Top 15 Best (And Worst) Bendy Iphone Tweets Based On My Speed, Story and Surprise Criteria
After our book Newsjacking was published, I’ve been in damage limitation mode for the last year or so. Why? Because brands have taken a shiny new toy — real-time marketing — and used it as an opportunity to shoe-horn their product in an overt over-salesy way to disastrous effect. Then sometimes, brands get it right. I’ve been leading workshops with brands and agencies for 18 months and what I love about the latest bendy iPhone scandal is the fact that brands had to act fast. It wasn’t a live event that they could prepare for a variety of eventualities and still screw up.
I’ve looked at loads of executions from brands and individuals and measured them on the three qualities I always judge everything on: Speed, Story and Surprise. How quick and brilliant (or Urgent and Genius — see my other blog)was it. Does it tell a good story. Does it have a brick-in-the-window surprise element to it? Plus, I’ve added a bonus section of the worst brand Shoe-horns. Enjoy.
OVERALL BRAND WINNER:
The first and best one out of the gate from a brand and a clear winner for both it’s Urgent-ness and Genius-ness. Spot on from the candy bar brand and added bonus that KitKat is the name of the last Android update:
BRAND HONORABLE MENTION:
BRAND LOSER:
A decent LG attempt was ruined by a local market when it was revealed that they’d tweeted their iPhone trolling attempt from an iPhone:
SPEED AND SURPRISE WINNER
This one had a surprise factor to it (great image manipulation and liked the Dali angle) and was tweeted 4 hours before KitKat.
You know you’re onto a winner when the public praises you so much that you feel compelled to give away your technique:
SPEED AND SURPRISE RUNNER UP:
This one beat KitKat by a 2 hours and I love the attention to detail including the U2 Limited Edition.
SPEED WINNER
This one took the rolling pin idea to the next level and was still tweeted a few minutes before KitKat.
SPEED AND STORY WINNER
Market Watch contacted Uri Geller and interviewed him over the phone to see if he would be a spokesman for Apple as he explained that people were bending the phones with their mind and that it wasn’t Apple’s fault. Tweeted 5 hours after KitKat. Nice story angle.
STORY RUNNER-UP — AGENCY SELF-PROMO
I’ve been preaching to agencies that the most important real-time content client is you yourself. If you can’t do real-time content for your brand why should a client trust you. Brighton agency Wonderlabs got my attention with their fake letter from Jonny Ive explaining ‘malleability’ as a secret feature that they didn’t announce on launch day.
STORY RUNNER-UP — INDIVIDUAL
A bit of a dig at an age-old issue about under-age workers. Made me smile.
SURPRISE HONOURABLE MENTION:
This photoshopper got my attention with the Spatula 6. Or was I just hungry? Or do I just love burgers too much?
SECOND BEST BURGER RELATED TWEET:
SHOE-HORN WINNER
I don’t get this at all. Explain it to me please?
SHOE-HORN RUNNER UP
A bit too easy. Lazy tweets are killing me.
BEST RESPONSE TO A SHOE-HORN
SURPRISE HONOURABLE MENTION
Shaun found a photo online and turned it into a quite funny warning about other bendy Apple products.
It’s been over 48 hours and more responses are rolling in. I wanted to see more film and interactive attempts as I think this story has kept momentum for quite a while. What brand and individual responses have I left off my list?
