Social media exchanges are often compared to overhearing conversations at a cocktail party, and this past month provided juicy tidbits among restaurant brands.
Jimmy John’s flirted with Wendy’s. California Pizza Kitchen was Taco Bell’s emoji wingman. And just this past weekend, DiGiorno, the frozen pizza brand, zinged Papa John’s over a delivery incident involving pop star Iggy Azalea.
Clearly, kumbaya social media moments are more frequent than smackdowns in the social space.
“These exchanges can be a really good idea,” said Jenna Gross, chief marketing officer for Moving Targets, a print-digital marketing agency in Perkasie, Pa.
“It shows a little more personality about your brand, as long it’s done in a fun sort of way,” Gross said. “It also gets more media attention. And you tap into each others’ audiences, and they sort of cross-promote each other.”
Gross suggested community managers keep the tone light and make sure they know the audience for the other brand in the conversation as well.
“Twitter is probably the best platform to do it on,” she said, because conversations are quicker and less intrusive on Twitter than Facebook, for example.
Recent examples include Jimmy John’s tweet to Wendy’s on Jan. 12, also known among admirers of redheads as the invented #KissAGingerDay. Adweek headlined the exchange as: “It's Kiss a Ginger Day, So Jimmy John's Is Now Flirting With Wendy's: But she's really not that into him.”
Sup @Wendys? #KissAGingerDay
— Jimmy John's (@jimmyjohns) January 12, 2015
Perhaps Jimmy John’s was trying to “date up.” On Tuesday, the brand ranked No. 49 on the NRN Social 200 index. Wendy’s was No. 4.
On Jan. 29, Taco Bell got support from fellow Golden State-based brand California Pizza Kitchen in its petition to add a taco to the group of text message emojis. A pizza emoji is already among the visual icons, which have grown increasingly popular in smartphone communications.
California Pizza Kitchen tweeted at the quick-service brand.
.@Tacobell We have ours. Now you need yours. You got our vote! #TacoEmoji. Your Friends, at #CPK pic.twitter.com/qvwKFqmkmr
— CPK (@calpizzakitchen) January 29, 2015
Taco Bell was quick to acknowledge the support.
@calpizzakitchen You're a pizza angel.
— Taco Bell (@tacobell) January 29, 2015
On Tuesday, Taco Bell ranked No. 45 on the NRN Social 200 index, and California Pizza Kitchen stood at No. 107.
In the pantheon of popular Twitter exchanges, Taco Bell was already known for an incident of inter-brand Twitter snark. In July 2012, it countered Old Spice’s tweet of “Why is it that ‘fire sauce’ isn’t made with any real fire? Seems like false advertising,” with a direct response of “@OldSpice Is your deodorant made with really old spices?”
Other food purveyors have elbowed their way into Twitter conversations. This past weekend’s dust-up between pop star Iggy Azalea and Papa John’s over an alleged leak of her phone number saw the frozen pizza manufacturer DiGiorno plug its own retail grocery product, adding “smh,” or “shaking my head.”
.@IGGYAZALEA delivery. smh
— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) February 9, 2015
On Tuesday, Papa John’s ranked No. 51 in the NRN Social 200 index.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
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