When asked for relationship advice, a great philosopher once responded stating, “If you’re asking a fast food Twitter, this relationship might be doomed.”
The Wendy’s Twitter account has created a unique relationship with their many followers. While traditional businesses have used the social media platform as a chance to inform the public of deals, apologize for various mistakes, and promote their brand, Wendy’s has instead been informing users of their movie of the year picks, roasting consumers of McDonalds, and promoting their mixtapes.
Responding to various inquiries, the Wendy’s account now serves as the magic eight ball of the internet. Ask, and you shall receive an answer, however, it may not be quite what you’re looking for.
A Rotten Tomatoes score is useless now, when you have the Fresh Never Frozen Beef score from Wendy’s.
A traditional account would list out their breakfast options, but instead, Wendy’s is serving up clever roasts, hot off the grill.
It gets even hotter when the account begins writing verses referencing a fellow fast food competitor, Wingstop. The chicken company is chopped in front of the entire country.
These are only a few tweets in the account’s collection, with each 140 character-limit box acting as a canvas for this witty, dominant marketer. Rather than existing among the void of sponsored corporate content, Wendy’s has decided to adopt the casual, youthful, and careless voice of what could very well be one of my classmates. Echoing across the internet, heard from every corner, the account’s sarcasm has gained a massive following. The voice reaches over 2 million followers, far surpassing the reach of any predecessor or philosopher. In 2017, the account successfully established themselves in the history books by conducting f the most retweeted tweet yet. In a young boy’s lowest moment, he cries out to Wendy’s asking how many retweets it would require for free nuggets. Wendy’s responds coldly with “18 Million.” While Twitter may not have been able to reach that milestone, the original tweet now has over 3 million retweets. A dream come true for the boy, or Wendy’s social media team?
While the account may seem like a catalog of thoughts from a college student, the Wendy’s account is actually run by a team of marketers that have now seen monumental success. Over the past year, the account has been recognized by users and media sources around the internet for their clever use of the platform. Wendy’s has refused to reveal their secret recipe for social media, but the team has had a hold on this voice for years before the rise in following. A cult success, the account has gone from a few chuckles to an entire website roaring with laughter and applause.
Amid the noise, other accounts are now also adopting the ironic strategy of Wendy’s. To reach your audience, you must become your audience. Brand Guidelines? MoonPie has never heard of them.
While obtaining a more modest presence at 170K followers, MoonPie, and other accounts have followed the lawless guidelines that Wendy’s has pushed to the forefront of marketing on Twitter. Adapting to survive, marketing teams using social media are discovering the beauty of the unpredictable sides of the internet. In such a saturated area, you only have one chance, or one tweet to grab the attention of your audience. Wendy’s discovered how to grab hold of their audience, dab them up, spin them around, and make them want to constantly come back for more.
In a synergistic relationship, the user receives entertaining content while the business receives positive publicity which could lead to increased sales. As long as the roasts remain calm, and an international civil war between fast food corporations doesn’t break out as a result of these shots, this style of content will continue.
Wendy’s has fired the first shot that rang across Twitter. They have everyone’s attention with their unique, hilarious voice. As more marketing accounts join in the effort to focus on millennials, we may see more businesses decreases the promotions, and up the jokes. It’s only a matter of retweets until we see Virginia Tech’s twitter account crafting roasts against the University of Virginia twitter account. In case Virginia Tech is looking for someone to lead that effort, they know where to find me.