Smart marketing: @SmartArg debuts impressive Twitter-based flipbook

By Francis Bea April 11, 2012

smart car — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Argentina’s Smart car Twitter account is the platform for a witty social media strategy that you can’t help but admire. It’s simple, yet so clever. From March 23 to March 25, @SmartArg was transformed into a digital flipbook in text form to advertise its Smart car brand.

Headed and created by BBDO Argentina, the @SmartArg Twitter flipbook is part of Daimler AG’s aggressive and innovate campaign to build the Smart name around the world. The Twitter-based flipbook is a compelling example of a fun, effective branding strategy that is even more impressive despite its 140 characters per “frame” limit. But more importantly, it’s a way to turn heads toward the launch of Smart car Argentina’s Twitter account.

smart argentina — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Judging from Smart car’s video, which offers a glimpse behind the scenes in the flipbook’s creation, we can estimate just how labor intensive the process must have been. Character by character, the creators pieced together a recognizable text-based replica of the Smart car, which viewers accompany during the sojourn down the tree laden cityscape, through tunnels, and past smiling buildings. Even more impressive was the designer’s prowess in figuring out just how to “animate” the 360 degree turn of the Smart car, which you’ll witness by the end of the animation.

To experience the final product for yourself and watch the animation spring to life, Smart Argentina asks viewers to press “J” on their keyboard beginning from the very top of its @SmartArg Twitter account. If your computer ends up lagging during the process, you might need to press “J” repeatedly. For those of you wanting to go backwards for whatever reason can always press “K.” We tried scrolling down through the tweets manually with our mouse, but the effect of the animation becomes lost.

If you’re impatient, you can always watch the Fast Company video below, which toward the end will animate the entire series of tweets for you.

Let us know what you think of @SmartArg’s strategy in the comments below.

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