• by Larissa Faw , April 10, 2018

Twitter isn't new, but agencies are beginning to learn how to effectively use the platform to benefit their clients.

Sarita Bhatt, global head of digital marketing, Sonos, Lauren Fuller, account director, 360i and Ryan Kefer, vice president, planning and digital director, Spark Foundry were joined by Stephanie Prager, head of global agency development, Twitter to discuss how brands attempt to break through the clutter across social media.

In light of the attention economy, it is critical for brands to shift away from selling a product to addressing the consumer mind-set, say panelists.

"We can reach a lot of people at scale, but it is breaking through that clutter and being impactful and relevant," says Bhatt. "How do we grab someone"s attention? It isn't just channel or platform, but the [campaign] execution."

Spark Foundry's Kefer worked with Wendy's to "find that white space" with sports fans during the NCAA basketball tournament. Although Wendy's has been advertised during high-profile sports for several years, the chain was able to reexamine its role as the official hamburger for the NCAA.

"We aren't a sports expert, so we embraced that," says Kefer. Using fandom as its approach, Wendy's used Twitter Research Panel to learn how fans value and consumer college sports.

NCAA basketball, for instance, had a high amount of conversation around its popular bracket challenge, says Kefer. As a result, Wendy developed a campaign around March Madness to leverage the different peaks of social media engagement throughout the tournament.

This year, Wendy's and Spark Foundry built the first social-media bracket on Twitter that invited fans to create brackets via direct messages. They were also able to fill out an answer quiz to supplement their official plan with questions about their favorite color and what they would bring to a desert island, says Kefer.

Fans were able to revisit their bracket and check their progress at any point throughout the tournament. Wendy's also used Twitter to provide scoring updates and giveaway prizes, as well as tap influencers to help spread its message.

Similarly, 360i's Fuller said client Oreo decided to place a "bigger bet" with the cookie's long-running campaign to release new flavors every other month.

After fans organically began to submit their own flavors, Oreo "harnessed their creativity" by reaching out to them via social media to solicit their creations in an official basis. After hundreds of entrants, three finalists will launch as real products in May with consumers voting on their favorite.

In addition, Oreo rewarded entrants by providing custom virtual gifts as a thank you. For instance, Oreo might send a mocked up virtual unicorn colored Oreo if someone submitted a unicorn creation. The cookie brand also developed real samples to surprise some participants.