Arby’s Wins Best Grammys Tweet

Published February 20, 2014 at 7:28 am

It’s not every day that a sandwich shop can become an internet sensation during the Grammys, but that’s exactly what happened on Sunday night, thanks to Arby’s ability to think fast and take advantage of a topical situation.

Pharrell Williams was kind of a big deal at the 2014 Grammy Awards. The renowned producer and Daft Punk collaborator was nominated seven times and took home four gramophones at the end of the night. But, Pharrell’s musical prowess wasn’t the only thing people were talking about that evening.

Throughout the course of the awards show, the ridiculous hat that the 40-year-old chose to wear with his ensemble earned comparisons to famous (fictional) figures ranging from Smokey the Bear to Woody from “Toy Story.”

That’s when someone from Arby’s noticed that the hat looked eerily similar to the brand’s very own logo and tweeted, “Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYs.”

The tweet was a huge hit, racking up 81,000 retweets and more than 45,000 favorites by the following evening. Even other brands gave Arby’s a hat tip (pun intended) for its brilliant marketing move. Pepsi retweeted it and added the hashtag “#Win” and Hyundai jokingly gave Arby’s the Best “I Wish Our Logo Was A Hat So We Could Have Tweeted It” tweet of the evening.

Fortunately, even Pharrell had a great sense of humor about it, tweeting to Arby’s, “Y’all tryna start a roast beef?”

This is a great example of what can happen when brands’ web based marketing teams simply pay attention to what’s going on around them and make an effort to join relevant conversations.