In this report, we analyze the impact of some key campaigns in Twitter’s history from #YesWeCan in 2008 to #ThisGirlCan in 2015 and explore: - The rise of the hashtag and its growing significance for marketers - Twitter’s role in the dramatically shifted marketing landscape - How starting a conversation can impact the effectiveness of social campaigns

1. © Brandwatch.com
Ten years of Twitter/
How Twitter
changed marketing

2. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 02
Contents
Contents�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������02
Celebrating ten years in ten impactful campaigns/������������������������������������������������������������03
#YesWeCan Obama Election Campaign 2008���������������������������������������������������������������������04
#BeatCancer by Livestrong ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������05
#WantAnR8 by Audi��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������06
#40Dollars by The White House�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������07
@TweetACoffee: Starbucks�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������09
#nomakeupselfie by Cancer Research UK����������������������������������������������������������������������������10
#ALSIceBucketChallenge: ALS Association��������������������������������������������������������������������������11
#LikeAGirl by Always (PG)�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������12
#ThisGirlCan by Sport England������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13
When Twitter Changed Marketing ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14
About ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������15

3. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 03
2006
FIRST TWEET SENT
MARCH 21 2006
330Million
TWITTER USERS
200k
#LIKEAGIRL TOP TWITTER
HASHTAG CAMPAIGN
Celebrating ten years in ten
impactful campaigns/
Although it’s now impossible for marketers to imagine a world without
Twitter, conscious campaigns and movements on Twitter are still relatively
recent. We’ve selected some of the most impactful campaigns over the
last ten years to demonstrate Twitter’s incredible rise in the world of
marketing and highlight the best of the last decade.
Twitter’s conception was somewhat understated. Devised from a “day
long” brainstorming session, the first tweet was sent as an SMS designed
to communicate with a small group of people on March 21, 2006.
The tipping point for Twitter, was at 2007’s SXSW where conference
delegates used it to communicate. On seeing their tweets appearing on
plasma screens around the event, use of the service spiralled. Our report
is a celebration of ten years of Twitter and the enormous impact it has had
on our lives as marketers over the last ten years.
Our campaign analysis begins in 2008 with the Obama #YesWeCan
election campaign and ends with Sport England’s #ThisGirlCan from
2015. Notably, our research tracks the rise of the hashtag and its growing
significance in campaigns. Created in 2007 virtually at the dawn of Twitter,
it has become integral to the promotion of any brand, campaign, political
or social movement and also crucially adopted by rival platform, Facebook
and is used as the main discovery tool on Instagram.
The growth of Twitter from 4.1 million users in 2008, where we start our
analysis, to over 330 million today has changed the landscape of how
we communicate within all industries. Our statistics show how less than
three thousand people responding to a call to action on social media
via a hashtag in 2008 (#YesWeCan) was significant, now brands should
expect closer to 200 thousand (#LikeAGirl). With such a rapidly increasing
response rate, it’s easy to understand why Twitter would play such an
important role in today’s campaigns.

4. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 04
Data captured
between 01 Aug 2008
and 30 Nov 2008:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#YESWECAN
36% FEMALE
64% MALE
MOST INFLUENTIAL:
@HUFFINGTONPOST,
@TIME, @R
MOST MENTIONED:
@BARACKOBAMA
2,600
On seeing the hashtag #YesWeCan, one would automatically think
of Obama’s 2008 election campaign, but in fact, less than 3,000 people
actually used the hashtag in the three-month run up to the campaign,
despite 69.5 million Obama voters who likely knew the slogan. Hashtags
were not very commonly used in campaigns at that point and Twitter
was still very new to most people. Social networking was just dawning
as an accepted means of communication, hence 2008’s search for a new
president was famously dubbed The Facebook Election, but it still had
huge significance for what Twitter would grow to become.
The biggest spike occurred on November 5th in reaction to Obama’s
acceptance speech.
#YESWECAN 2008 OBAMA ELECTION CAMPAIGN
MENTIONSVOLUME
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
NOV 2008OCT 2008SEP 2008AUG 2008
Obama’s
presidential
acceptance
speech
Obama’s nomination
acceptance speech
#YesWeCan Obama
Election Campaign 2008

5. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 05
Data captured
between 01 Aug 2010
and 30 Nov 2010:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#BEATCANCER
59% FEMALE
41% MALE
MENTIONS PEAKED
AT 6PM 15TH OCT
TOP INTERESTS:
MUSIC / FAMILY
459K
In 2010, Livestrong aimed to beat its own guinness world record for the
“Most Widespread Social Networking Message.” And it did, by a long way.
Having gained close to 210 thousand mentions in 24 hours during the
2009 campaign, this was dwarfed in 2010 by over 300 thousand tweets
and 1673128495 impressions. PayPal and SWAGG donated $0.05 for
every mention with the hashtag to cancer charities.
Celebrity tweeters getting behind the message included Khloe and Kim
Kardashian, Donnie Wahlberg, Freddy Amazin’ and Ariana Grande.
beatcancer
cancer
research
Miller
Coors
will donate
ReTweet
BeatCancer
world
record
Paypal
Retweet
MillerCoors
Twitter
cent
to cancer
research
world
record today
love
tweet
BeatCancer
EBay
Paypal and
MillerCoors
are donating
tweet
tagged with
BeatCancer
hashtag
beatcancer
mention
beatcancer
today
beatcancer
mentioned
on Twitter
today
time u
mention
beatcancer
everytime
beatcancer is
mentioned
donating
a cent
cent per
hashtag
beatcancer
raises
beatcancer
donated
to cancer
tweet
that has
beatcancer
raises
money
beatcancer
today
#BEATCANCER 2010 CAMPAIGN BY LIVESTRONG
#BeatCancer by Livestrong

6. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 06
Data captured
between 01 Sep 2011
and 30 Nov 2011:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#WANTANR8
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
EMOTIVE MENTIONS
85% POSITIVE
15% NEGATIVE
MOST INFLUENTIAL:
@ITSWILLYFERRELL
27K
483Million
Inspired by a tweet in response to their Super Bowl advert, In 2011 Audi
launched a campaign encouraging consumers to be creative in letting
them know why they wanted to drive the brand new R8. The lucky social
media winner would get the keys to an Audi R8 for a day. Ultimately, not
only did the winner of the competition get an R8 for the day, so did the
social media-savvy Super Bowl fan who inspired the campaign with her
#WantAnR8 tweet.
Mentions peaked at 4pm on 28th September 2011
MENTIONSVOLUME
0
250
500
750
1,000
1,250
8PM4PM12PM8AM4AM12AM
#WANTANR8 2011 CAMPAIGN BY AUDI
Mentions
peaked at 4pm on
28th September
2011
#WantAnR8 by Audi

7. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 07
Data captured
between 01 Dec 2011
and 28 Feb 2012:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#40DOLLARS
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
MOST INFLUENTIAL:
@ITSWILLYFERRELL
62K
356Million
By now, a veteran of hashtag campaigns, The White House took its fight
over payroll tax to Twitter in Dec 2011 with their #40Dollars campaign.
The $40 figure was the average amount that American workers would
save under the existing payroll tax ruling. On December 20th, @whitehouse
tweeted “What does $40 mean to you? #40Dollars” to their 2.5 million
followers (now 9.5m). Sixty two thousand Americans responded via Twitter.
Ashley E. Sweeney
@AshleyESweeney
#40dollars means driving from Chicago to Battle
Creek, Michigan, to see my family this Christmas.
3:34 PM – 21 DEC 2011
Family Parenting
4116 Mentions
Politics
3717 Mentions
Sports
2954 Mentions
Books
2544 Mentions
14%
12%
10%
8%
#40DOLLARS 2012 CAMPAIGN BY THE WHITE HOUSE
PERCENTAGE OF OVERALL SHARE OF VOICE
#40Dollars by The White House

8. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 08
Data captured
between 01 Apr 2013
and 31 Aug 2013:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#SHAREACOKE
IMPRESSIONS CREATED
TOP INTERESTS:
MUSIC, SPORTS
58% FEMALE
42% MALE
160K
740Million
Initially trialled in Australia, during the summer of 2013, the #ShareACoke
campaign went global. Coca-Cola created 1k different named labels for
their bottles in stores — ranging from Maria and James to Superstar and
Soulmate — each adorned with the hashtag #shareacoke to encourage
consumers to select a friend to share a coke with as well, of course, as
sharing it on social media. More than 150,000 bottles were sold and the
first summer of the campaign bagged 160,000 mentions on Twitter and
740 million impressions. Even the Royals weren’t safe from this campaign
as Coca Cola used specially created bottles to toast the arrival of Prince
George. The campaign was endorsed by celebrities, with many getting
involved as shown below in the most mentioned tweeters.
#SHAREACOKE 2013 CAMPAIGN BY COCA-COLA
MOST MENTIONED TWEETERS
0 2k 4k 6k 8k 10k
@cocacola_gb
@grimmers
@caspar_lee
@sickipediabot
@astonmerrygold
@example
@lethalbizzle
@cokezone
@cocacola
@conormaynard 9,403 Tweets
6,971 Tweets
4,395 Tweets
2,289 Tweets
1,812 Tweets
1,688 Tweets
1370 Tweets
1172 Tweets
1007 Tweets
1004 Tweets
#ShareACoke by Coca-Cola

9. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 09
Data captured
between 01 Oct 2013
and 31 Dec 2013:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
@TWEETACOFFEE
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
TOP INTERESTS:
BUSINESS / FAMILY
PARENTING
54% FEMALE
46% MALE
123K
937Million
Launched on Oct. 28, Tweet-a-Coffee let consumers give a $5 gift card to
a friend by putting both “@tweetacoffee” and the friend’s handle in a tweet.
To do so, users had to link their Starbucks account to Twitter and their
credit card to the account. In just over a month after launch, the campaign
had already generated over $180,000 in additional sales for Starbucks.
The real coup for Starbucks was that it had also linked 54,000 users’
Twitter IDs to their mobile phones and customer IDs building up a detailed
profile of their customers.
Tweets peaked at 6pm GMT (1pm EST) on 28th October.
MENTIONSVOLUME
0
1k
2k
3k
4k
9PM6PM3PM12PM9AM6AM3AM12AM
@TWEETACOFFEE 2013 CAMPAIGN BY STARBUCKS
Mentions
peaked at 6pm
on 28th October
2013
@TweetACoffee: Starbucks

10. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 10
Data captured
between 01 Mar 2014
and 31 May 2014:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#NOMAKEUPSELFIE
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
BIGGEST SPIKE IN
MENTIONS: MARCH 20TH
AT 5PM
MOST INFLUENTIAL:
@RICKYGERVAIS, @CHERLLOYD, @
UNIONJ
160K
937Million
MAR 20
Cancer Research UK raised £8 million via #nomakeupselfie and they had
no initial intention to create a viral campaign. By by piggy-backing on
something they spotted online, a number of people posting selfies to raise
cancer awareness using the #nomakeupselfie hashtag, they generated
a huge amount of cash. In the morning of March 19th, the team noticed
a huge surge in interest and the charity reacted quickly, tweeting the first
and only fundraising ask. @CR_UK posted a selfie of Dr. Kat Arney, the
organization’s science information officer, holding a sign that said ‘We love
your #NoMakeUpSelfie’and included a text code for donations.
The campaign was easy to join in and the call to action was simple.
Whether you were posting a photo, or donating money, all you needed
was a phone. Although the trend started in the UK for a UK Charity, 34% of
tweets were from US profiles and a further 5% from Europe proving that
hashtags transcend language barriers.
#NOMAKEUPSELFIE 2014 CAMPAIGN BY CANCER RESEARCH UK
*Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium*Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium
UK
43%
57,594
Mentions
ROI
4%
5,747
Mentions
EUROPE*
5%
6,081
Mentions
USA
31%
42,131
Mentions
#nomakeupselfie
by Cancer Research UK

11. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 11
Data captured
between 01 Jun 2014
and 30 Sep 2014:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#ICEBUCKETCHALLENGE
BIGGEST DAY FOR
MENTIONS: AUGUST 20TH
51% FEMALE
49% MALE
9.6Million
AUG 20
A small initiative that began in a Massachusetts living room spiralled
into a global social media phenomenon in July and August of 2014. It
encouraged a competitive spirit, with each participant trying to make
their video more amusing, absurd or outrageous than the last. It perfectly
embraced the community spirit of social media for a very worthy cause.
Similarly to the #nomakeupselfie campaign, it was an accidental campaign
not initially set up by the charity it ended up promoting. Celebrities from
Rita Ora to Lady Gaga as well as business leaders and political figures
including Bill Gates and George Bush embraced the challenge. Mentions
peaked at over 1,318,962 in just 24 hours on August 20th when Justin
Bieber took the challenge twice in one weekend to raise awareness.
#ALSICEBUCKETCHALLENGE 2014 BY ALS ASSOCIATION
MENTIONSVOLUME
0
300k
600k
900k
1.2M
1.5M
31 AUG20 AUG10 AUG1 AUG
Mentions
peaked on 20th
August 2014
New England Patriots
take the ALS challenge,
sparking the trend
#ALSIceBucketChallenge:
ALS Association

12. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 12
Data captured
between 01 Jun 2014
and 31 Aug 2014:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#LIKEAGIRL
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
EMOTIVE MENTIONS
97% POSITIVE
3% NEGATIVE
CELEBRITY TWEETERS:
@VANESSAHUDGENS
169K
484Million
In the summer of 2014, Always managed the insurmountable task of
getting women to willingly share a campaign about feminine hygiene
products. Instead of focusing on the reliability of their product as they had
done in previous campaigns, they focused this time on the psychology of
their consumers. By turning the phrase ‘like a girl’ on its head, redefining
the commonly derogatory term as a positive phrase. In a new, inspiring
way the brand used using social media and PR to spread the message and
struck a chord with their market and beyond.
The even spread of interests of Twitter users participating in the
conversation for the #LikeAGirl campaign shows that Always managed to
target girls from every walk of life, not just one particular sector.
Music
13920 Mentions
Sports
13511 Mentions
Family Parenting
12704 Mentions
Books
12159 Mentions
11%
11%
10%
10%
#LIKEAGIRL 2014 CAMPAIGN BY ALWAYS (PG)
PERCENTAGE OF OVERALL SHARE OF VOICE
#LikeAGirl by Always (PG)

13. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 13
Data captured
between 01 Jan 2015
and 31 Mar 2015:
TOTAL MENTIONS OF
#THISGIRLCAN
IMPRESSIONS
CREATED
TOP ASSOCIATED HASHTAGS:
#FITNESS #LIVEYOURAMBITION
#WOMENINSPORT
MENTIONS PEAK:
8PM 12TH JAN
(AIRED DURING CORRIE AD BREAK)
180K
802Million
JAN 12
Sport England’s nationwide campaign to get women and girls moving
regardless of shape, size and ability made a huge impact on social media
in the month when we least want to leave the sofa. The first campaign
of its kind to feature “women who sweat and jiggle as they exercise”, 13
million people have viewed the flagship This Girl Can film online. The
campaign was designed to prompt a change in attitudes and help boost
women’s confidence.
Although the biggest spike in the use of the hashtag was on the day the
campaign launched, interest sustained over the course of two months with
an extra boost on International Women’s Day.
#THISGIRLCAN 2015 CAMPAIGN BY SPORT ENGLAND
MENTIONSVOLUME
0
5k
10k
15k
20k
MAR 2015FEB 2015JAN 2015
Sport England’s
TV campaign debuts
during Coronation
Street ad break
#ThisGirlCan by Sport England

14. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 14
Over the last ten years, Twitter has dramatically shifted the marketing landscape. Today’s successful
campaigns not only make a statement, but they also start a conversation. When Twitter first appeared at
SXSW as a group messaging service, its seismic effects on the way businesses interact with consumers
could never have been imagined.
Yet ten years after its inception, it’s impossible to deny these changes. Whereas traditional media was a one
way deluge of information, Twitter has empowered consumers with the means to voice their opinions on one
of the most public platforms in the world. As shown throughout this report, that gives brands the opportunity
to create campaigns that activate their consumers in ways previously unimaginable. Of course, it also
provides the general public with the means to create social movements that can ruin a company’s reputation
within days or dramatically influence the course of political decisions on a global scale.
In this new light, marketers must now know their audiences better, be more prepared for rapidly evolving
crises, and maintain a closer and more empathetic relationship with their online communities. Today’s
marketers, when equipped with social media intelligence technologies, are able to instantly measure, analyze
and understand the behaviors, interests, location and demographics of their specific audiences as never
before. That information can provide the framework for future campaigns.
Of course, technology and information are only a part of the picture. It will also be up to marketer’s hard work
and creativity to build campaigns over the next decade to excite the world as those in the past have.
When Twitter Changed Marketing

15. Ten Years of Twitter/ How Twitter Changed Marketing 15
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