B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Cannes Lions
  • WPP
  • State of Origin
  • NRL
  • Pinterest
  • B&T Women in Media
  • Thinkerbell
  • AFL
  • imaa
  • Anthony Albanese
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Meta
  • AI
  • Foxtel
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: Twitter: The Three Traits Of A Technologically Innovate Brand
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Technology > Twitter: The Three Traits Of A Technologically Innovate Brand
Technology

Twitter: The Three Traits Of A Technologically Innovate Brand

Staff Writers
Published on: 11th August 2016 at 6:00 PM
Staff Writers
Share
9 Min Read
SHARE

Speaking today at the ADMA Global Forum in Sydney, Twitter’s head of brand strategy, Grant Baxter, explained very simply what it takes for brands to be engaging and technologically innovative in this day and age.

When it comes to engagement, Baxter said there are three key factors that make brands successful in this light.

“The first is empathy – do you get me as a consumer?” he said.

“As a brand, are you able to show me subtly that you understand the world that I live in, and if you can do that, I might be a little bit more receptive to your message.

“The second one is entertainment. We forget that content is designed to entertain, and often the brands that go viral are the ones that actually entertain us the most.”

Baxter said the final factor that determines successful brand engagement is the distinction between awareness and attention, “which is interesting because it challenges the notion of reach”.

“Particularly in Australia, we often hear about reach, which is important, but it is increasingly becoming more about attention,” he noted.

As for being technologically innovative, Baxter identified three traits which brands must possess.

“The first one is confidence,” he said. “Of the brands that I’ve worked with which seem to be able to innovate or seem to have a fresh perspective on things, they have a supreme confidence in what they do – they understand the role of the platform they use, whether or not it’s Twitter, and do the basics very well, which allows them to push on and challenge themselves by doing something different.

“The second piece is your attitude to risk – it has to be healthy, and the brands that I work with who are able to innovate are the ones that appreciate that things will fail and accept that that’s part of innovating.”

According to Baxter, the third attribute of a technologically innovate brand is their ability to be collaborative in their way of working.

“The way that we’re working with brands now [at Twitter], it’s not traditional digital teams and social teams,” he said.

“They’re businesses that are bringing in other teams – corporate comms, PR, customer service – and they’re all sort of coming together and going for a common objective, and what that does if you consider attitude to risk, because it’s fluid, is that they’re able to work faster and get things signed off more quickly.”

Baxter said Snickers is a great example of a technologically innovative brand using Twitter as a utility.

“It built the Hungerithm, which was effectively an algorithm that aggregated all the anger and negativity on the internet, and said that as the anger on the internet increased, the price of a Snickers bar would decrease in real time,” he said.

Speaking recently at the ADMA Global Forum in Sydney, Twitter’s head of brand strategy, Grant Baxter, explained very simply what it takes for brands to be engaging and technologically innovative in this day and age.

When it comes to engagement, Baxter said there are three key factors that make brands successful in this light.

“The first is empathy – do you get me as a consumer?” he said.

“As a brand, are you able to show me subtly that you understand the world that I live in, and if you can do that, I might be a little bit more receptive to your message.

“The second one is entertainment. We forget that content is designed to entertain, and often the brands that go viral are the ones that actually entertain us the most.”

Baxter said the final factor that determines successful brand engagement is the distinction between awareness and attention, “which is interesting because it challenges the notion of reach”.

“Particularly in Australia, we often hear about reach, which is important, but it is increasingly becoming more about attention,” he noted.

As for being technologically innovative, Baxter identified three traits which brands must possess.

“The first one is confidence,” he said. “Of the brands that I’ve worked with which seem to be able to innovate or seem to have a fresh perspective on things, they have a supreme confidence in what they do – they understand the role of the platform they use, whether or not it’s Twitter, and do the basics very well, which allows them to push on and challenge themselves by doing something different.

“The second piece is your attitude to risk – it has to be healthy, and the brands that I work with who are able to innovate are the ones that appreciate that things will fail and accept that that’s part of innovating.”

According to Baxter, the third attribute of a technologically innovate brand is their ability to be collaborative in their way of working.

“The way that we’re working with brands now [at Twitter], it’s not traditional digital teams and social teams,” he said.

“They’re businesses that are bringing in other teams – corporate comms, PR, customer service – and they’re all sort of coming together and going for a common objective, and what that does if you consider attitude to risk, because it’s fluid, is that they’re able to work faster and get things signed off more quickly.”

Baxter said Snickers is a great example of a technologically innovative brand using Twitter as a utility.

“It built the Hungerithm, which was effectively an algorithm that aggregated all the anger and negativity on the internet, and said that as the anger on the internet increased, the price of a Snickers bar would decrease in real time,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFVcR760kY8

“So you could get a voucher of a reduced-priced Snickers bar on your phone, take it into a 7-Eleven and redeem it, and you could see when a Snickers bar was cheapest based on the algorithm.

“It was a brilliant idea, it’s lovely technology, and the reason I like it is because of its narrative. If you think of Snickers’ whole campaign premise of ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’, this tongue-and-cheek thought of ‘what if the internet was so angry because everyone is just hungry?’ made it really compelling, and it drove sales into 7-Eleven.”

“So you could get a voucher of a reduced-priced Snickers bar on your phone, take it into a 7-Eleven and redeem it, and you could see when a Snickers bar was cheapest based on the algorithm.

“It was a brilliant idea, it’s lovely technology, and the reason I like it is because of its narrative. If you think of Snickers’ whole campaign premise of ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’, this tongue-and-cheek thought of ‘what if the internet was so angry because everyone is just hungry?’ made it really compelling, and it drove sales into 7-Eleven.”

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

TAGGED: Advertising Standards Bureau, einsights, Social Media
Share
Staff Writers
By Staff Writers
Follow:
Staff Writers represent B&T's team of award-winning reporters. Here, you'll find articles crafted with industry experience spanning over 50 years. Our team of specialists brings together a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to delivering insightful, topical, and breaking news. With a deep understanding of advertising and media, our Staff Writers are dedicated to providing industry-leading analysis and reporting, both shaping the conversation and setting the benchmark for excellence.

Latest News

Telstra Launches One-Off Ad During State Of Origin Decider
11/07/2025
Clemenger BBDO Sydney office.
Agency Scorecard: Clemenger BBDO
11/07/2025
Matt Coote.
Matt Coote Takes New Senior Role At GumGum
11/07/2025
Spenser Skates.
Amplitude Acquires Kraftful To Embed AI-Native Voice Of Customer Capabilities
11/07/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?