Retailer’s Twitter initiative wins Titanium at Cannes
The Cannes Lions advertising festival continued its new foudn fascination with social media this weekend, giving one of its most prestigious awards to a customer help initiative based on Twitter.
Best Buy’s ‘Twelpforce’ campaign, set up by US agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky won the Grand Prix award in the Titanium Lions category.
The Twelpforce uses Twitter to link customers to Best Buy staff and answer technical queries.
According to the entry: “Anyone with a question could shoot a tweet to @twelpforce, at any time. And over 2000 expert Blue Shirts would race to give the fastest, bestest answers. Plus, the collective power of Twelpforce would scan the twitter-world for tech-issue tweets and quickly lend a hand, without anyone asking.”
It added: “since the launch, the Twelpforce site has become a valued tech savior for customers everywhere. More than 22,000 tweets have come in, and that number continues to grow every day. And so far, the Twelpforce has garnered more than 24,000 devoted followers.”
Last week, Mumbrella questioned whether Cannes Lions juries fully understood Twitter in giving agencies prizes for its use.
Of the ten Titanium jurors, only one, Rob Reilly, chief creative officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky has been active on Twitter for a siognificant period. He would not have been able to play a role in the judging of the winning entry though as it came from his agency.
Mumbrella could only find two other jurors with a Twitter profile – Mother’s Mark Waites, who started tweeting about a month ago and Belgium’s Jens Mortier who follows noone and has never tweeted.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
Same logic as saying that ad guys can’t advertise products they don’t actively use. Or indeed that journalists can’t write about things they don’t do on a day to day basis.
I’m sure the top creative directors in the world are smart enough to understand how Twitter works if required.
Stop trying to discredit people’s work by dumb logic.
User ID not verified.
Hi Andy,
I think you’ll find that advertising people put quite a lot of effort into understanding the products they advertise, and indeed the consumers they are targeting.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
A great idea. Glad to see it won. Well deserved in my opinion.
User ID not verified.
I agree with Andy — you don’t need to be on Twitter to understand how it works. Just as you don’t need to create a TV show to understand how audiences engage with TV, or publish your own magazine to understand the relationship between readers and their favourite titles.
And well done to Twelpforce. Brilliant.
User ID not verified.
So does that mean that all gynaecologists and obstetrcians must of necessity be female?
User ID not verified.
no. but it’s specifically required of all proctologists to be assholes, either. i think the point is that it’s important to have a solid knowledge of how a medium works before you go about doling out serious acknowledgment for use of that medium, regardless of what it is. for me (said the rabbit to the shotgun), this seems like a good campaign, but really not much more than the first at grabbing the right space – like the first billboard up against the sky. noticed more because it’s there when no-one else is than because it’s spectacular.
i’m not saying it doesn’t deserve the award. i’m just saying hindsight might be a better tool for awarding awards than bedazzlement. then again, what the hell do i know?
User ID not verified.
sorry, i meant it’s not specifically required of proctologists to be…
User ID not verified.
Well I guess that rules Beethoven out in the music stakes then.
User ID not verified.
So you can’t bagg this one hey Tim?
User ID not verified.
Is it really that great? Brands discover the telephone and set up customer helplines. Brands discover the internet and set up customer help sites. Brand discovers Twitter and sets up customer Twelpforce…
You can’t even give it credit for the cool name. As I do believe prefacing all things Twitter with a ‘Tw…’ is already common practice?
Titanium? Really? I’m underwhelmed.
User ID not verified.
Set up a new category … Twitanium,
User ID not verified.