2021 has been a rollercoaster of a year and has provided opportunities for reflection, reimagination, and rejuvenation. This year, we saw many brands do ground-breaking work on Twitter in India that left a mark on consumer’s hearts and minds. These champion brands have leveraged Twitter in creative and thought-provoking ways and Tweeted their way to victory in #BestOfTweets India 2021.  

Here are the standout brands that take the crown for connecting us to powerful moments like no one else could.

Best brand for driving meaningful impact

Winner: Google India (@GoogleIndia) 

After waves of loss and despair earlier this year, people wanted to know they were safe. @GoogleIndia used the insight that people come to Twitter to search for information, and their credibility and reach to share updates around COVID-19, encourage people to practice caution and enable them with updates around vaccination, made them aware of isolation protocols and more. Through Twitter, the brand not only enabled audiences to stay safe and informed, but also engaged them in a way that created a meaningful, lasting impact — winning it a spot on this year’s #BestOfTweets.

Best #OnlyOnTwitter campaign

Winners: Flipkart (@flipkart) for #BigBillionMuqabla and Amazon Prime Video (@PrimeVideoIN) for #OneMicStandOnPrime

For its flagship annual sale, Big Billion Days, @flipkart used a customised Events Page on Twitter, inviting people to the #BigBillionMuqabla. Creating this timeline of Tweets, the brand kept its audience engaged and excited by prompting them to like the Tweets with their favourite products in order to unlock exciting offers every day.

Introducing the second season of #OneMicStandOnPrime, @PrimeVideoIN brought its audiences to the centre-stage, asking them to vote for their favourite celebrity from the season’s line-up by liking Tweets in a four-day long, real-time voting thread.

Best brand connection to an event

Winner: Mobile Premier League (@PlayMPL) with #FanBannJaaoge and #ShowYourGame

One of the best ways for brands to stay relevant is to be a part of the biggest, most followed events from across the world. That’s what @PlayMPL did with the biggest sports event of the year - the Olympics. As principal partners for the Indian Olympic Association, @PlayMPL inspired chatter around the #Tokyo2020 games by creating a fan army of cheerleaders on Twitter for #TeamIndia at the Olympics. The campaigns’ opportune timing and event-relevant content struck a chord with Twitter users.

Best brand connection with premium content on Twitter

Winner: Microsoft India (@MicrosoftIndia) for #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll

Through Twitter Amplify, brands can align with premium content from publishers that their target audiences are interested in. That’s what @MicrosoftIndia did successfully, to become the brand leader leveraging premium content for its #MicrosoftAI and #SecurityForAll campaigns. The brand strategically committed to this approach with a steady drum beat of content over three quarters - collaborating with marquee business publications to engage audiences in high-impact conversations and win this title.

Best brand connection to a cultural occasion

Winner: Amazon India (@amazonIN) with #DeliverTheLove and #DeliverThanks

To stay culturally relevant among consumers, brands must participate in conversations in real time - and what better an occasion to celebrate with audiences than Diwali?

Ahead of the festive season, and acknowledging the challenging year the people of this nation have been through, @amazonIN warmed people’s hearts with a moving video for their #DeliverTheLove campaign, which reminded audiences of the kindness of people during the pandemic.

The brand also furthered its #DeliverThanks campaign this Diwali, encouraging people to express gratitude for its delivery partners by Tweeting with posters that said ‘Thank you’. Connecting with the spirit of the festival, @amazonIN ignited a ray of hope, love and humanity in the darkest times.

Best brand connect with regional audiences

Winner: Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth)

Regional content has been on the rise, and as always, @NetflixIndia was quick to adapt. Leaning into the diversity of conversation on Twitter, the brand strengthened its connection with audiences across the four states of South India to create buzz around its growing slate of properties in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. To become a part (and a driver) of entertainment conversations, the brand chose Twitter as its destination to launch a dedicated account -  @Netflix_INSouth. The account debuted with a multilingual Tweet, and topped it with the launch of Namma Stories - a music video that celebrates stories from south India.

Best product launch on Twitter

Winners: Mahindra (@Mahindra_Auto) with #HelloXUV700 and Morris Garages India (@MGMotorIn) for the Astor with #TheAIAffair

For the launch of the #MahindraXUV700, @Mahindra_Auto leveraged a whole host of Twitter’s products across the launch cycle. It created awareness for the launch with a Reminder Card that doubled up as a teaser for the event, took over Twitter timelines on the day of the launch, and became the first auto brand to leverage Twitter’s Live Brand Studio and create a Live Events Page, which was the go-to destination for eager audiences to follow the big unveil. To keep up the conversation momentum, the brand used Promoted Tweets to promote video snippets from the event into people’s timelines.

@MGMotorIn also took the Twitter launch route to introduce the MG Astor - India’s first car with a personal AI assistant. Unveiling #TheAIAffair to Indian audiences, the brand leveraged Twitter’s takeover products across the launch cycle - pre-launch, launch day and post-launch - creating a continuum of conversations across timelines. Following the launch, the brand also used Website Cards to drive performance through click-based campaigns, directing people to the bookings page on the brand’s website.

Best brand in the emerging category

Winner: Unacademy (@unacademy)

Edtech company @unacademy used a strategic mix of unconventional storytelling, creative execution and the credibility of voices such as that of Sachin Tendulkar, all while playing into the centre of trending moments and conversations during the cricket season. With campaigns like #TeachThemYoung and #MistakesTheGreatestTeacher, the brand’s great use of Twitter and success in attempting to redefine education for the country’s youth makes it the winner in this category.

Best brand connect to audio

Winner: Star Sports India (@StarSportsIndia) 

Several brands made their debuts on Twitter Spaces - the service’s live audio product introduced this year. Bringing together the sports community in high-engagement conversations, @StarSportsIndia hosted several Spaces with sports fans across the year. Tapping into Spaces’ popularity among Tamil-speaking audiences, Star Sports Tamil hosted Spaces for the community, giving fans a chance to connect with their favourite athletes, talk about the most exciting in-game moments, or just geek-out in sports banter with fellow fans.

Best brand connect to a moment

Winner:  State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) with #YogaAsanasWithSBI

@TheOfficialSBI aligned with the cultural moment of #InternationalYogaDay, and engaged its audience in an interactive campaign to help them enhance positivity and well-being in their lives. Building interest through powerful video assets, the brand engaged people with an auto-reply Twitter campaign, asking them to choose the kind of yoga they wished to explore. Each Tweet that engaged with the campaign was rewarded with customised replies demonstrating relevant yoga asanas. To scale reach and impact, the brand also used Twitter’s takeover assets on #InternationalYogaDay - owning the moment on the service.