Land Rover Connects NY Auto Show Attendees & Online Enthusiasts with Twitter: #LRNY

NEW YORK (Distributed Presence @keithrhodes) -- This week automakers kicked-off the 2010 model year with exclusive reveals at the New York International Auto Show.  Land Rover has some exciting news for their 2010 vehicles and they are leveraging Twitter in a very unique way to connect Auto Show attendees with online brand and automotive enthusiasts in real-time.  Land Rover, with the help from Y&R/Wunderman, will be the first known brand to actively promote a Twitter hashtag in both traditional and digital media to build  discussion around it's new vehicles and to quickly distribute consumer generated content online. 

What's a hashtag, you say?  Hashtags are keywords preceded by a # sign and used in Tweets  on Twitter to allow consumers to participate and follow a conversation through a common discussion thread.  Using the Twitter platform, consumers can use hashtag #LRNY as part of each Tweet to comment, share, post photos, links, etc. about the new Land Rover vehicles.  Consumers can also follow the conversation online and on mobile devices by heading to Twitter Search and searching on the hashtag #LRNY. 

To generate consumer awareness and to encourage participation in the social media campaign, Land Rover communicated the Twitter: #LRNY hashtag in both traditional media and in online social channels.  Additionally, Land Rover leveraged TwittAd's extensive affinity network to execute a 3-touch Twitter campaign- the first of it's kind for a global brand.  Combined, Land Rover's integrated social media campaign around the 2009 New York Auto Show is expected to reach more than 500,000 Land Rover brand and auto enthusiasts. 

At a time when brands and marketers are actively seeking new ways to leverage social media to join consumer-led conversations online, Twitter has quickly emerged as a leading channel.  But why, until now, have brands so far ignored the enormous opportunity to create a dynamic and real time communications channel  connecting online and offline audiences using hashtags?  Twitter users and conference goers all know about hashtags and they regularly take advantage of this conference "back-channel" as evidenced recently by the South By Southwest Music Festival #SXSW.  Today, marketers are not using all that Twitter has to offer since they are primarily using Twitter to broadcast messages to consumers; sometimes replying to specific @replies.  But this is not what social media is all about.  Hashtags represent a whole new way for brands to use Twitter; creating a dynamic platform for consumers to participate and share information on a brand.  Though, many top brands are using Twitter today such as GM, Ford, Honda, JetBlue, Starbucks, Marriott, Southwest, Zappos, HRBlock, Best Buy, etc., none are actively using or promoting branded hashtags. 

No longer.  Land Rover is leading the way by adopting the #LRNY hashtag as part of it's 2009 New York Auto Show event communications strategy.  So far, so good.  Land Rover has already achieved significant buzz around not only it's 2010 vehicles, but about the social media strategy itself.  It's clear that Land Rover is on to something here.

My prediction?  Brands will quickly come onboard employing hashtags as part of their larger social media strategy beyond event marketing and Land Rover will be credited with establishing what everyone will soon call "conversation keyword marketing."

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Comments

[seattle house cleaners]

I loved the type ad commenting system very clean and very efficient.

Love to read more from you on the topic above

[Derrick Miller]

What I really find interesting is how broad the social media strategy was. What I would love to know and I know that you're not going to share is; what your objectives were and how successful was it. If your goal was to actually get people to use the hashtag, then I'm not sure if it was 100% successful. BUT, I think that you were smarter than that. My guess is that you knew that early adopters were on Twitter, but it would go mainstream very soon. By being first with a National Twitter campaign, you would create a distribution and PR that would transcend the campaign itself, which would in turn bring attention to the 2010 model year.

Wow, the more I think about it, this IS brilliant. I googled Land Rover Twitter and I have come-up with more than 100 publications and blogs talking about this around the world- more than 10 languages I counted.

Land Rover was the first, but they are certainly not the last. Follow-on hashtag marketing campaigns won't receive the press that this one got, but you can be sure that the very next one will be talked about a bit, so expect the race to be heating-up.

Nice work Land Rover. You not only make smart cars, you hire smart people to work for you who develop smart campaigns- campaigns that get people talking.

[David Hick]

This is great. Companies need to follow Land Rover's lead on the right way to communicate with it's consumers. We don't like being talked at, we like be talked to.

[Sharon Smith]

Brilliant! Would not be surprised if Land Rover is really starting something new here. Brands, take note!