If it’s anyone in the world who deserves a break, it’s One Direction.
Ever since being thrusted into the spotlight five years after appearing on “The X Factor (UK),” the British boy band has endured a grueling string of tours, album releases and publicity appearances.
Well, it’s all coming to an end in March, when the band says it’s taking a “hiatus.”
KitKat, probably sensing its “Oreo moment,” jumped on the news Thursday to capitalize on its iconic “Have a Break” moment, tweeting this (and shamelessly tagging the band members):
Enjoy the break & see you soon! @Harry_Styles @Real_Liam_Payne @NiallOfficial @Louis_Tomlinson #HaveABreak #1D pic.twitter.com/BRlD1pYSyO
— KITKAT (@KITKAT) December 17, 2015
Twitter and One Direction go together just as good as chocolate and wafers (after all, One Direction accounted for half of the 10 most retweeted tweets on Twitter this year), so the odds were in their favor of this being a massive viral hit. Thanks to some assistance by way of a retweet from singer Liam Payne and his 21.5 million followers, KitKat’s tweet garnered 66,000 retweets and 84,000 likes, making it brand’s most popular tweet ever.
Prior to this, KitKat’s #bendgate tweet mocking the iPhone’s bending abilities was its most popular tweet, with 13,000 likes and 66,000 retweets, but this eclipsed that by far.
“You always try these things with a bit of hope, but don’t really expect such a personality to take notice,” Barry Christie, the creative director of J. Walter Thompson, the agency behind the tweet, told Digiday. “We have heard before that 1D are partial to a KitKat or two, so there was an inkling of hope,” he added pointing to the brands previous reactive tweets have been popular, like #bendgate.
The tweet ignited a wave of ecstatic responses from One Direction’s fans begging the brand to sell the customized candy bars:
@KITKAT @1Dnoticia @Harry_Styles @Real_Liam_Payne @NiallOfficial @Louis_Tomlinson I WANT IT SO HARD — ta. (@hesfools) December 17, 2015
@KITKAT @Harry_Styles @Real_Liam_Payne @NiallOfficial @Louis_Tomlinson hoping these are actually available to buy…..
— Kirsty (@KirstyLBx) December 17, 2015
@KITKAT can you sell these? I would buy them — nataly (@almightysides) December 17, 2015
KitKat, you better listen up before the teens hyperventilate.
More in Marketing
S4 Capital trades billable hours for outputs as AI redraws agency economics
Sir Martin Sorrell’s AI bet: fear billable hours, more output-based deals.
Ad Tech Briefing: Public companies’ first loyalty is to shareholders — why do advertisers give them an easy time?
Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit attendees call foul, claiming IPOs encourage murkiness amid ad tech providers.
Ad veteran Peter Naylor joins Kochava board, and sees opportunity in market flux
Nearly a year after he left Netflix, ad industry veteran Peter Naylor is back as a board member at ad tech business Kochava.