If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve likely thrown your fair share of 2020 marketing plans out the window.
Scrapped shoots, delayed launches, ever-shifting budgets, Zoom this, Zoom that. These challenges have really pushed marketers creatively, leading to some incredible work on Twitter. From campaign pivots to at-home content creation, marketers across Southeast Asia brought all the feels and really got to the heart of what Twitter’s all about — connecting people and brands through conversation. These are the eight campaigns and brands worth remembering from a year we’ll never forget.
Best campaign for driving positive change in society
Our pick: @McDo_PH
On National Heroes Day, @McDo_PH showed its appreciation for frontline workers by gifting free meals in its app. People on Twitter were inspired by the act and joined in to share their gratitude for these essential workers and unsung heroes of 2020. This is one of many efforts McDonald's Philippines has made to consistently give back to the community during the pandemic.
Agencies: OMD Philippines & Leo Burnett Philippines
Best brand voice
Our pick: @UberEats_JP
"Tonight I'll Be Eating” is a yearlong campaign that rolls out every quarter on Twitter in Japan. Each quarter, Uber Eats Japan reveals the unique pairing of influencers to drive across the messaging that no matter who you are, everyone can use Uber Eats to order what they are craving for dinner.
With humour, unexpected influencers, and a consistent brand voice, @UberEats_JP made a global campaign uniquely Japanese. The work made us hungry for more.
Agencies: MediaCom, Special Group & Ultra Super New Tokyo
Best virtual event
Our pick: @ciscoapac
Converting a flagship tech conference (with record attendance) to a virtual event could throw any marketer. But @ciscoapac pivoted flawlessly. Cisco Live 2020 was live-streamed on Twitter, cementing its place as the hub for the tech conversation and community.
Cisco drove awareness by promoting the live stream on multiple country handles across the whole APJC region, covering Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and India. It kept the conversation going by leveraging Twitter's takeover product and running a Spotlight trend at the end of the event.
What? Like it’s hard?
Agency: Merkle DWA
Best use of video
Our pick: @DisneyPlusID
The secret to “The Mandalorian” Season 2 launch? Fan hype with video front and centre.
Following Twitter’s best practices, Disney+ Hotstar Indonesia created a sub-15-second video filled with unrivalled localised creative. The video received an eye-popping 9.1M views and turned up the anticipation for #TheMandalorian2. Excited fans lapped up a custom Like to Remind Twitter solution that sent additional video snippets before every episode.
Most Tweeted-about brand
Winner: Shopee
2020 fast-tracked e-commerce in Southeast Asia. But it also fast-tracked the shopping conversation on Twitter — with Shopee at its centre.
Shopee launched multiple successful campaigns on Southeast Asia’s biggest shopping days, solidifying its place in the minds (and Tweets) of shoppers.
Congratulations to Shopee (@ShopeeID, @ShopeeMY, @ShopeePH, @ShopeeSG, and @ShopeeTH) for being the most Tweeted-about brand in Southeast Asia.
Best launch on Twitter
Our pick: @PringlesJapanCP
@PringlesJapanCP launched a renewed flavour with popular Japanese personality Fuwa-Chan on Twitter — and you can taste the results.
How’d they do it? By following our three phases for a launch: Tease, Reveal, and Reinforce.
Pringles teased fans with giveaway contests and Tweets that built curiosity. With the hype at its peak, Pringles revealed brand ambassador Fuwa-Chan in a hilarious video.
To reinforce momentum and keep fans talking, Fuwa-Chan hosted a special takeover of the @PringlesJapanCP account. She set up a “consulting” session and addressed fans' troubles.
Agencies: ADK Creative One & A-Bridge
Best connection to culture
Our pick: @NetflixID
#KpopTwitter is huge in Indonesia, with Indonesia ranking third in the world for K-pop conversation. Netflix Indonesia tapped into this cultural phenomenon for the release of the new Blackpink documentary, “Light Up The Sky."
@NetflixID connected #KpopTwitter with Blackpink fans (Blinks) to grow hype and anticipation. It then supercharged the conversation with a custom branded emoji.
The campaign took Twitter Indonesia by storm and achieved an impressive engagement rate of 6.5%. We stan.
Agencies: UM Singapore (Regional - APAC) & Tommy
Best #OnlyonTwitter
Our pick: @SpotifyKDaebak
The K-pop Multi Playlist Campaign started with a question: How can Spotify get K-pop fans to explore new music through Spotify’s curated K-pop playlists?
@SpotifyKDaebak saw that fans love quizzes and social validation. So it partnered with Twitter to make something special: a quiz that matched fans’ personalities with curated Spotify playlists. The results were a perfect match.
Fans took to Twitter to share their playlists and Spotify stood out from the competition as a credible source for discovering new K-pop music.
Agencies: UM Singapore (Regional - APAC) & Juice Network
Trang Hoang is the head of business marketing for Southeast Asia at Twitter.
Clare Sandlund is a copywriter on Twitter’s in-house creative team, #Studio.