• by Larissa Faw , November 9, 2017

Never underestimate the allure of a free Apple iWatch or Amazon Echo. 

Twitter held a four-day dog-and-pony show for New York agencies this week to promote its interactive #HolidayIsHappening insights initiative, designed to provide advertisers with real-time holiday shopping behaviors and attitudes.

Tuesday's stop included Publicis/Spark, MEC, and GroupM. Wednesday, the Twitter team stopped at UM/Initiative, Carat/PHD, and Digitas. Thursday it paid a call on Omnicom, Publicis and 360i and ended the day at the NYSE.

At each stop, Twitter distributed free coffee or hot chocolate, while inviting agency workers to spin a wheel and receive a free prize. Workers lined up for blocks. 

“Once one agency saw what we were doing, the next ones started lining up right away,” says Stephanie Prager, head of U.S. agency development, Twitter. Non-agency workers aren't able to sneak in undiscovered, however. Twitter required an ID badge before allowing anyone to take a spin for a prize.

Each prize was connected to the broader #HolidayIsHappening campaign, with gift tags that provided nuggets of data, such as 80% of Twitter users shop for presents before December.

Some of the more popular gifts are fidget spinners, accompanied by a message that says how it was hot last year, while Fingerlings are trendy this holiday season. 

Twitter may launch a similar program during other key moments in time, such as back-to-school. For now, there are no plans to roll out this swag-laden experience to additional locations — sorry LA-based shops.