Monday Mashups: Twitter Takes a Day Off Technology with this Sweet Pop-Up

Twitter’s experiential marketing efforts tend to target major international events, with branded spaces at C.E.S., SXSW, Cannes Lions, and, most recently, TIFF. But the social platform recently showed it also can appreciate a low-tech, surprise and delight moment for consumers. And we're into it!

According to BizBash, for Twitter's new out-of-home campaign, “Twitter Is,” the brand surprised passersby in New York with a pop-up candy shop, as well as subway and sidewalk takeovers in New York and San Francisco. The campaign is inspired by the question, “What is Twitter to you?” and incorporates more than 100 real tweets, rendered in labels at the candy shop, subway ads, and chalk stencils.

Twitter tapped experiential marketing agency NA Collective to produce the candy shop, which was staged outside of the Union Square subway station for six hours on September 10. The shop, which was free for consumers, was housed in a transparent greenhouse-style trailer. Plastic dispensers were filled with popular candies like gummy peaches, chewy fish, and fruit slices, which were arranged by color. Guests were invited to take a bag and label it with their choice of sticker, all of which displayed tweets relating Twitter to candy.

Guests could also pick up pre-packaged treats such as rainbow swirl lollipops, blue rock candy sticks, and fortune cookies, labeled with on-theme tweets; for example, the lollipop label read, “Twitter is actually a lollipop that lasts forever.”

Brand ambassadors wearing blue sweatshirts and aprons with the Twitter logo also handed out candy to passersby around the trailer. In the six hours the shop was open, brand ambassadors handed out more than 5,000 treats, and guests in the trailer filled their bags with around half a ton of candy; this included 500 gummy bear cubes, 1,000 swirl lollipops, 2,500 fortune cookies, 700 rock candy sticks, and 128 pounds of kettle corn.

Twitter shared that they may continue to execute consumer pop-ups in the future, surrounding “Twitter Is” or other campaigns, and that the brand definitely plans to maintain its presence at major events. Sometimes it's important to take a step back and learn to unplug! We're taking inspiration from "Twitter Is" and plan to devour the details of a day away from technology very soon.