Here are the #BestOfTweets 2021

This year, we saw so many brands do ground-breaking work on Twitter that left a mark on consumer’s hearts and minds. Here’s our annual look back at the brands that kept Twitter timelines buzzing in 2021:

Best brand for driving meaningful impact: Google India (@GoogleIndia) 

After waves of loss and despair earlier this year, people wanted to know they were safe. Google India used the insight that people come to Twitter to search for information, and their credibility and reach to share updates around COVID-19, encourage people to practice caution and enable them with updates around vaccination, made them aware of isolation protocols and more. Through Twitter, the brand not only enabled audiences to stay safe and informed, but also engaged them in a way that created meaningful, lasting impact.

Best #OnlyOnTwitter campaign: Flipkart (@flipkart) for #BigBillionMuqabla and Amazon Prime Video (@PrimeVideoIN) for #OneMicStandOnPrime

For its flagship annual sale, Big Billion Days, Flipkart used a customised Events Page on Twitter, inviting people to the #BigBillionMuqabla. Creating this timeline of Tweets, the brand kept its audience engaged and excited by prompting them to Like the Tweets with their favourite products in order to unlock exciting offers every day.

Introducing the second season of #OneMicStandOnPrime, Amazon Prime Video brought its audiences to the centre-stage, asking them to vote for their favourite celebrity from the season’s line-up by Liking Tweets in a four-day long, real-time voting thread.

Best brand connection to an event: Mobile Premier League (@PlayMPL) with #FanBannJaaoge and #ShowYourGame

One of the best ways for brands to stay relevant is to be a part of the biggest, most followed events from across the world. That’s what Mobile Premier League did with the biggest sports event of the year - the Olympics. As principal partners for the Indian Olympic Association, MPL inspired chatter around the #Tokyo2020 games by creating a fan army of cheerleaders on Twitter for #TeamIndia at the Olympics.

Best brand connection with premium content on Twitter: Microsoft (@Microsoft) for #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll

Through Twitter Amplify, brands can align with premium content from publishers that their target audiences are interested in. That’s what Microsoft did successfully, to become the brand leader leveraging premium content for its #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll campaigns. The brand strategically committed to this approach with a steady drum beat of content over three quarters -- collaborating with marquee business publications to engage audiences in high-impact conversations and win this title.

Best brand connection to a cultural occasion: Amazon India (@amazonIN) with #DeliverTheLove and #DeliverThanks

To stay culturally relevant among consumers, brands must participate in conversations in real time -- and what better an occasion to celebrate with audiences than Diwali?

Ahead of the festive season, and acknowledging the challenging year the people of this nation have been through, Amazon India (@amazonIN) warmed people’s hearts with a moving video for their #DeliverTheLove campaign, which reminded audiences of the kindness of people during the pandemic.

The brand also furthered its #DeliverThanks campaign this Diwali, encouraging people to express gratitude for its delivery partners by Tweeting with posters that said ‘Thank you’. Connecting with the spirit of the festival, Amazon ignited a ray of hope, love and humanity in the darkest times.

Best brand connect with regional audiences: Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth)

Regional content has been on the rise, and as always, Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) was quick to adapt. Leaning into the diversity of conversation on Twitter, the brand strengthened its connection with audiences across the four states of South India to create buzz around its growing slate of properties in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. To become a part (and a driver) of entertainment conversations, the brand chose Twitter as its destination to launch a dedicated account - Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth). The account debuted with a multilingual Tweet, and topped it with the launch of Namma Stories - a music video that celebrates stories from south India.

Best product launch on Twitter: Mahindra (@Mahindra_Auto) with #HelloXUV700 and Morris Garages India (@MGMotorIn) for the Astor with #TheAIAffair

For the launch of the #MahindraXUV700, Mahindra leveraged a whole host of Twitter’s products across the launch cycle. It created awareness for the launch with a Reminder Card that doubled up as a teaser for the event, took over Twitter timelines on the day of the launch, and became the first auto brand to leverage Twitter’s Live Brand Studio and create a Live Events Page, which was the go-to destination for eager audiences to follow the big unveil. To keep up the conversation momentum, the brand used promoted Tweets to promote video snippets from the event into people’s timelines.

Morris Garages India also took the Twitter launch route to introduce the MG Astor - India’s first car with a personal AI assistant. Unveiling #TheAIAffair to Indian audiences, the brand leveraged Twitter’s takeover products across the launch cycle - pre-launch, launch day and post-launch - creating a continuum of conversations across timelines. Following the launch, the brand also used Website Cards to drive performance through click-based campaigns, directing people to the bookings page on the brand’s website.

Best brand in the emerging category: Unacademy (@unacademy)

Edtech company Unacademy used a strategic mix of unconventional storytelling, creative execution and the credibility of voices such as that of Sachin Tendulkar, all while playing into the centre of trending moments and conversations during the cricket season. With campaigns like #TeachThemYoung and #MistakesTheGreatestTeacher, the brand’s great use of Twitter and success in attempting to redefine education for the country’s youth makes it the winner in this category.

Best brand connect to audio: Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) 

Several brands made their debuts on Twitter Spaces - the service’s live audio product introduced this year. Bringing together the sports community in high-engagement conversations, Star Sports hosted several Spaces with sports fans across the year. Tapping into Spaces’ popularity among Tamil-speaking audiences, Star Sports Tamil hosted Spaces for the community, giving fans a chance to connect with their favourite athletes, talk about the most exciting in-game moments, or just geek-out in sports banter with fellow fans.

Best brand connect to a moment: State Bank Of India (@TheOfficialSBI) with #YogaAsanasWithSBI

State Bank of India aligned with the cultural moment of #InternationalYogaDay, and engaged its audience in an interactive campaign to help them enhance positivity and well-being in their lives. Building interest through powerful video assets, the brand engaged people with an auto-reply Twitter campaign, asking them to choose the kind of yoga they wished to explore. Each Tweet that engaged with the campaign was rewarded with customised replies demonstrating relevant yoga asanas. To scale reach and impact, the brand also used Twitter’s takeover assets on #InternationalYogaDay - owning the moment on the service.

Special Mentions that didn’t make it to the top, but made conversations across Twitter timelines 

While just a few brands could make it to #BestOfTweets, there were several others that produced work worth talking about. Here’s a shout out to those brands. 

Cadbury’s #NotJustACadburyAd, which coupled artificial intelligence with Shah Rukh Khan’s voice, to promote local stores and business across Indian cities, creating a powerful impact across audiences and ad-watchers. 

The Association of Mutual Funds’ cricket season campaign that brought together India’s favourite cricketers to educate audiences about financial risks and investments, and Thums Up’s #Tokyo2020 campaign #PalatDe, which had people on Twitter cheering for #TeamIndia at the Olympics and the Paralympics - made noteworthy cases for moment-led brand work that inspired India. 

Oppo’s festive launch show that gave audiences a chance to engage with the brand’s CMO in a live Twitter event earned a special mention too, as did Spotify for its brilliant use of Twitter Spaces to promote the brand’s new offerings like #TheRJBalajiPodcast and #EnjoyEnjaami - its first Indian Spotify Singles. 

We’re looking forward to even more exciting campaigns in 2022!