You know who else is #WINNING in this whole Charlie Sheen on Twitter thing? The Twitter ad sales team.
At upwards of $100K a pop, the revenue that Promoted Tweets bring in is no a joke. And it looks like big name brands like Ford Focus, Arbys and Audi and AMC Theatres have all forked over some cash to capitalise on the attention being lobbed onto to Sheen at the moment, buying into what is likely a Promoted Tweet keyword auction on the hashtag of his infamous catchphrase, “Winning.”
The reason these tweets cost so much is that Promoted Tweet engagement on hashtag search is high, 5% of users who see the tweets react to them either by re-tweeting, clicking on a link or replying. And impressively, 80% of brands that buy one ad end up buying another.
Right now only one of the #WINNING Promoted Tweet products is directly related to Sheen, and it’s for a cheesy Shepard Fairey-style WINNING movie poster, proliferating the meme.
Branding in this day and age is so strange and somewhat shady, as one man’s media meltdown can become another man’s venue for pimping their bacon cheeseburger.
Despite all the rumors there r no plans 2 bring #mclobster or mcsushi 2 the US menu. We r working on a new menu item called McWinning.—
McDonald's (@McDonalds) March 03, 2011
As Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic points out, “In purchasing the #Winning hashtag, [brands] get all of the benefits of celebrity endorsement (eyeballs, psychological association) without the risk that when the guy finishes losing his mind, they look bad.”
Note: While I was writing this post, it looks like the Ford Tweet got “Un-Promoted.” Did someone over at Ford have a change of heart?
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