Marketing

Social media watch: And the award goes to…

The American Music Awards took place Sunday night, and a number of restaurant brands took to Twitter to drum up excitement for their menu items in addition to the show’s musical acts:

 

 

Applebee’s angled for engagement with young brand fans by sharing its love for Artist of the Year winner One Direction:  

 

 

And Whataburger continued its social-media success streak by capitalizing on one surprising moment—a wardrobe malfunction experienced by one of Jennifer Lopez’s back-up dancers. The burger chain responded to the incident with the following tweet, which had more than 800 retweets by Monday morning: 

 

 

Social media scorecard:

Novelty: 2

Jumping on the buzz of prime-time programming is a popular move, but unconventional approaches that target a specific audience, such as Applebee’s post above, or react to an unexpected moment, a la Whatburger’s, can add a fresh spin.

Imitate-ability: 9

Just turn on the TV and start tweeting. 

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