Every morning I scroll through my Twitter feed to see what people are talking about and what’s trending for the day. This morning I came across an interesting tweet from ASOS, an online fashion retailer from the UK:
Does something stand out? Perhaps it’s the term “bae.” In case you have been out of tune with pop culture lately, millennials have created a new set of slang terms that has been widely used within the past year. These terms can be heard on the radio, in popular Vine videos and sometimes in every day conversation. But now, brands are using these terms in their social media strategies to connect with millennial consumers.
After doing my own research, the terms “bae” (term of endearment) and “on fleek” (quality of being perfect) are used a lot more often than we think by major brands, even by the NBA. Below are a few examples I found today:
Applebee’s has even created their own hashtag and started referring to their customers as “#applebaes.”
Though brands are jumping on the bandwagon, this is definitely just another fleeting trend that will only be included in short term social media plans. This strategy must also fit with the brand identity to make sense and be pulled off effortlessly. If not, it will just end up as a hot mess (train wreck).
Do you think major brands should be taking this approach?
