Social Pro Daily

Move Over, Oreo: #Bendgate Inspires New 'Biggest Brand Tweet Ever'

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By Patrick Coffee

KitKat was more fortunate than Derek Jeter this week.

The brand’s “real-time” response to the Apple #bendgate controversy has easily surpassed Oreo’s “dunk in the dark” to become the king of all corporate tweets. (For now, at least.)

Yes, it was clever. Credit goes to JWT London as we debate whether advertising or PR should own real-time social media marketing duties.

Why, exactly, was this particular tweet so popular?

We don’t really have a definitive answer to that question other than the fact that the tweet referenced a popular story-turned-hashtag that was all the more compelling for casting shade on one of the world’s most successful businesses. It’s the corporate equivalent of celebrity gossip, really. And it didn’t need to rely on a live televised event like, say, The Super Bowl or The Oscars.

Everyone was reading about the story on social, which is why the brands that got involved were rewarded with extra attention. (It didn’t have to do with the number of people following Kit Kat, because as we also learned this week, most people have no real interest in “friending” consumer brands anyway.)

Here are some more:

Samsung

Samsung Mobile

LGA

Dockers

Heineken

ASUS

Pringles

Quirky

Here are a couple of more obscure examples:

Next Limit

City Calling

Some pretty good entries here — especially Heineken. But none of them were quite as short, sweet and on-point as Kit Kat. Lightning in a bottle, et cetera.

Now who did we miss?

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Patrick Coffee

Patrick Coffee is a senior editor for Adweek.

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