In this month's marketing round-up we're covering everything from how the humble potato became the star of Burger King's recent marketing campaign, to how a social media campaign crossover involved basically every big brand you can think of. Let's dive in!
Burger King France gave away free potatoes
Burger King seems to get a mention in every edition of our ‘In the Loop’ blog series – they must be doing something right. With restaurants around the world seeing reduced footfall at the moment, farmers have been left with surplus crop. Burger King France is buying some of these surplus potatoes and are giving a bag away to every customer that makes a purchase at their drive-through. Not only is this a thoughtful move from Burger King, showcasing their brand values, but an added incentive to visit their restaurant whilst leaving the house is a little less desirable.Little Moons took TikTok by storm
If you haven’t heard of Little Moons yet, have you been living under a rock?! These little balls of Japanese mochi and ice cream have been around for years (apparently) but have recently soared to popularity following some clever TikTok marketing.
The Little Moons TikTok account has a whopping 180k followers, 2.2 million likes, and hundreds of thousands of views on every video they post. All thanks to a viral trend where people go to ‘big Tesco’ on a lockdown adventure to find and try Little Moons.
It’s not clear which is ‘video zero’, but the more people that tried the trend, the more difficult they became to get a hold of, which only encouraged more people to try and get their hands on this elusive product. Clever!
@joycejenkyn saw these on my fyp so i had to secure the goods? @littlemoonsmochi #fyp #littlemoonsmochi
Every retailer that stocks it (Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado) saw record sales of Little Moons in February. At £4.50 a pack, we’d estimate that Little Moons is doing quite well at the minute.
Have you tried them?
Weetabix and Heinz Combo
Perhaps the most memorable social media campaign from February was the collision of Heinz baked beans and Weetabix. Two iconic British breakfast products you probably never would have imaged together, until now…
The partnership was so controversial that it drew attention from the masses and pretty much every other big brand. Most of them hopping on popular Twitter trends with their responses.
Babe are u ok? You've hardly touched your Weetabix and beans!
— @LidlGB (@LidlGB) February 9, 2021
Some say it went too far, with brands trying too hard to be relevant – perhaps to the point where it was cringe-worthy… But it worked in Heinz and Weetabix’s favour – increasing the engagement of their original post.
Trump’s ban is permanent
In our January edition of In the Loop, we talked about Trump’s ban from Twitter. In February, Twitter announced that it the ban will be completely permanent, even if Trump runs for President in 2024.
So perhaps we’ll get to see whether Trump’s Presidential campaigns are as successful without his Twitter influence – a vital part of his previous campaigns.
Marmite Dynamite
Marmite also released a striking advertising campaign this month to promote their new ‘Dynamite’ product – a chilli infused version of classic Marmite.
In a period of lockdown, OOH advertising is almost irrelevant. So we love this digital spin on a billboard ad.
But like many other Twitter users, their social campaign made us cringe a little… They attempted to replicate the hype caused by the Heinz x Weetabix campaign we mentioned earlier, and quite frankly, failed.
Facebook banned news from its platform in Australia
The ban disabled Australian news organisations from sharing content on their Facebook pages and also hid all their previous posts. All because of the proposed media bargaining code that required digital platforms to pay media outlets to link their content in news feeds or search results.
Facebook has since reversed the ban but it goes to show how little control we have over the content we share on social platforms.
Bebo announced a come-back
Remember Bebo? Well, it’s making a come-back. Michael Birch, co-founder of Bebo, plans to relaunch the social network with a new focus on profiles and ‘real-time’ interactions between friends – a contrast to the newsfeed layout of the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It aims to creating a ‘refreshing break’ from the misinformation spread on other platforms. Will you be using it? Perhaps for the nostalgia? Or is there a reason it died out?Twitter announced their new ‘super follow’ feature
And last but not least, Twitter announced another new feature in February – super follow. This addition will allow account holders to charge users for exclusive additional content – whether that’s extra Tweets, joining a community group or receiving a newsletter.
It feels like we’re always reporting Twitter updates and changes, but this is the first significant change they have made to way the platform can be used.
Apparently, the feature will be launched later in the year. But the news has been met with mixed reviews. According to Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, 85% of his followers said in a survey that they would not pay a premium for their favourite accounts.
Other social media platforms, like YouTube, offer creators the opportunity to make money from their content, but we’re not too sure that it will work well on Twitter – it thrives as a fast-paced news-sharing platform.
PrettyLittleThing vs Topshop
The pandemic has really taken its toll on all kinds of businesses – even Topshop. It was recently announced that ASOS would be taking over both Topshop and Topman, after the company fell on hard times. So rival clothing company, PrettyLittleThing, saw their opportunity and grabbed it… They’ve paid for a Google Ad to appear at the top of the search list when you search for Topshop. Savage. But opportunistic!Ready to get creative with your own marketing?
Tell us where you want to go and we’ll help you get there. Just shoot us an email to hello@vidacreative.co.uk.