Brands Take to Twitter's Vine for a Fresh Marketing Approach

From news and information sites to productivity and efficiency task apps, there are tens of thousands of business apps available to mobile users. And then there are the fun apps, the ones that engage users and get marketers excited at the same time. Vine is one such app—this short-form video app arrived in the iOS App store in January and in the Android Play store in June, and today it's one of the most downloaded social networking apps on the Web. Vine excites people because it gives every user a chance to be a video creator. Vine users can express their creativity in short doses, just like its parent Twitter. Twitter offers 140 characters to say what you need to say, and Vine offers users a 6.5-second opportunity to communicate through video. Once these short videos are shot, users can share them on Vine and Twitter, add hashtags so people can find them in certain categories and embed them on blogs and other news sites.

Retailers are seeing the promise in using Vine to drum up interest from mobile-connected consumers. Marketers use Vine to spread brand awareness, launch campaigns, offer discounts and more. And with the all-important holiday shopping season coming soon, expect to see more use from U.S. retailers leading up to Thanksgiving weekend and Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the holiday season.

Brands Using Vine

In August there were around 40,000 Vine users, according to parent company Twitter. Disney is one of the latest brands to jump on Vine. It launched a new campaign called "Vine with Your Disney Side" in September, offering Vine users a creative opportunity to shoot Vines around Disney parks and post using the hashtag #DisneySideContest.

Urban Outfitters, Taco Bell and other leading retail brands are using Vines to portray their brand messaging in short form video bursts. What comes through when seeing these is the release of creativity and color that exudes throughout the clips. And for fans of the brands, that's exciting to see.

Check this clever Vine clip below from snack candy marketer Red Vines. It used stop-gap motion to celebrate National Licorice Day earlier this year, and it's been one of the top brands using Vine since its start. The brand benefits are shown well, its creativity abounds and the company gains awareness from the share-ability on social networks. That's a marketing message in six seconds.

Vine Tips for Retailers

If you're a retailer looking to add a little pizazz to your holiday promotions, start using Vine. You'll score points with your younger, mobile-connected customers and you'll energize your staff. You can make a video of your customers or employees, or encourage creative use of your store's logo for a chance to win a gift card or store discounts. Mobile users are flocking to their respective Web stores, searching for verizonfiosdeals.com and looking for exciting apps to add to their mobile portfolio.

Using Vine to engage with your customers makes sense to marketers and retailers. Try it this holiday shopping season for a change of marketing pace.

For more on Vine:

Will Nesbit