Last week, we hailed Patron and MasterCard as the clear-cut winners among those advertising on Twitter during this year’s GRAMMY Awards. In promoting #Remixology (Patron) and #PricelessSurprises (MasterCard), both brands managed to react quickly to what was taking place during the telecast, tweeting plenty of new creative throughout the show.
As long as Twitter remains the go-to social platform for live events – and a slew of recent product releases indicate that it is serious about maintaining its status as such – smart brands will continue to advance a two-pronged approach: broader, evergreen linear TV advertising complemented by more narrowly targeted, real-time, Twitter campaigns.
To accomplish this, Patron worked closely with Golin during the show:
“On The Bridge, our global real-time marketing network, we focus on creating brand relevance for our clients during the cultural moments that matter to consumers,” Alex Tan, Executive Director of Digital at Golin, told Lost Remote. “To be relevant to consumers, we need to make data-driven decisions with creative and engagement, and Twitter is the leading platform right now when it comes to second screen experiences. Dynamic platforms like Twitter allow us to take advantage of conversation velocity by inserting compelling creative and engaging with consumers in real-time while also amplifying it with media to reach a greater audience.”
For more on how Patron and MasterCard leveraged Twitter during the GRAMMYS – while being quick-to-act, yet on-brand – we spoke Christi McNeill, Patron’s Social and Digital Strategy Manager, and Maripi Jalandoni, Group Executive, U.S. Marketing, MasterCard.
Lost Remote: With so many social networks offering real-time advertising capabilities, what continues to separate Twitter?
Christi McNeill: Twitter continues to separate themselves from other platforms because they offer a robust media platform that allows us to specifically target consumers. Our partners at Twitter are eager to work with us to try new things and bring to life innovative campaigns. Twitter is the reigning hub of live cultural conversation – not just for brands, but for consumers. It’s increasingly where people go first above anything else to see what other people are saying. And brands, like Patrón, add another dimension to that conversation.
Maripi Jalandoni: MasterCard’s digital strategy is to ensure we are engaging with our cardholders on the platforms they are leveraging. As a result, we see value in publishing content across a variety of platforms. Twitter is a very important platform for us for ‘real-time’ events because it is where our cardholders spend time following major live events. On a functional level, we like the simplicity of Twitter in reaching the people we want to reach with the flexibility to adjust real-time based on what is happening.
For our GRAMMYs and Gwen activities, we started early and seeded content on a number of social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,Tumblr), where we knew our content would reach and resonate with music enthusiasts.
LR: Brands can hit home runs with real-time social marketing, but there is also a greater potential for disaster. How did your team manage to maintain a brand-safe voice while at the same time reacting quickly to what was taking place during the GRAMMYs?
McNeill: To prep for the Grammy’s Real-Time Mixology project we worked with our agency partners at Golin to prep playbooks for the team and prepare as much content in advance as possible. By making sure all the key players knew the guardrails and playbook, we were comfortable with executing the real-time Remixology project.
Jalandoni: It’s all about context. In order for MasterCard to be relevant in a digital platform we work hard to understand our cardholders use and interaction within that platform and what’s important to them. We also need to be authentic to our brand and the brand promise we deliver on.
We are an official sponsor of The GRAMMY Awards. GRAMMYs night was, coincidentally, the first year anniversary of the launch of Priceless Surprises. So we wanted to celebrate and enable Priceless Surprises throughout the night. We were pleased to see that happening at scale during GRAMMYs night. We listened real-time to find the right intersections between MasterCard and what was happening; so we could be additive and welcomed, not annoying and disruptive.
LR: What type of planning and strategy was involved ahead of the show? How did your team work directly with Twitter to achieve your KPIs?
McNeill: Patrón is a natural fit in the Grammy’s social conversation, between watch parties at home, or winning an award of a lifetime, people celebrate with Patrón, so the strategy around the Grammy’s activation was fairly simple. We had an opportunity to share a few of our favorite cocktails in a contextually relevant way to really showcase the versatility of Patrón Tequila. We worked with Twitter to prepare content that would resonate and work across a variety of scenarios, then we had a team of creatives on hand to help tailor the content pieces for the real-time opportunities. Twitter also worked directly with our media team to make sure our media budget was optimized based on current conversations and pivotal moments during the show.
Jalandoni: Real-time social marketing meant weeks of planning and preparedness. We had the right people, the right empowerment levels to execute quickly and effectively; and, on GRAMMYs night, we also chose to have our Twitter team in the room with us. With our combined understanding of the audience and the platform we were able to identify relevant conversations that were gaining traction and optimize our feeds and responses in real-time.
LR: What metrics were you looking at during the show, and what metrics will you be using to determine whether your efforts were successful? It’s a bit early, but does anything stand out so far?
McNeill: We had three goals going into the Grammy’s war room: Capitalize on organic conversations surrounding the Grammys, Patrón, and watch parties, place Patrón Tequila in trending social conversations to help bring our brand to the top of consumer consideration, and showcase the diversity of Patrón Tequila through real-time mixology. Tequila is more than shots and margaritas, it makes for some really amazing cocktails – this was an opportunity to showcase the artisanal elements of Patrón.
We met all the goals that we had set for our first official “war room,” keep in mind, a year ago we were not even on Twitter. But, one particular win was the message resonance. This was a very concentrated campaign and through responses and feedback from our fans, we were able to measure the message. People understood why Patrón was talking to them during the Grammys. It wasn’t a force fit, and we were thanked repeatedly for providing new ways for mixing their favorite tequila.
Jalandoni: We wanted to reach passionate music fans especially those of GRAMMYs-nominated artists, and create content that mattered to them. Among them, to advance MasterCard relevance and loyalty, leading to increased card usage and advocacy. We measured through social diagnostic metrics such as Engagement Rate, Share of Voice, and Sentiment.
We’re pleased that on GRAMMYs night, our Share of Voice was a record-high, our Engagement Rate significantly beat benchmarks (our own and Twitter’s category benchmarks), and consumer sentiment was extremely high.
Priceless Surprises is a wonderful way to relate with, cardholders and the broader audience; and the response has truly been phenomenal
LR: Live events – award shows and sporting events, in particular – continue to drive the conversation on Twitter. Will you look to take advantage of these types of events, small and large, or will you focus your attention on tentpole events only such as the GRAMMYs, Oscars, and Super Bowl?
McNeill: We have identified opportunities throughout the year that consumers and fans would be most likely to have #PatronWorthy moments, those moments that are best celebrated with the world’s number one premium tequila. Live events work so well for real-time content opportunities, but also so well for our brand, since we are often naturally a part of those conversations and moments.
Jalandoni: As Top-Tier Global Partner of The GRAMMYS, it is a natural fit for us to be active in social media during the event. Our cardholders and business partners value our engagement initiatives around our key sponsorship events including just to name a few the World Series, South Beach Wine and Food Festival, various PGA golf events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, SXSW, and the New York Wine & Food Festival. When we’re driving conversation and brand engagement with our cardholders around their passions, it is incredibly powerful. We’ll continue to do this to differentiate our brand and reward our cardholders.
