Twitter Down Under

It’s taken a while, but Australia has started to catch on.

In previous years, online advertising was just another way to execute a print or TV campaign and usually generated in the form of micro-sites.

Yet now, in Australia, the digital solution is becoming the backbone of advertising campaigns and the creative inspiration for other media channels.

“Ispylevis,” a Levi’s Jeans Twitter campaign, is being used in conjunction with guerilla marketing techniques to create non-traditional brand buzz.

For example, Levi’s has a current campaign where they have placed hundreds of anonymous people wearing Levi’s in hot spots around Australia and New Zealand. If approached and asked, “Are you wearing Levis?” these planted people are to immediately drop their pants and give the lucky guesser a new pair of Levi’s jeans.

Consumers can follow on Twitter to see where the Levi’s actors are hanging out.

Because of its measurable success in the US, Twitter is now being used by Australian marketers, companies and media groups. The general public, however, has been quite slow to embrace the social networking site, although Facebook also took a while to gain popularity in Australia and is now extremely widespread.

With Twitter, only time will tell.

What we do know now is that it’s a great tool for social connection and real time information, as well as the fact that the growing acceptance of Twitter in Australia should provide an even greater push to creative online advertising solutions. So keep an eye out for more of these social media campaigns – and an Aussie wearing Levi’s.