Custom animation encourages users to like, unlike and relike a tweet DUBAI: Twitter is rolling out its new “branded likes” feature across the US, Britain, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Branded likes are essentially custom animations for the like button on a tweet that brands can pay for. The feature is available as an add-on to Twitter’s Timeline Takeover offering, which ensures a brand’s ad is the first ad to appear when someone opens Twitter for the first time on a given day. Advertisers can select a hashtag — and up to 10 translations of that hashtag. Twitter then works with its creative partner Bare Tree Media for the US, Britain and Saudi Arabia to create custom artwork for the campaign. When a user taps the like button on any tweet containing the pre-selected hashtag, the custom branded like animation will appear. Branded likes have been in testing for nearly two years with testers including brands such as Disney, Paramount Pictures, Tesco, NASA and the NBA. https://twitter.com/disneyplus/status/1289092933598081025?ref_src=twsrc%... Disney+ was the first brand to pay for the feature as part of the beta test, reported AdAge. The streaming platform used it to promote the premiere of “Black Is King,” Beyoncé’s highly anticipated visual album inspired by “The Lion King.” The tweet has over 113,000 likes and more than 10,000 retweets. During testing, branded likes generated a positive impact when paired with the Timeline Takeover feature, resulting in a 277 percent lift in recall, and 202 percent lift in purchase and consideration intent. Branded likes are well received by consumers too, with two-thirds of people finding them “appealing,” according to Twitter Insiders research. It is unclear at this time when the branded likes feature will launch in other countries.