Looking back at how Wendy’s transformed one organic Tweet into 200k+ new followers with their #NuggsforCarter campaign
A whopping 71% of tweets are left unread and ignored.
So, with his 150 Twitter followers in hand, a young Carter Wilkerson sent a Tweet that could have very easily gone without reply.
Although, we would come to learn that this would not be the case this time, as young Carter would be destined to hold the title of World’s Most Retweeted Tweet.
New trends develop on the internet in a moment’s notice, and brands often invest greatly in an effort to create them.
However, the quick-witted social team at Wendy’s found that riding the wave could be much more cost effective.
The #NuggsforCarter trend that spurred from their spontaneous Twitter response ended up delivering them 200k+ new Twitter followers and 23.9 million more views to their Twitter page.
This wholesome trend comes from humble beginnings, so where does the story start?
Carter Wilkerson is a normal U.S. teenager, with the same cravings that any teenager might have.
On a day just like any other in April of 2017, what Carter wanted were some nuggets. With that in mind, he sent a Tweet to the official Wendy’s Twitter account asking how many retweets he would need for them to give him a year’s worth of free nuggets.
Wendy’s reply: 18 Million
With the task clearly defined and the goal in place, Carter went to work on what would go down in Twitter history.
He shot out a Tweet asking the Twitter universe to join him on his mission towards 18 million retweets, and then went to bed. When he awoke, he found himself with 50,000 retweets, and in 48 hours he had broken 1 million.
Carter was well on his way to breaking records.
What had started as a Twitter conversation had now turned into a movement, and Wendy’s quickly recognized this.
What they also noticed was that the Tweet was closing in on Ellen DeGeneres’ record-holding “Oscar Selfie” tweet which stood at 3.3 million retweets at the time.
The Wendy’s team reached out to Ellen and jump-started a feud on who would hold the record for Most Retweeted.
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Ellen’s place in Twitter history was in Jeopardy, as she humorously explained the effort she went through to achieve this feat:
I’m angry because I worked so hard to set that record. First, I got my own sitcom. Then, I came out. Then, I lost everything… Then, I came back with my talk show and became so popular they asked me to host the Oscars, but I waited until they asked me to host the second time to finally make my move. Then, I gathered all the biggest stars into one selfie and I challenged the world to share it. And boom, I achieved my goal of the most retweeted Tweet of all time.
… and this guy asked for NUGGETS?
She followed that comedic rant with words of encouragement, and threw out the invitation to compete for the title.
Wendy’s had done it.
They set the ball in motion for Ellen to launch her own campaign, which included a feature with Bradley Cooper pleading for assistance, as well as Ellen inviting Carter on her show where he explained to her, “I just want some nuggets.”
That’s when Twitter officially blew up with #NuggsforCarter.
Brands such as Amazon, Google, and Guinness World Records joined in the movement, along with celebrities like Aaron Paul, Andy Milonakis and T-Mobile CEO John Legere.
The rest is truly history.
Less than a year later, what results came of this micro social interaction?
- Carter dethroned Ellen, amassing 3.6+ million retweets
- 3.2 billion earned media impressions from over 1,400 media placements
- Over 5 million online mentions of Carter’s quest, which drove a 376% year over previous year increase in mentions of Wendy’s
- #NuggsforCarter used 234,000+ times
- 213,000 new Wendy’s Twitter followers, and 23.9 million page views
This campaign is a shining example of how organic marketing can propel a brand to superstardom.
1 Tweet can be all that separates one’s business from stagnation and powerful awareness.
When it comes to time and cost effectiveness, we can see from this example how quick-witted proactiveness can take the reigns from careful curation of content.
