Twitter usage for corporations has become an interesting study in brand interaction, and the microblogging service is currently bouncing around the story of a social media fan who sent a simple tweet:
“AAAHHH Im outta wheat thins… Mi life is officially over.”
The video below is brief, and shows a Wheat Thins branded van doing a drive by of the tweeters house, dropping off a pallet of the snack, and departing. For the cost of a few boxes of Wheat Thins, the clip is already close to 200,000 views. The idea behind the campaign is the “unexpected, throwaway comment having consequences” nature of networks like Twitter. The group carrying out the Wheat Thins attacks explains :
Wheat Thins’ problem is, if anything, over-familiarity. The reverse of the awareness problem. It’s available everywhere and it’s been around forever. But there is a lot of love for the brand. How do we know this? Because we found it flowing like a torrent on Twitter. While coming up with ideas for Wheat Thins we had the idea of searching Twitter to see what, if anything the Twits were saying about Wheat Thins. We were stunned to find hundreds of unprovoked declarations of undying love for the brand. Some were just slavish “I love Wheat Thins so much i would die for them” . Some were more witty. Some were just odd.
As anyone who tweets regularly knows, the one thing you DON’T expect is for your random tossed-off utterances to have any consequences. That’s the ONE THING you can be certain of. Until now that is!
Of course, being the internet, the story was met with cries of “FAAAAKE.” The people behind the campaign swear otherwise , but despite doubts about the campaign’s authenticity, Twitter has embraced the tale. (Apparently, Tabitha mentioned the brand on Facebook and not Twitter, but the tweet was there, alone and as a sole tweet, until yesterday.) It’ll be interesting to see if based on the success of the Wheat Thins videos, other companies will follow suit and surprise fans on Twitter.
Have you ever been stalked by a company or corporation on Twitter? Was it a positive experience, or were you taken to task for your tweets or Facebook comments?
