million followers on Pinterest.

Photo via Mashable

Coca-Cola Freestyle Launches Vine Series

To promote its Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain machine, 360i client Coca-Cola created a content series with Vine celebrity Zach King. The six-second videos capture the fun and extensive choices the machine can create and offer consumers. The videos, which showcase drinks turning into confetti and cups appearing out of thin air, have already garnered more than 14,000 Likes and 6,000 re-vines. More videos will be rolling out weekly throughout the remainder of the month.

Twitter Tests Profile Redesign

On Tuesday, Twitter rolled out a profile redesign complete with new, customizable features. Though the platform is still making tweaks, there seems to be a large emphasis on the size of photos on the site. Initially, the look and feel of the profile page resembled that of Facebook or Google+, but it seems that the platform has reverted back to the vertical timeline for which it is known.

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Cover photo via Twitter