When promoted tweets go wrong

Promoted tweets are the window to the soul of your brand. And how people respond reveals more than what you post.

@McDonalds ran this one this morning. From an analytics perspective, the retweets and favorites probably outweigh the negative comments.
But nothing here gives me a good feeling about grabbing breakfast at McDonald’s. The bad instagram-esque photo isn't doing them any favors and the copy is even flatter.

If you're going to use social as a broadcast medium, why not make the extra effort to create a message that actually inspires or entertains?

Skechers makes me fearful for my future

As the father of two girls, this terrifies me.

Social is a broadcast medium

Don't worry social media ninjas and gurus, it's still a game-changer for joining the conversation. If you do it with a touch of craft, meaningful engagement and valuable content are still social's greatest strengths.

But IPO & buyout fever has induced a more traditional approach of buying eyeballs instead of earning them.

Of course, it's all a waste if you don't follow this rule: Make something worth sharing and people will.

Pretty well executed example from Honda using a promoted celebrity tweet to drive views of a TV commercial:

Loved playing Dwight for 200 episodes but my new favorite role? A gummy bear who gets sucked into a @Honda! http://t.co/g4vHXhBHHI

— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) September 3, 2013

UPDATE: @Honda did a ton of fun tweets to warn snack food brands about the Odyssey's built-in vacuum. A few examples:

.@Oreo Did we mention the #MegaStuf setting? pic.twitter.com/t4LY4o4GSq

— Honda (@Honda) October 2, 2013

@Honda The popcorn-devouring HondaVAC is in for a treat when it discovers and eats up lost Orville pieces!

— Orville Redenbachers (@OrvillePopcorn) October 1, 2013

@PopSecret but what if one of the kernels remains unpopped? That's when fear sets in. http://t.co/luwaBW0x59

— Honda (@Honda) October 1, 2013

Don't poison the well

More goodness from John and Tug at American Copywriter.

A great concept is just half the battle

Execution matters. Fuji posted this spot on youtube on February 19, 2013.
And Mercedes-Benz posted the following on September 23, 2013. I believe in coincidence. And I've have seen different teams come up with the exact same idea and different agencies pitch similar campaigns more than once. So I don't care if someone saw the other spot before executing theirs. What's interesting to me is if they did something to make it their own and make it better.

(I just saw both of these spots on AdTeachings.com, Suzanne Pope's fantastic blog. You should also follow her on twitter @SuzannePope.)

UPDATE:
The team behind the Mercedes spot, Art Director Lucas Osis and Copywriter Nico Baumann, were interviewed by Teressa Iezzi in this Co.Create article about how they made the spot.

Of course, this quote jumped out at me.

"We then remembered a video we’ve seen a while ago: a guy moving a chicken around while its head stood perfectly still: Exactly the same thing the Mercedes system is able to do. (A perfect analogy! But above all we wanted to create something that we would really enjoy to watch. So we tried to improve it somehow and thought: What’s better than seeing a chicken shaking? A chicken that is shaking to some funky disco music of course! And hopefully, people will agree with us."

I don't care if they saw the Fuji spot or one of other random chicken head videos on the internet. The key is this phrase, "So we tried to improve it somehow..."

Nokia destroys Samsung Galaxy in Android KitKat ad

Nokia Germany tweeted this ad parodying Android’s co-promotion for their next operating system named after KitKat.

Have a break... #Kitkat #Nokia pic.twitter.com/6OuEQIVLLj

— Nokia Deutschland (@NokiaHomebase)

September 4, 2013

(Via The Verge.)

"Gimme a break, break me off a piece of that KitKat bar."

The new consumes the old

Replacing all your vintage technology.

It's not a phone. It's a camera.

I take far more pictures than I make phone calls. No wonder smartphone commercials are focusing on their camera.
iPhone spot by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.

Windows Phone spot by Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Which one do you like better?

(Full disclosure: Windows Phone is a client of mine.)

UPDATE: Nokia just upped the ante.

How to be interesting

How to Be Interesting by Jessica Hagy is a fun read and full of great advice.

More pages here.

This is social media in a nutshell

This is a blog post of a reply to the best tweet of the day.

Social inception RT @snerko This is a tweet of a Vine of an Instagram of a Tumblr post of a Facebook post of a tweet vine.co/v/bYmxJXuIbAb

— Brian Thompson (@BrandWriter) May 28, 2013