Social Media Marketing

This week, consumers took to Twitter to make fun of Urban Outfitters, brands got cheesy for #InternationalJokeDay, and Tim Horton's scored a major emoji win on #CanadaDay.

This week was a series of wins and fails on Twitter, from Urban Outfitters taking heat for its hipster-centric marketing to Tim Horton's ingratiating itself to Canadian fans on a national holiday.

Early in the week, #UrbanOutfittersBeLike trended on Twitter to mock a set of $8 hair ties, prompting a media buzz and thousands of shares for the most popular Tweets in the series. 

But perhaps the biggest fail of all was the fact that Urban Outfitters never responded to the popular hashtag. Laughing at itself on social media could have shown the brand's lighter side. 

For #InternationalJokeDay, many brands told cheesy jokes, but much of the humor seemed lost in translation.

However, casual dining chain Tim Horton's got a tremendous response when it used #CanadaDay to crowdsource ideas for its Canadian "Ehmoji" keyboard. The #TweetLikeaCanadian hashtag also trended, providing a good example of a brand creating a thoughtful campaign that contributes to, rather than intrudes upon, topical Twitter conversation.

And finally, hamburger chain White Castle used a spur-of-the-moment hashtag to post a cute throwback Thursday picture that stirred up nostalgia among fans. 

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