28  Tips  For  Brands  From  60  Hilarious,  Average  and  Downright  Awful  #TheOscars2015  Tweets  

@jonburkhart  

GIVEN: Regular folk used pictures and emojis and were way funnier than brands. It’s important to establish what

good content is before you see some of the shocking brand tweets I’ve got on tap for you.

@jonburkhart  

GIVEN: Regular folk (and some stand-up comics) were WAY funnier than brands. Junior copywriters should be

trained in improv comedy or we’ll all keep losing.

GIVEN: Celebrities won Twitter with their funny and snarky comments.

@jonburkhart  

That Samsung-sponsored selfie from last year was IMPOSSIBLE to replicate.

Yet brands still planned their product porn around that selfie moment from last year. It didn’t work.

Some brands were able to get tweets out in real-time based on the acceptance speeches. These tweets worked well. Nothing too mind-blowing though.

@jonburkhart  

Brands like Dove proved that you can PLAN a real-time CAMPAIGN around an event and WIN. This campaign was based on an insight about how women talk about

themselves and resonated with the entire world.

Brands continued to surprise us with how shockingly bad their tweets could be.

@jonburkhart  

Tempted to put some red rope & carpet around your product? This is the laziest thing you could ever do. This

is a huge turn-off. Customers don’t reward laziness.

While picture tweets are preferable, text-only tweets that paint pictures in your mind (esp pics of Julie Andrews in

a dress made of meat) work well too.

@jonburkhart  

It’s okay to create content for TV viewers and even use the familiar “Bingo format” if you make it really really fun

or ideally really really funny (see right.)

Look for social brands to name-check. If you’ve got a much-loved brand like LEGO at the event, focus your

energies on finding a natural connection to them

If you can create a memorable experience, you will win big. Last year, it was Ellen’s epic selfie. This year, celebs

were given Oscar statuettes made of LEGO.

If you’ve got an incredible library of images that no one else has, you can get away with shoe-horning your brand into many scenarios that wouldn’t work for other brands.

You have 12-24 hours after the event to show your brilliance so don’t be afraid to bring the converted (your

email list) into the conversation

@jonburkhart  

If your intern suggests you make an Oscar-worthy dress out of your logoed napkins, don’t say “it’s all about the execution” and allow it happen. Know in advance that

this will have 50 shades of wrong about it.

Go behind the scenes and fans will feel like you’ve let them into your VIP section. They need to feel

special. Always be thinking in DVD extras.

Creating video in real-time is crucial. GIFs, Vines, 15-second Instagram films work well if they’re done really well. I couldn’t find any shareable video for The Oscars.

If you’re a sports brand, the Oscar link is tenuous at best. If your players can deliver a favourite film line in an entertaining way, then go for it. If they’re only brilliant at

playing ice hockey, then maybe avoid it.

Lady Gaga in red Marigolds? Hey Freudenberg, your product could have been a “Hey Gaga can we have our gloves back” Arby’s & Pharell style winner. Release red

gloves asap and still get the world’s attention?

@jonburkhart  

Please resist the temptation to shoe-horn your product into an Oscar situation in a mindless way. Your

customers have very finely tuned bull-shit-o-meters.

It’s always better to have a legitimate tie-in to the live event. Even if it’s a bit random like Dolby, it will make

sense to your fans and they won’t hate you for it.

Product demos that feel natural work really well. Asking Google these two questions felt really right.

@jonburkhart  

Sometimes just being interesting is enough. This could be a product demo or a fun celeb or film location fact.

@jonburkhart  

The Oscars is a great opportunity for charities to look for chances to naturally promote their causes.

@jonburkhart  

If you’re going to steal a scene, do it in a clever not clunky way. If you don’t, it comes off as desperate.

@jonburkhart  

Even financial brands can find connections with The Oscars as long as they don’t try too hard. It’s best to

focus on being useful and interesting. The bank appearances in films is half-interesting for me.

@jonburkhart  

Not every brand can ride a meme. Paddy Power fans expect this sort of thing, but keep in mind that these posts are definitely below average for such a disruptive brand.

@jonburkhart  

To newsjack The Artist winning the best picture Oscar a few years ago, Jon Plackett and I created an interactive site where you could “Artistify” any YouTube film. It went viral

and was featured in David Meerman Scott’s Real-time Marketing And PR book as well as another book…

The Artistifier featured in my book Newsjacking: The Urgent Genius of Real-time Advertising, co-written

with Grant Hunter. For more information on my workshops, tweet me at @jonburkhart.