Twitter targets TV talk

Warc, 25 November 2013

SAN FRANCISCO: The latest ad product from Twitter aims to capitalise on the trend of consumers discussing on the social networking site those programmes they are watching on TV.

TV conversation targeting lets advertisers promote Tweets to users who engage with specific shows, whether or not a brand is running a spot in the program. Twitter said advertisers would now be able to easily reach Twitter users exposed to integrations, sponsorships, and other TV tie-ins "for an additional touch point or message expansion".

An earlier Twitter product, TV ad targeting, allowed advertisers to reinforce their television ads with messages to Twitter users thought to have been exposed to those same ads.

Twitter's research with Nielsen has shown that advertisers running both TV commercials and Promoted Tweets have demonstrated 95% stronger message association, 58% higher purchase intent, 8-16% more sales, and 36% lower customer acquisition costs.

Advertising Age noted that the new product marked a subtle shift in the relationship between Twitter and networks, with the potential to cut TV out of the money loop.

It thought conversation targeting might be aimed particularly at those advertisers who could not afford a TV ad but suggested if the product were aggressively marketed to big TV spenders the result could be to turn the networks into "frenemies".

The new product is being rapidly rolled out beyond the US and UK to include, initially, Brazil, Canada, France and Spain. The company is also making a push into Asian markets with its TV ad targeting product.

Shailesh Rao, Twitter vice president for APAC, Latin America and emerging markets, explained to an IAB event in Singapore that Twitter had a "symbiotic relationship" with TV and was investing people and resources in countries where it saw strong user growth.

In other areas where monetisation was less, it was setting up partnerships, such as that with Komli Media to bring Promoted Products to marketers in Southeast Asia. And in those markets were it had yet to pick up, he said it was doing a lot of work around localisation and education.

Data sourced from Twitter, Advertising Age, Campaign Asia-Pacific; additional content by Warc staff

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