It’s no secret: Twitter is a powerful tool that every brand needs to have in its social media repertoire. Believe it or not, Twitter is especially powerful when it comes time to launch a new product.
How to use Twitter To Launch a Product
Let’s take a look at two companies that were able to successfully leverage Twitter to amp up consumer demand and facilitate a successful product launch in a new market.
PepsiCo, @7UPArabia
Global food and beverage company PepsiCo didn’t just want to launch a new product in Saudi Arabia — they wanted to get the local market involved in and excited about the launch. So what did PepsiCo do? They turned to social media. The industry giant (their product portfolio includes brands Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, and Frito-Lay) offered customers the opportunity to name its newest product via voting on a variety of digital and mobile platforms. The company reached out to and partnered with well-known KSA YouTube personality Bader Saleh in order to attract attention to the voting process and get consumers excited. The company made use of a locally relevant, promoted trend Twitter hashtag (صوت_وساعد_بدر#) to maximize brand awareness and drive contest votes. The company’s promoted Tweets were media-rich, designed to engage Twitter users through clear and simple calls to actions.
The results were impressive. Users did vote to name the new product “squeeze.” But in reality the campaign wasn’t about naming a product, it was about launching a product and increasing brand awareness and brand engagement in the process. Throughout the voting process @7UPArabia drove a Promoted Tweet engagement rate of 26.6 percent, increased mentions of the hashtag by 200 percent, and gained an impressive 3,137 new followers. The takeaway? Twitter can be an excellent way to get your consumers involved in the product launch process. When consumers are involved in key product decision, such as naming, they are more likely to get excited about the product and subsequently more likely to make a purchase.
Hailo, @HailoDublin
To launch their app into Dublin, Ireland taxi app Hailo wanted to expand their local follower base, increase brand awareness, and drive app downloads. Luckily, Hailo turned to Twitter for help with launching into a new market. The key to the company’s success was its real time tweets. To accelerate their follower growth, they used Promoted Accounts with geo-targeting to attract users in Ireland, specifically targeting users with interests in weather, transportation, concerts, sporting events or conferences. The company would identify local events and encourage users to use a Hailo cab to get there, sending them out to the target audience. For example, one such tweet reads, “Heading to the #websummit today? Grab a Hailo cab! Taxi in two taps and pay with cash or card.”
The results were overwhelming. Hailo saw a 20 percent increase in app downloads. The company also managed to increase its number of Twitter followers from a mere 300 to over 7,000 in just two months. Twitter is now an integral component of Hailo’s launch strategy in any new market. The lessons to be learned? Harnessing the power of locally-targeted tweets in conjunction with real-time commentary brands can dramatically boost brand awareness and engagement.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in the medtech industry. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
