Tweets of the week: celebrations and festivals dominate Twitter in APAC
This week, Twitter was used across the Asia Pacific region to celebrate Australia Day, India's Republic Day, and the Chinese New Year of the Monkey.
This week, Twitter was used across the Asia Pacific region to celebrate Australia Day, India’s Republic Day, and the Chinese New Year of the Monkey.
This week on social media, Australians and Indians took to Twitter to celebrate their heritage with #AustraliaDay and #RepublicDay.
Australia Day
Australia Day, which was this past Tuesday, generated more than 400,000 mentions between January 25 and 27, according to Twitter Australia. It even gave #AustraliaDay it’s own emoji – a koala wearing sunglasses.
Create history! Tweet a pic of how you enjoy #AustraliaDay Your Way https://t.co/fBFDLhOKTZ pic.twitter.com/Dk2lbaWosn
— Twitter Australia (@TwitterAU) January 23, 2016
Here’s how brands ran with the theme, including this one from Qantas.
Happy #AustraliaDay! https://t.co/DpNhGdXW8u
— Qantas (@Qantas) January 26, 2016
Condé Nast Traveller ran a number of posts and then linked it to a story about Australia’s 10 best beaches. Here is one of the better examples, in terms of the image quality.
The 10 best beaches in Australia, in honor of #AustraliaDay https://t.co/3UUyQBDmgv pic.twitter.com/XAjyVSfcCQ
— Condé Nast Traveler (@CNTraveler) January 26, 2016
Tourism Australia added Periscope to the mix. It used Twitter to promote a live-stream campaign launch in the U.S. with Australian actor Chris Hemsworth.
The Great Barrier Reef is home to six of the world's seven species of marine turtles #TravelerChats #AustraliaDay pic.twitter.com/CaLeCk6RMd
— Australia (@Australia) January 25, 2016
Introducing our new film to promote Australia's Aquatic & Coastal experiences, featuring ambassador @chrishemsworthhttps://t.co/rwITa3oQiA
— Australia (@Australia) January 26, 2016
The more popular tweets around #AustraliaDay were the ones inviting followers to retweet to win a prize, like this one from Absolut Vodka.
In honour of #AustraliaDay, RT to win a bottle of Absolut Oz, designed by Baz Lurhman. Ts&Cs https://t.co/QeZwwBN6gE pic.twitter.com/kqzQQ1k4rl
— ABSOLUT UK (@ABSOLUTUK) January 26, 2016
Michael Clifford, the guitarist of Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer, wrote one of the most popular #AustraliaDay tweets to hit the social sphere. He tweeted 20th Century Fox a YouTube post promoting the new Deadpool movie, which stars Ryan Reynolds and hits cinemas in February. Deadpool is an antihero in the Marvel Comics, known as the “merc with a mouth” due to his biting wit.
'happy Australia Day, cause that's a real thing' I'm just gonna leave this here again. happy #AustraliaDay https://t.co/qTBD2djHea
— 8_8 (@Michael5SOS) January 26, 2016
If Clifford’s 30,000 retweets, 57,000 likes, and the more than one million views of this silly clip had in its first 24 hours on YouTube is any indication of the film’s success, then I would say that it has a promising future.
#Republic Day
Unilever Hindustan had a strong brand presences around India’s Republic Day, also on Tuesday. It used the event to promote its Swachh Aadat, Swachh Bharat (clean habits, clean India) initiative as part of a greater Indian government hygiene program.
This #RepublicDay, spread the message of adopting 3 Swachh Aadat for a Swachh Bharat.#SwachhAadatSwachhBharat pic.twitter.com/5bWUXJcG9f
— Hindustan Unilever (@HUL_News) January 26, 2016
Consumer electronics brand Micromax used Twitter to promote its #RockTheRepublic campaign for a better India.
Share your vision of a new India starting with “I want a nation…”& #RockTheRepublic. https://t.co/jpZdfyE2X7 pic.twitter.com/pw8QzV7A7P
— Micromax India (@Micromax_Mobile) January 26, 2016
Online fashion brand Yepme.com ran a user-generated #JoinTheParade contest inviting people to celebrate the day in ethnic clothing.
#JoinTheParade Get dressed in Ethnic wear today and share your favorite photo. 5 best looks will win@Yepmedotcom pic.twitter.com/mtterFM8LI
— Yepme.com (@Yepmedotcom) January 25, 2016
While upscale Indian mall, Select Citywalk ran a #CityGoesTriColor competition. Users shared pictures of anything representing the three colors within the Indian flag.
https://twitter.com/plum_paradise/status/691480699090632705
Chinese New Year of the Monkey
Marketing around the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Monkey is in full swing across parts of Asia – including Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. It celebrated in China too – but Twitter is blocked there.
Twitter Singapore prepared this Chinese New Year Brand Index, which measures conversation themes and engagement based on retweets, replies, and likes.
H&M Philippines topped the list in the region, using Twitter for its 2016 CNY Collection. The initiative uses Chinese supermodel Liu Wen and Korean singer and actor Siwon Choi, who appear together on the reality show Let’s Fall In Love.
The campaign’s Twitter posts feature behind-the-scenes pictures of the photo shoot and includes an interview with the stars.
Here's the BTS of our #HM2016CNY w/ @LiuWenLW @siwon407. We can't wait to see it in stores https://t.co/VK31fgcJGI pic.twitter.com/s9SyQuQCtq
— H&M Philippines (@hmphilippines) January 18, 2016
Maybank Indonesia is running a #HokiBeruntun (Lucky Streak) campaign, offering customers the chance to win prizes that include a Samsung mobile phone, cash, and even gold. Customers just need to open an account in order to participate.
Rayakan Imlek dgn Hoki Beruntun biar lebih untung! Dapatkan hadiah https://t.co/T6dOpgkqsS #BingkisanBeruntun pic.twitter.com/jAPtjBPrnI
— Maybank Indonesia (@MaybankID) January 18, 2016
Shopee Indonesia – a mobile shopping mall – is running a number of Chinese New Year promotions. It took to Twitter with product focused posts like this one, which shows off a custom Year of the Monkey Kingston Flashdisk USB.
Kingston Flashdisk USB 32GB – 2016 IMLEK Edition hanya Rp 204,000. Order sekarang di https://t.co/VEa5UBz2dg pic.twitter.com/DRrJ0r0yGv
— Shopee Indonesia (@ShopeeID) January 21, 2016
Buying new clothes and items to usher in the new year is a common practice across Asia. Samsung Malaysia has channeled this sentiment in this ad by pairing the Gear S2 smartwatch with new clothes.
Already planning your shopping list for the coming CNY celebration already? Remember to loop in #myGearS2 pic.twitter.com/exmfpF5T1N
— Samsung Malaysia (@SamsungMalaysia) January 18, 2016
Brands are globally marketing themselves while using #CNY and #LunarNewYear on Twitter. Starbucks uses #LunarNewYear to endorse its Year of the Monkey Starbucks Card.
Celebrate your intelligence, curiosity, & creativity with this special-edition #StarbucksCard. 🐒 #LunarNewYear pic.twitter.com/z4F0PuhMnV
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) January 21, 2016
Cathay Pacific is running a Year of the Monkey competition for two flights and accommodation to Hong Kong. The tweet links to a competition website that asks applicants to share their information and answer why they should win in 25 words. In a clever twist, the audience must click through several pages of promotional content before they can enter the competition.
Win flights to Hong Kong & a 4-night stay during the #YearOfTheMonkey! Enter now – https://t.co/qfhMLHynGi pic.twitter.com/nkGlocEIm6
— Cathay Pacific AU (@cathaypacificAU) January 20, 2016
We are #WomenNotObjects
Madonna Badger, founder of advertising agency Badger & Winters, used social media as an educational platform in an effort to spread awareness about societal inequities between genders with #WomenNotObjects. Badger created and published the YouTube video We Are #WomenNotObjects, a two-minute video that shows the results of a Google search for “Objectification of Women.”
The original post has been viewed more than 900,000 times since it was launched on January 11, and draws attention to the prolific sexualization of women in advertising. Now Tom Ford, Skyy Vodka, Burger King, and Post-it notes are among the number of brands currently being named and shamed across social media channels.
We vow to NEVER objectify women in our ads. Join us and be a part of the conversation with #WomenNotObjects | @wwd https://t.co/3wWroVY5fm
— Badger & Winters (@badger_winters) January 25, 2016
The hashtag is being used on Twitter to highlight current ads that promote sexism, such as this one from car servicer Ultra Tune in Australia.
We're more into rubber than ever…#Ultratuneaust #UltraTune #Australia #Car #Carservice#Mechanic #Servicecentre pic.twitter.com/U1zFzolZLY
— Ultra Tune (@UltraTuneAust) January 17, 2016
Really @UltraTuneAust?!?? I presume you're not interested in attracting female customers. #WomenNotObjects https://t.co/BV4wCc01N5
— Leah Maclean (@leahmac) January 18, 2016
And this post shows a poster inside a South St. Burger restaurant.
Surrounded by moms and kids on #PADay @southstburgerco, is there no better way to sell your fries #WomenNotObjects pic.twitter.com/ph6H50r4BS
— KetchupMoms (@ketchupmoms) January 22, 2016
Brands can expect to be the subject of more social media shaming as the hashtag takes off.
Finally, my favorite tweet of the week is from astronaut Scott Kelly, which is a picture of the first flower ever grown in space. Pretty cool, huh? I thought so too! His prophetic message is quite inspiring: “Where flowers bloom, so do possibilities.”
#SpaceFlower Where flowers bloom, so do possibilities. #HappyFriday from @space_station! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/DQNexvkCMs
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 22, 2016
Who would have thought a single flower could generate over 2,500 retweets and over 6,000 likes on Twitter, and almost 30,000 likes on Instagram?
Until next time, over and out.
