Conversation about television used to occur over the office water cooler or over a drink at the local, but now, with the popularization & easy accessibility of online social media, a large majority of conversation is held on Twitter. With over 654 million active users, and an average of 58 million tweets a day, its no wonder that an online presence and the use of ‘hashtags’ has become commonplace for companies, allowing them to extend their advertising beyond television.

Introduced in 2011, the Argos alien family has become a recognizable and memorable group, with their official Twitter account @Argos_Aliens launching in June 2013. Alongside giving an entertaining and quirky representation of ‘the typical family’, Argos have created a way in which to appeal to and entertain their audience, and advertise key products and offers through them.

With the launch of their “#nameourbaby” campaign, alongside the announcement of the Royal birth, Argos asked Twitter users to name the new born addition to the family

This advertisement signals the first time Argos has used social media as a feedback tool from their audiences. Over the course of the campaign, there were over 7000 mentions of the @Argos_Aliens twitter account, and over 21.3k uses of the hashtag, generating thousands more followers for both their official and alien family’s twitter account, and raised awareness of Argos’ range of products aimed at pregnant women.

Television has become far more dynamic and interactive in recent years, quickly evolving with cross-media convergence and the audience’s use of social media allows instant feedback about advertising campaigns online.

John Lewis’ Christmas campaign, “The Bear & the Hare” was the true success of Christmas 2013, receiving 212,000 mentions on Twitter via the hashtag “#bearandhare”, with the nostalgic 2D animation and heartwarming story ensuring mostly positive feedback.

At the end of the advertisement, the audience is invited to “continue the story” online, an interactive experience allowing families access to explore the bear’s cave, purchase merchandise, make personalized ecards with the forest creatures & to download the supporting eBook “The Bear who had never seen Christmas”. John Lewis also ran two twitter accounts, @johnlewisbear & @johnlewishare, to further expand on the story, both accounts accruing 9.5k followers.

Combining advertisements with Twitter hashtag campaigns are proven to be 36% more effective than TV advertising alone. Cross-media convergence between advertisers and its consumers via social networking allows audiences’ opinions and feedback to be received in real time. By sharing content across a varied platform of media outlets, such as social networking and dedicated websites, it allows advertisements and consumers to interact with each other far better, and build a stronger connection between them.

Here at Lovelove, we can enhance your advertising campaign, expanding your online following and build a closer partnership with your brand and your customers. Come in for coffee and cake to talk through some of your advertising campaign needs, or tweet us at @Lovelovefilms!

Please note the videos and images provided are for reference only, we did not produce this content.

Sources:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/

https://storify.com/stefbarry/argos-nameourbaby-campaign

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/14/john-lewis-bear-and-hare-most-talked-about-advert-social-sainsburys-most-emotionally

https://blog.twitter.com/2013/tv-conversation-targeting-launches-in-the-uk-and-us-coming-soon-to-brazil-canada-france-and