In light of the minor kerfuffle around Rio Ferdinand’s ‘sponsored’ tweets for Snickers, it begs the question: “What future for paid for tweets and do they work?”
The response seems to be mixed. At a very basic level Snickers have certainly done OK out of it. If it’s talking they wanted, then it seems to have worked. Whether it sells more chocolate or not is something else.
Surely we’re not far away from all sponsored tweets having to carry #spon, whether they culminate in a more obvious sponsored message or not. Rio’s tweets building up to the final Snickers pay off didn’t have anything to denote them as being paid for.
While it might have got some exposure for the chocolate snack formerly known as Marathon, overall it didn’t quite have enough polish, social media or not.
Reports suggest that the Manchester United star was only paid a four figure sum, which begs the question as to why a £100,000 per week footballer thought this was a good idea, surely it wasn’t just the money?
Talk on Twitter was rife about both Snickers and Rio. Purely from a perception point of view, on balance neither seemed to score very highly on positive sentiment as a result. But at least the campaign got cut through.
With such emphasis being placed on social stock, brands and celebrities alike will need to be increasingly mindful of possible hangovers that can linger after momentary trending.
