Johnny Weir sports this Tweet-powered horse for the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby has been a mainstay for the past 142 years, but their technology presence is now being measured in 21st century style. Crazy hats are always the rage, and Johnny Wier pulled a stunt to get people talking. (image via Joey Foley/FilmMagic)
When I hear the Kentucky Derby is back in season, I immediately picture people in ridiculous hats guzzling mint juleps. Well, it seems like everyone else pictures exactly the same thing and with social media on the rise, these crazy hats can be tweeted, re-tweeted, and Instagram-ed.
I suppose this gave Johnny Wier, a mainstay at the Kentucky Derby, an idea of how to publicize using his inventive, attention grabbing hats. At the latest 142nd Kentucky Derby, Johnny wore the horse seen above as a brooch that reacted to social engagement on Twitter. The more individuals tweeted utilizing the hash tag #WatchMeNeighNeigh, the more the horse would gallop and light up.
The brooch seems to be part of a whole social media campaign with Johnny and NBC teaming up to market the Kentucky Derby and other races this season. It seems that the event is finally trying to jump on board and gain attention form younger fans with its incorporation of Social Media marketing this season.
This idea would be cool to recreate using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi and it could be used to do just about anything. So far, there have been almost 12,000 tweets incorporating the hash tag #WatchMeNeighNeigh. I can now see marketers flocking to this idea with zeal for future ways to incorporate social media marketing campaigns into events marketing.
In other implications, this new crossover between interactive technology and fashion could also have implications in new wearable technology that serves as more of a fashion statement than a function purpose. Such uses of fashionable and interactive technology would be new since most wearable tech serves very specific functions meant to make our lives easier.
I can only imagine what interactive, fashion technology people can create just for the pure fun of it. One thing is for sure, future marketers will keep this in mind for future campaigns if its deemed ‘successful.’ Although I’m very skeptical of just how successful social media platforms, like Twitter, are at engagement – in the truest sense of the word. Whatever happened to a good old fashioned conversation that never has to end in a duck-faced selfie?
If you would like to see a little snippet of Johnny’s brooch reacting to Twitter, you can check it out here: https://twitter.com/_Ylvette/status/729117793216569344
The video is only about 3 seconds, but I guess that is all you need in a society that can only ‘engage’ using 140 characters or less.
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