Twitter India’s Rishabh Sharma on Moments, Memes & Marketing

Moments are primarily driven through Twitter and Rishabh Sharma is here to spill the beans on how the platform rules the roost as a medium to influence Moments and Memes which set the mood of the nation.

Kickstarting the AliveNow presents SAMMIE Best Social Media Brands with a Keynote Session featuring Rishabh Sharma, Head of Twitter Next, India put the spotlight on the growing trend of memes and moment marketing and how the micro-blogging site takes the onus of driving relevant campaigns through these in real-time.

Moments x Brand Marketing

At the core of Twitter, there is brevity - Twitter is about what’s happening in the world where we see moments becoming movements. Sharma states that these moments are so intertwined that the trend continues to drive successful brands in the country.

Brands set their marketing calendar according to priorities led by business and product goals. They then add agility and flexibility because you can't plan for every moment. In India, moments - are primarily based on festivals and occasions, then there are interest topics and passion-related content. It could be women’s day, world selfie day, lifestyle choices - a plethora of moments.

Sharma asserts that whether or not brands want to hop onto moments is their call but standing true to cultural relevance and authenticity should be taken into cognizance.

During perceptual and pricing wars which are largely based on cultural elements, key moments and memes emerge as marketing tools and conversations become one metric to drive success.

“They should look for staying on top of moments that matter and tickle our funny bones,” he said.

Global v/s Traditional

When asked about how Indian brands perform in terms of topical conversations vis-a-vis their global counterparts, Sharma commented that what India is seeing for years now is great agility and early adoption towards moment marketing. “The efforts that social and creative teams show in terms of coming up with a campaign in 48 hours and that too with a message that’s authentic is phenomenal.”

He exemplified his statement by mentioning that how brands like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney come straight to mind when spoken about moment and meme marketing followed by Zomato and Swiggy in the F& B space and categories like automobile, tech, and BFSI are also not too far behind.

He also stated that there is still way for us to go  ahead where SMEs and large conglomerates look to embrace public conversations and be closer to their audiences

Metric to Choose a Moment

Sharma shares that while the velocity of moments is such that you often have no time to think, here are a few practices can be followed:

• Designing for human expression while joining the moment marketing bandwagon is essential to break the clutter. We tend to sound robotic. It’s very important to speak like a human.
• It's important to know your guard rails - be sure of your territories which you wish to enter or stay away from
• Be agile enough to take decisions by the gut rather than data, and be authentic
• Ensure that you have a role to play in the moment and it doesn’t conflict with any policies you offer – the message must sound credible

Favourite Moments or Campaigns

“I quickly would mention the Mr. Sanders meme which we saw everyone leveraging to the core - Twitter erupted with that,” Sharma laughs.  

Talking about campaigns that go beyond flagship moments, Sharma shared Uber’s campaign #WithinHerReach campaign which won millions of hearts owing to its insight and execution which highlighted the gender commute gap. Here the brand aimed to ensure apt services for women who tend to not prefer distances and look for work opportunities nearby and are perpetually worried about the safety of transport.

As far as some light-hearted campaigns are concerned, Sharma’s favorite is Spotify’s World Music Day campaign, #PlayThis.

Also Read: SAMMIE BSMB Summit 2020-21 Agenda: Live Sessions to Watch Out for

Being Troll Proof: Do's & Don’ts

In the evolving sociopolitical background trolls and viscious hate attacks could come in without warning. In this case, what are the dos and don’ts for brands on Twitter?

Sharma replies, “For us as a discerning audience, it’s very important to see what message we want to amplify. Brands should look to understand the sentiment instead of jumping on what’s swelling in the country. How you as a brand can make a difference to that and contribute safely to the public conversation.”  

Content Consumption Trends

Twitter is seeing an upsurge in the content strategy which is not only text-based but involves visual storytelling, memes, and video first campaigns. Brands don't want to come across as transactional. The platform’s significant portion of revenue comes from video advertising services.

“We have seen diversified content strategy. Fleet was an example to acknowledge that consumer pattern and India became the first market to receive it. We are also experimenting with spaces which are ephemeral voice conversations,” informed Sharma.

Humanize a Brand on Twitter

Sharma puts down a few points on how brands could personify their humane characteristics on Twitter.  

• It's very important on Twitter for brands to think ahead and be prepared, keep resources planned especially when we have a very short window to react.
• Leverage your Twitter profile – What's your pinned tweet? Do you even have one? What's your cover image? Does your bio read like a company statement or does it reflect the values and people behind the brand?
• Respond to culture and things that are changing.
•  Listen to feedback and plan the product roadmap.

AliveNow SAMMIE Best Social Media Brands 2020-21 is brought to you by Society Tea, Storia, HQ, Godrej Aer.