Despite having been around for twelve years now, it wasn’t until very recently that Twitter started to ask itself; “Who am I?” The platform is used by so many people for so many different things, that narrowing down its brand identity to a single purpose might feel counterintuitive – but figuring out exactly what it is that makes the platform special was necessary in order for the company to launch its first ever brand-level campaign.

“A lot of people still see us as a social network and have other misperceptions about the brand,” says Senior Marketing Director, Oliver Snoddy. “So our focus is to shift some of those misperceptions. We know that’s not how our users are using Twitter. As a brand we need to do a better job at mirroring that back to people.”

The platform’s recent redesign was carried out with the aim of clarifying Twitter’s proposition to both users and advertisers, according to CMO Leslie Berland, who came aboard from American Express in 2016. “It shows the speed of Twitter, which is unique to us as we’re about what’s happening right now,” she tells Campaign. “From a product perspective, it’s simplifying it. Making it easier to use and more intuitive is something I know is very important to [advertisers].”

The platform’s first TV spot, featuring Chance The Rapper, demonstrates how conversations and engagement on Twitter unfold in real-time. In this instance, the subject matter is music, but the company plans to roll out additional content showcasing Twitter’s influence in the realms of news and sport.

Any requests? Real instruments? No problem.

With @chancetherapper and Twitter, music is happening. #SeeEverySide pic.twitter.com/1MF5NtIFan

— Twitter (@Twitter) June 19, 2017

“This is the first time we’ve really led with a brand-level message,” says Snoddy. “So rather than centering the message on individual products we’re trying to message the entirety of what Twitter is. That’s something we haven’t done before. To us at least, that’s what we saw as the big opportunity.”