Twitter ads target TV conversations
May 24, 2013
Twitter has revealed a new product called Amplify, that it says will help brands match advertisements with Twitter commentary by viewers. Brands can then send messages to selected Twitter users who have already seen their ad on television.
Twitter also announced it would work with a number of media companies, including Time Inc., Bloomberg, Discovery, Vevo, Vice Media, Condé Nast Entertainment and Warner Music Group, to sell advertisers content, which probably will be digital video or television content like clips from shows. The content can then be shared on Twitter, and advertisers can run ads before the videos are viewed.
The service is born out of Twitter’s acquisition of Bluefin Labs in February; the technology uses video fingerprinting to automatically detect where and when a brand’s commercials are airing on TV (without the advertiser having to provide any media plan details) and identify Twitter users who tweeted about the programme when the ad ran. The technology will create “a new canvas for engaging with people in the audience,” said Deb Roy, chief media scientist at Twitter.
The service is similar to the relationships announced last year with ESPN and Ford, which embedded replays from football games in posts sent via Twitter. ESPN and Ford promoted the posts to people who had been identified as being interested in sports based on the accounts they followed on Twitter and the subjects of their posts.
Twitter said the company already had limits on how many ads users would see in a day, reports the NYT.