TEST

 

Talking to the man behind Sonic the Hedgehog's incredible Twitter

Gotta tweet fast

• By Andrew Webster
 
• on June 23, 2016 01:41 pm
 
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On June 23rd, 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog made its debut on the Sega Genesis. A blaze of speed and attitude, Sonic proved to be just what Sega needed in order to keep pace with Nintendo in the earliest iteration of the game console wars. But 25 years later, Sonic’s legacy is mixed at best. Following those early highs, the output of the blue hedgehog has skewed toward the disappointing, with few standouts and plenty of forgettable releases.

But despite all of that, Sonic not only still remains, but is often at the forefront of the conversation — at least on Twitter. Two years ago, Aaron Webber took over the Sonic the Hedgehog handle on Twitter and turned a formerly typical corporate account into a bizarre, self-aware, meme-filled comedic adventure. The kind of place that pokes fun at everything from other games to Sonic’s own troubled past. I recently spoke to Webber about how the account came to be, and why posting "Sanic" memes is actually good for the franchise.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Andrew Webster: I know you’ve worked at Sega for a long time, so how did you get involved with the Twitter side of things?

Aaron Webber: I was a big Sega fan growing up — I had a Genesis, a Saturn, a Dreamcast — and when you’re a kid, you kind of have those dreams of what you want to do. For me that dream was: I wanted to go work at Sega some day. I had no idea what that actually meant, I didn’t really know what position that would be, but it was [my] childhood dream.

I played a lot of a game called Phantasy Star Online, which was really key for me growing up, and through that game I ended up becoming a volunteer moderator for Sega when I was in my early teens. I did that pro bono for them for two years, but it helped introduce me to some people at Sega, and through that, eventually there was a job opportunity. I decided I might as well apply for it and see what happens, and one thing led to another and that’s really how I got started.

Was it Sega in general that you were a fan of, or were you into Sonic specifically as well?

I was definitely a Sonic fan, too. I played a ton of Sonic stuff — Adventure was the only game I had on my Dreamcast for a little while when I first got it. Everything Sega for me was key. I loved the marketing that they did, I loved all of the consoles that they had, and I had pretty much every Sonic game on the main consoles. Not as many of the Game Gear titles.

What was your initial vision for the Twitter account when you first started working on it? Did you see it like it is today?

"TO BE HONEST IT WAS KIND OF BORING."

I actually left Sega in 2014. Then, when Sega decided to downsize and move to Los Angeles and Sega of America kind of restarted and made a new Sonic team, they asked me if I would come back to manage the social media side of things. So I had a look at it, and to be honest, it was kind of boring. A lot of the posts were very comfortable, very corporate, very bland marketing. Buy this, support this, check this out. I felt like Sonic’s attitude wasn’t there. Sonic and Sega, especially in the ‘90s, had such a signature attitude, and that’s what made them stand out so much. They were the antithesis of the safe Mario brand.

I decided to test the waters a bit by posting some funny stuff, as opposed to just trying to promote products or trying push marketing things — just have some fun with it and engage with fans in ways that maybe they weren’t expecting. I didn’t know what the response would be, I was a little bit nervous at first about it. But the reaction that we ended up getting was very good, and so that ended up growing the direction that we went in, and the signature attitude that Sonic has had came back a little bit.

Did you have to change much? Did you find that the sort of very ‘90s, edgy mentality worked now?

Sonic was kind of like the sarcastic character, but still the hero, and it was pretty easy to adapt that to today’s stuff. But whereas they might’ve used really interesting ads back then, today we might reference memes or things in internet culture that you wouldn’t expect a company or a corporate brand to use. For me, it was really about letting [fans] know that we’re not some faceless, big-name company out here. We’re people, and on the other end here are more people that get you and appreciate your concerns and your comments, and who are really striving to improve this and make it as good as we can. I wanted to make that come across. Hopefully it has a little bit since then.

Is it just you tweeting or is there a team?

We’ve got a team. A lot of the stuff is planned out ahead of time, and we’ll look at things and say, "Hey, let’s do a cool post for this," or "Let’s reference this." Holidays and big things coming up we plan stuff around. And then there’s also the reactive side of things, too, which is where we try to adapt to things that are currently going on in internet culture, or things that are happening in the moment. And that’s, in my opinion, equally important because a lot of that stuff is really key, you can never plan for it, you can never know what to expect.

Sega of America

What’s the process like? I know at big companies there are usually layers of approval even for a tweet, but this seems much looser.

That’s true. Thankfully at Sega it has been relatively loose as far as the approvals have gone. But we do have different people that also check in on things. It’s a case where, for the most part, they trust our team to keep it within bounds and to not go too far, and then we try to find that fine line where we can give people something that’s really funny and really entertaining, but also doesn’t push it too far at the same time.

Have you ever done that in retrospect? Do you think any of the stuff you’ve done has gone too far?

I think [Tuesday’s Mighty No. 9 tweet] was a case where we’re trying to be funny and entertain a bit, but we certainly aren’t meaning to offend anyone or to try to belittle any of the work that the developers, in this case for Mighty No. 9, have done. That for me was a really good case; a lot of people didn’t understand that the line that was used was actually a quote, that it was said by that team. So we don’t want to bully anybody, we don’t want to come off as bullies. I feel like that tweet in particular was one where some people got it, but there were some people that didn’t get it, and in particular some of the developers. And so that was an area where we don’t want to hurt any feelings, we just want to focus on doing stuff that’s fun and entertains people.

Why does Sonic have an account in the first place? You usually see companies or studios or maybe brands with official Twitter accounts, but not individual characters.

That had started before I came back. It was focused around Sega’s pillar strategy from a few years back. Certain companies and certain brands will have a publisher account, and then for really key [intellectual property] they’ll make a dedicated account for that. If you look at a Battlefield or a Call of Duty or really any major IP will typically get their own. Sonic was very much the same way. Sonic had an account created and there’s a whole team that focuses on Sonic and the games, the TV show, the movie, and everything that is happening with Sonic.

Does the fact that the account is positioned as being from a character as opposed to a company give you more freedom to try weird or different things?

I think so. It kind of fits naturally with Sonic. Sonic really embodies that idea of a character that surprises you and delights you in ways that you’re like, "Oh that’s kind of refreshing. I didn’t expect that kind of response." It really does fit perfectly for Sonic to be the character that does that kind of stuff. It’s interesting actually because I’ve noticed even Nintendo’s started posting memes over the last six months or so. I don’t know at all whether that’s because of any of the success that Sonic has seen, but it’s fun to see the industry changing a little bit, and becoming a little more lighthearted and getting away from "Buy this product, promote, promote, promote" marketing, and a little more into the fun, entertaining stuff that celebrates their fans and celebrates internet culture at the same time.

Why do you think that’s a good thing for companies to do?

It makes them more human. This is a key conceit of the industry, that fans feel unheard. And if anyone knows that, we here at Sega know that. We’ve been through some tough times, we’ve been through good times, we’ve seen it all. We really have. And speaking as someone who was a fan, who is now at Sega, I’ve seen it from both sides. It’s really important to let people know 1) that you’re listening, and then 2) with social media it’s important to respond. A lot of companies forget that social media is a two-way street. It’s not a place for you to go out there and just post an advertisement or a trailer. It’s a spot where you listen, and you take that feedback and you stuff with it, whether it’s changing your game or responding to consumers. All of that it extremely valuable, and it’s an area that’s slowly getting better on social media, but there are still a lot of companies in the industry that haven’t fully adapted and evolved.

Are you able to actually do that? Take feedback and bring it back to the team?

I’m really honored that we’re able to do that and that people listen. There are probably a lot of companies out there where the social media manager maybe doesn’t have a lot of clout. Maybe they go to people internally and say "Fans feel this, they’re really concerned about this," and it would never go anywhere. But it’s really nice that Sega people are listening. Especially with Sonic. It’s not only important for us to listen just in general, but with Sonic it’s crucial, because of the past that Sonic has had, and the ups and downs. So it’s really important for us to listen to that, and take what happens and what is said on social media seriously.

Speaking of those ups and downs, one of the interesting things about Sonic’s Twitter is that it’s sort of self-aware, and recognizes those bad times. Was that important for you?

"THEY HAVE TO KNOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHERE THINGS WENT WRONG."

The answer is very much yes. I felt it was important because a lot of companies will have highs and lows, release good games and bad games, and what they’ll try to do with the bad games is brush it under the rug and say, "Ehh, it never happened" or "We don’t talk about that." They try to downplay it. With Sonic, there have been those key moments like Sonic 2006, which is infamous out there. And everyone at Sega knows that. It’s not like people here don’t get it. I thought it would be really important to help the fans understand that we appreciate that, too. We understand the challenges of our past. I think if anyone is going to trust you to fix things, they have to know that you understand where things went wrong.

I was a little nervous about some pushback, because I can’t think of many companies that have done that historically, that would poke fun at their own missteps. But thankfully because we got such a great reaction from people and from fans and really everyone on the internet, a lot of that stuff ended up going over just fine and I didn’t get in too much trouble for it.