Ad Dynamo and Twitter to ‘Promote’ South Africa’s leading brands

Ad Dynamo has grown a local Twitter-focused team that works closely with Twitter to ensure South African brands have access to the same support and products to help them maximise their initiatives on the platform. Ad Dynamo also offers brands a free Twitter content planning service, to help them understand what opportunities exist and what content will deliver the best results.

According to Twitter, three out of five users follow at least one brand and one in three people who have followed a brand on Twitter end up making a purchase from that brand.

Two well-known South African brands, MTN and Ster-Kinekor, recently decided to promote their brands on Twitter with the help of Ad Dynamo.

MTN wanted to reach new audiences and build brand awareness by creating the worlds longest conversation based on shared moments, a campaign it named ‘overshare’. MTN wanted to encourage users to share everyday moments with the brand and with one another on Twitter. Users were encouraged to include the hashtag #overshare in their tweets to ignite conversations and it would be key to ensuring a viral snowball effect of the campaign. As a brand that engages customers around music, sport and entertainment, @MTNza wanted to set the right tone for their Twitter campaign, one that was lighthearted and entertaining. MTN wanted to grow its follower base and at the same time increase follower engagement. 

By using Twitter’s range of Promoted Products, MTN was able to grow its follower base and maximise user engagement with the campaign. 72 000 engagements were generated during the campaign. By using Twitter’s Promoted Trends, @MTNza received a 4.20% engagement rate, while Promoted Tweets yielded an average engagement rate of 2.17% and  a 31% increase in follower growth and 33 000 brand mentions.

Similarly, Ster-Kinekor, South Africa’s biggest cinema chain, worked with Ad Dynamo to generate interest around the launch of The Amazing Spiderman 2. The @Sterkinekor campaign was aimed at raising awareness about the film and the hashtag #MOVIEFOMO (movie fear of missing out) was launched using Twitter’s Promoted Trends to generate interest and curiosity while including #MOVIEFOMO in tweets helped to organise and encourage conversations about the movie. Promoted Tweets were also used and targeted at specific users with relevant interests, such as film, action and adventure, comics, sci-fi and fantasy. Ster-Kinekor’s brand awareness and reach grew, sparking over 400 conversations around the movie. The peak engagement rate of the campaign was 23% and Ster-Kinekor received over 7000 brand mentions.

“Every brand has a story,” said Sean Riley, CEO of Ad Dynamo. “And Twitter can help share yours. Brands that are finding it challenging to cut through the clutter and connect with their customers are using Twitter to create meaningful, targeted and measurable interactions with the right people at the right moment in time. We’re seeing brands putting a toe in the water, first with organic activity and then with their first paid campaigns, immediately coming back for more when they see the results.”

“Brands have been on Twitter since day one. People come to the platform to connect with what they’re interested in, whether that is a sports team, a musician or brand. By targeting Twitter conversations and engagements based on these interests, brands have the opportunity to grow their communities, tell their story, increase loyalty and ultimately increase referrals and sales”, said Niall Horgan, partner manager EMEA, Twitter. “The South African market is an especially good fit for Twitter given the high percentage of mobile usage and we are excited to be partnering with Ad Dynamo to bring Twitter ads to local advertisers.”

Twitter has three main ad units:

Promoted Tweets – Promoted Tweets are regular tweets but with the added benefit of reaching both current and potential followers who are likely to be interested in your account.

Promoted Accounts – Quickly build an active community of advocates and influencers that you can engage with on an ongoing basis.

Promoted Trends – Trends are popular topics happening right now, on Twitter. Because these trends are placed prominently next to a user’s timeline, they get mass exposure.

Twitter also provides analytics for brands and agencies using its Ad Products to track Twitter Ads activity, learn more about customer behaviour and adjust campaigns to drive better results.

For more on Twitter business solutions and helpful tips on how to make the most of your presence on Twitter, click here.

Ad Dynamo is an African-focused digital marketing platform, connecting brands to leading publishers. Ad Dynamo is funded by Remgro’s venture capital arm, Invenfin. Launched in 2009 in South Africa, Ad Dynamo now works with over 52 000 publishers across Africa.

For more information on Ad Dynamo, visit www.addynamo.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Twitter.

Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) is a global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time. By developing a fundamentally new way for people to create, distribute and discover content, we have democratized content creation and distribution, enabling any voice to echo around the world instantly and unfiltered. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, via Twitter mobile applications for a variety of devices, and by text message. Available in more than 35 languages, Twitter has more than 255 million monthly active users.

For more information on Twitter, click here. One can also connect with them on Twitter.