What Happened to All the Brands that Didn’t Have Super Bowl Ads?

The Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots weren’t the only ones competing on Super Bowl Sunday. Twitter turned the big game into a social media competition with #BrandBowl52.

#BrandBowl52 marked Twitter’s attempt to solidify themselves as the social network for all Super Bowl advertisers. They honored not only brands that viewers saw over and over, but they included brands that didn’t air commercials during the big game. The brands that were the most often referenced on Twitter during the game were the big winners.

Besides the spotlight, winning brands will receive actual trophies, as well as access to exclusive Twitter ad products and consumer research and exclusive 90-day use of a custom emoji. Ryan Oliver, Twitter’s head of brand strategy for the U.S. and Canada, called #BrandBowl52 the “first ever social subscription for users to get TV spots delivered to them on Twitter.” What does this mean for the future of the multimillion-dollar Super Bowl commercials? One things for sure, Twitter is making it more inexpensive for brands to get their message out there.    

Here is the full rundown of the #BrandBowl52 brand winners:

#MVP
Awarded to the brand that received the highest percentage of brand-related tweets.
Winner: Pepsi

#Blitz
Awarded to the brand that generated the most tweets per minute.
Co-winners: Doritos and Mountain Dew

#Quarterback
Awarded to the brand that received the most retweets on a single tweet.
Winner: Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World”

#Interception
Awarded to the brand that did not run a national TV spot during the game but received the highest percentage of brand-related tweets.
Winner: Ally Bank

Twitter also recognized the most tweeted-about brands in several verticals.

Alcoholic beverages
Winner: Bud Light

Automotive
Winner: Ram Trucks

Consumer packaged goods
Winner: Tide

Dining
Winner: Avocados from Mexico

Entertainment
Winner: HBO’s “Westworld”

Financial services
Winner: E-Trade

Home and health care
Winner: No winner named (no home and health care brands enrolled in the competition)

Retail
Winner: Amazon Echo

Technology and telecommunications
Winner: T-Mobile

Travel
Winner: Tourism Australia

Written by Nicole Naiden from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Twitter Announces New Layout Update and the Internet Goes Crazy!

This past week Twitter gave itself a major makeover but instead of welcoming the new look Twitter users were furious. Scrolling down the timeline Twitter was flooded with memes showing user’s dislike for the update. Using the hashtag #twitterupdate you can find all the memes and jokes on the app. But why do users hate the update so much? It can be any worse than when Instagram changed their app design in 2016 or when Twitter got rid of the Favorite Star for the new Like Heart. Is the new update really that bad or are people just resistant to change?

The “major” changes included in the update is the new layout of the timeline. The “setting” have been switched around as well you’re own personal page. Now located on a navigation bar you can click on your “profile picture” to access your page and “settings”. Another change includes your “notifications” where the “explore” button use to be. Speaking of profile pics, Twitter has also gotten rid of the classic square frame and replaced it with a circle frame following the trends of Snapchat and Instagram. Twitter has also changed its “reply” icon which is confusing at first but instead of someone's names being included in the 140 characters it’s not which is better for replying. 

However, with all these updates Twitter has done they are still forgetting one major update, editing tweets. The only thing worse than tweeting something that has a grammatical error is tweeting something and not having the time to go back and fix it before someone sees it.  It's kind of like how Apple keeps releasing new IOS updates and all we really want is 3-way Facetime. Despite these changes Twitter has grown from 9 million to 328 million last quarter, so I don’t think it's going anywhere any time soon!

Written by Jamia Richardson of Rebecca Adele PR & Events

How to Create and Maintain a Personal Brand Online

Personal branding is the process of creating and marketing a certain image for yourself online. Basically, your personal brand is your impression and reputation in the minds of others. With the rise of social media, crafting a personal branding has never been easier. Your online presence and personal branding are closely intertwined and work together to create an image of yourself for fellow colleagues and professionals.

In order to cultivate your personal brand, you should have a presence online. In today’s day in age having a presence online is the easiest and most effective way to build a personal brand. Everyone can create an online presence simply by creating social media accounts for themselves. Making yourself a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn is an easy and free way to create an online image for yourself. By keeping these social media profiles active and updated, you are contributing to your online presence and therefore creating a platform to build your personal brand. Be sure to post appropriate content for each social media platform. For example, you wouldn’t want to post a picture of your dog with his or her new toy on LinkedIn. That content is more appropriate for Facebook or Instagram. Another great personal branding tip is to give all your social media profiles a consistent look and feel.

So how do we create and maintain our personal brand? The first step to perfecting a personal brand is to express who you are. Having your education, professional experience, skills and specializations available for others shows people who you are, what you are capable of, and what you plan to do in the future.  Be sure to highlight your strengths, this is what will help you encompass who you are while emphasizing your most important features. In addition to this, showing your personality and interests will really diversify and personalize your brand. This is arguably the most important aspect of your personal brand since it helps you stand out and differentiate yourself from everyone else. Be sure to be as honest and authentic in this component.

Your personal brand is also built off of personal and professional relationships. This includes who you are connected with online and what these people say about you. Your personal brand is also built off of who and what you follow. Following influencers and communities online can really help you encompass who you are, what you are interested in and knowledgeable about, and what you stand for.

If you keep these guidelines in mind, you’ll be able to craft a personal brand for yourself online that will positively portray yourself to your colleagues and professionals.

Written by Emma Bevilacqua from Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Halloween Clown Craze Scare!

Clowns are a hot topic of conversation this past month. No longer are people laughing at clowns—they are running at the mention of them! Whether they used to make you giggle as a child, or send chills down your spine, they are now scarier than ever before thanks to social media and the news. 

Let's rewind.. It all began with the first clown sighting in Greenville, South Carolina, where two clowns were seen trying to lure a little boy into the woods. Once this news story hit national news, clown sightings began to spread like wildfire.

Clown sightings have blown up social media including Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook. It was even brought to attention at a White House briefing with Press Secretary Josh Earnest! So how has this become a topic of interest so quickly? The answer is social media.

Twitter has been has become the main news outlet for clown sightings and other clown activates. Twitter profiles such as @ClownSightings have been created to help people stay posted about recent sightings.

Further more, college students have been joining forces to hunt down the clowns. A video of a shirtless Penn State student leading a manhunt of 6,000 students went viral shortly after it was posted. The students were notified of the hunt through Twitter. Not too mention, the Penn State Clown has his own twitter account @PennStateClown. 

On Monday, October 3^rd, Twitter blew up for Kent State students due to a clown sighting on Kent State’s campus. Students were tweeting comments such as, “The circus is in Kent, how exciting!” Or “Join the hunt! #KentStateClown” Similarly, the Kent State Clown also has a Twitter account @KentStateClown.

Whether these clowns are dangerous or pranksters, I think we can all agree that it’s a little frightening! My advice to you—Don’t trust anyone with a clown outfit, you don’t know who is hiding behind it! Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Written by Lindsay Pizzurro of Rebecca Adele PR & Events

Top Social Media Fails

What a wonderful tool social media can be for a company, when done right. When done wrong, it can leave a lot of heads shaking in disbelief. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have grown in popularity with companies of all sizes. It is now common to see social media managers who control the operations of these accounts. When a social media post takes a turn for the worst, we can’t help but wonder what was going on in the minds of these social media savvy pros. These top social media fails will make you scream, “Come on, what were you thinking!?”

US Airways Twitter Fail

US Airways took a different approach to, “the customer is always right” when they replied back to a customer’s complaint with a not-so-kid friendly picture. It's so bad, we don't even feel comfortable describing it, but if you really want to find it, a simple Google search will bring it up.

Many people have had a slip of their finger and accidently posted something that wasn’t meant for their followers. That is exactly what happened to the US Airways twitter, but instead of instantly removing the inappropriate graphic, the post stayed up for an hour before removal. An apology followed the removal, but that didn’t stop the tweet from going viral, making it very hard for the person behind the account to forget and move on from their mistake.

Now US Airways has merged with American Airlines and it is safe to say that their social media accounts are now in different hands. You are safe to follow them again!

IHOP’s social media strategy isn’t one to follow

This social media fail is a little different, because IHOP was well aware what was happening on their social media accounts. They clearly didn’t think about the reactions that could possibly come from mixing their social media strategy with 6^th grade humor. You all remember jokes like, “butter face” or simply insulting a women’s figure. That is what IHOP did, but instead of talking about an actual woman, they included a picture of pancakes. Many people still didn’t find that very funny.

These tweets stayed up for about an hour until a lot of criticism came tweeting IHOP’s way. These finally made the business think, “Hmm, maybe this wasn’t a very funny joke”.

You now have seen how social media can do some harm to a company when not done right. With social media having such a large presence in a brands identity, it is very important to double-check what it is about to be posted or in these cases, give it a triple-check.

Written by Mimi Rosenberg of Rebecca Adele PR & Events