Dish Takes Talk Boston Campaign Social With 'Twiddah Translator'

Boston is an American city unlike any other. Call it “Beantown,” “The Cradle of Liberty,” or the bad parking capital of the United States. While Boston carries tremendous historical and cultural significance from sea to shining sea, some people who call the city home talk with the most unforgettable pronunciations.

Dish Network has been talking Boston in its TV ads big time. If you’ve seen any of the broadcast satellite TV provider’s commercials of late, you’ve probably laughed or rolled your eyes at the “Boston guys” as they promote Dish’s ad-skipping DVR called the Hopper.

Now the company has expanded its Talk Boston campaign to Twitter with a “Talk Boston Twiddah Translator” that allows people to draft a tweet, translate it to that uniquely Boston accent, and then post their message on Twitter.

Keith Nyhouse, VP of digital at Dish, tells ClickZ that the Talk Boston campaign has helped the company build brand awareness and preference over the last 12 to 18 months. With those seeds of Dish’s brand characteristics sowed on television, the campaign and creative work have now entered the social landscape, particularly on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

“The primary objective was driving that consumer engagement across the campaign. We’ve had millions of consumer engagements throughout the Talk Boston campaign, and that’s made up of anything like video views, likes, shares, comments, engagements, tweets, etcetera, along that way,” Nyhouse says. The resonance gained through the Boston guys’ work eventually led the way for a series of videos that help viewers “learn to talk Boston,” the “Twiddah Translator,” and a word game.

“Talk Boston allowed us to help build that out for consumers and really take home and deliver that message,” says Nyhouse. “The other applications within the campaign have all been very successful. Obviously we want to deliver home the overall benefit and Dish message with that, and pay off on that TV anywhere solution, and the videos allow us a deeper way to do that.”

One of the longer videos features basketball star Paul Pierce, who was recently traded to the Brooklyn Nets after spending the first 15 years of his career in a Boston Celtics uniform. “Fibba. They call me the truth, because I’m not a fibba [SIC]. I’m also good at basketball,” Pierce says from the comfort of a couch in the video’s introduction. “Anywaya, with the Hoppa from Dish, I can watch live TV anywaya, including my underwaya…Clicka, if you’re not watching my game. Change the channel with the clicka [SIC].”

If basketball and multi-millionaire athletes aren’t your thing, Dish also got Mama June from TLC’s “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” to sit on the couch and share her tips for talking Boston. “Stah. My daughta is not a stah, she’s a supastah [SIC],” she says in the video.

Nyhouse says Dish’s marketing division continues to evolve and increase its focus and investment in digital and social platforms. “[For] both of the platforms, digital marketing and social included, we’re extremely focused on the data because it’s something that we can drive in real time to see what consumers are really engaging with,” he says.

“The marketing investment is growing holistically across the digital divide,” Nyhouse adds. “There are a lot of fun things that you can do in the social space. For us, it’s really about how do we get consumers to engage with our brand in a relevant manner so that we communicate where we stand in the marketplace.”