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Periscope puddle: How brands waded in to a social media spectacle

Robin Langford

On a wet Wednesday in the UK, thousands of people tuned in to watch a live stream of a large puddle in Newcastle, with a number of high-profile brands dipping their toes into the Twitter frenzy.

The pool, which blocked a busy bridge crossing, was broadcast live on streaming app Periscope under the hashtag #DrummondPuddleWatch.

547,819 people watched #DrummondPuddleWatch on the livestream, which was set up by Newcastle-based marketing company Drummond Central.

The firm claims that it was set up purely for staff’s “own amusement” and no products or services were promoted through the feed.

People were gripped watching pedestrians attempting to cross the puddle without getting wet. Some scampered up a wall to stop their feet getting wet, while others opted for a run and jump. Less sprightly pedestrians had to brave the water and walk through it.

Around 20,000 people were watching live at the puddle stream’s peak, at around 3pm on Wednesday.

Twitter released a heat map showing the spread of the hashtag around the world:

Even Twitter founder Jack Dorsey got involved, writing: “What a puddle.”

As word spread that the puddle had become an online hit, people began arriving holding surfboards and a lilo.

Another person turned up with a slippery floor sign and placed it in the middle of the puddle.

A number of big brands, including Star Wars, Dominos and Paddy Power got in on the action, turning around fast tweets to get their brands into the conversation.

Here’s our pick of the best:

Ski Yoghurt

ASOS

Star Wars

PG Tips

HB Ice Cream

Marmite

Dominos

Greggs

Bounty Kitchen Rolls

Gumtree

Paddy Power

Waterstones

Maoam

EA

Lidl

British Museum

End of an era

The feed ended in the evening with the agency turning the camera on themselves:

To the anguish of its fans, the Drummond Puddle was drained by the following day by Newcastle City Council after drawing the eyes of the world.
The puddle was removed using a street-cleaning vehicle – to the sadness of many Twitter users.

At Wednesday night’s Newcastle City Council’s meeting council leader Nick Forbes tweeted: “Lib Dems have just demanded that the council removes #DrummondPuddleWatch immediately! Spoilsports!”

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