Tweeting badger hits international fame
JOBURG - Johannesburg Zoo’s live tweeting badger fires world's imagination.
BG, the Johannesburg Zoo’s Honey Badger that began ‘tweeting’ in June has become a worldwide phenomenon, gaining over 5 000 followers in just 50 tweets.
Not only has the story of how advertising agency Draftfcb, digital groundbreaker Hellocomputer, and techno wizards BinarySpace used the Zoo’s mascot as its social media manager or ‘spokesanimal’ tickled South Africa’s funny bone, but it has also grabbed the attention of the world’s media.
BG has picked up fans in America, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Russia and China, as well as making television and radio appearances worldwide.
“It is more than exciting, it is spine-tingling how quickly BG has taken the world’s stage by storm,” said Draftfcb chief creative officer Brett Morris.
“We’re obviously monitoring mentions of BG globally and in less than a week, he has amassed about 15 pages of search results on international blogs. His story has been aired by the likes of ABC News, Fox2 and 6, and Good Morning America, as well as local national news and television back home. And, if that weren’t enough, he’s been on the Timeslive website and Twitter feed, been mentioned by Huffington Post, NotCot, Buzzfeed and been the topic of a Perez Hilton’s blog,” said Morris.
Hellocomputer’s Kerry Friend added, “What is great is that this was a collaborative result between creatives and technologists after our quarterly ‘hackathon’, again positioning Draftfcb and Hellocomputer at the forefront of innovation in the communication space in South Africa.”
Friend thanked the Johannesburg Zoo for “having the vision to appreciate how a crazy idea – like making a honey badger tweet live – could grab attention and hold it.”
Follow BG @zootweetslive
