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Twitter Takes to TV Tie-Ins

3/31/2014

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User growth slows, but Twitter’s ad revenues are growing rapidly

Twitter showed in 2013 that its ad business is growing fast. Even as user growth slowed dramatically, ad revenues and ad engagement metrics ticked up.

Advertisers cite three reasons why they’re increasing spending on Twitter: The social network’s tie-ins with TV, its real-time nature and its willingness to partner closely on creative executions. Other developments that will drive growth this year include improved analytics, more ad offerings for international markets and additional ad products in the direct-response and ecommerce areas, according to a new eMarketer report, “Advertising on Twitter: Unique Opportunities Outweigh Slowing User Growth.”

Twitter spent much of 2013 solidifying its connections with TV. It launched a new ratings business with Nielsen to measure TV-related conversations on Twitter; created new video ad opportunities with Amplify; and bolstered its association with high-profile TV events such as the Super Bowl, Grammys and Oscars.

Twitter’s linkups with television are beneficial to both the TV industry and the social network. TV executives know that many people multitask on mobile devices while watching TV. On-air mentions of Twitter drive conversation about what’s on TV and help keep viewers focused on the television.

In December 2013 polling by RBC and Advertising Age, 22% of US advertising professionals said they’d bought Twitter ads in conjunction with a TV ad campaign. Considering that programs such as Amplify are less than a year old, this constitutes positive momentum.

Advertisers that buy sponsorship packages for sports or other large-scale televised events are starting to see Twitter ads as an integral part of their overall media plan. However, there’s a caveat to looking at Twitter as a parallel to TV. Advertisers can reach an engaged audience on Twitter, but that audience by no means rivals the size or demographic makeup of the audience watching a TV program. Advertisers, then, must put engagement before reach when they sync up their TV advertising with ads on Twitter.

Twitter is focused on improving its connections with TV, and it has been bolstering its case with TV advertisers with a series of studies. Among the findings:

  • Twitter users were less likely to change the channel during ad breaks: In a November 2013 study from Symphony Advanced Media, 8% of Twitter users did so, compared with 17% of those who were not multitasking and 13% of those who multitasked with a mobile device while watching TV.
  • Viewers watching TV while using Twitter had higher ad recall: In a December 2013 study by Millward Brown Digital, those watching without a second-screen device had average ad recall of 40%, while those using Twitter had average recall of 53%.

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Instagram Usage in the US Surges 35% in 2013, Rivals Twitter for Smartphone Audience

3/31/2014

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User counts among millennials and Gen Xers are nearly equal on both sites Just how many people in the US use Instagram, the photo- and video-sharing service Facebook acquired in 2012? According to new figures from eMarketer, Instagram usage in the US has ramped up rapidly and is already maturing, reaching regular usage levels nearly matching Twitter’s, particularly on smartphones and among millennials and Gen Xers.

Nearly 35 million people in the US accessed Instagram at least once per month in 2013, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast—representing double-digit but not spectacular growth over 2012. By the end of this year, almost 25% of US smartphone users will snap a photo, slap on a filter and share their creations with friends on Instagram on a monthly basis (or, at least, sign in and check out what their friends are posting).

User counts for Instagram and Twitter are strikingly similar. eMarketer estimates that 43.2 million US consumers used Twitter monthly last year—or 17.6% of the total internet user population. Meanwhile, Instagram users represented 16.1% internet users. Limiting that figure to smartphone Twitter users, Twitter hit just 30.8 million in 2013; this will increase to 37.3 million in 2014, or 22.7% of US smartphone users. Both figures fall slightly below those for total Instagram users, and while Instagram activity all but exclusively takes place on smartphones (meaning Instagram’s smartphone user base could be higher than Twitter’s), it is possible for Instagram users to have an account online without accessing the service through a smartphone. As a point of reference, eMarketer pegs US smartphone Facebook users at 123.7 million this year.

Twitter’s US user base shows signs of maturing in its demographic composition, spreading the user population more evenly across age groups, while Instagram is still largely limited to a pool of millennial and Gen X users. Last year, 69.0% of Instagram’s users were ages 18 to 44. This year, that figure will drop, but only to 67.5%, and over time, Instagram’s user base in these age groups will approach, but not surpass, Twitter’s. eMarketer does not expect significant shifts in usage by age for either site within our forecast period, and Instagram’s user count among 18- to 44-year-olds will remain about 1 million fewer than Twitter’s in each year throughout our forecast.

One demographic shift well under way for Instagram, however, is an evening out in terms of gender. In 2012, about two-thirds of Instagram users were female. While women still make up the majority of users, by 2016 the ratio is expected to reach 55% female vs. 45% male.

eMarketer bases all of our forecasts on a multipronged approach that focuses on both worldwide and local trends in the economy, technology and population, along with company-, product-, country- and demographic-specific trends, and trends in specific consumer behaviors. We analyze quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of research firms, government agencies, media outlets and company reports, weighting each piece of information based on methodology and soundness.

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Twitter Adds Targeting By Email Address, User IDs

1/17/2014

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by Mark Walsh, Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Twitter on Tuesday announced the ability for marketers to target ads more precisely on the site using customer email addresses or users’ Twitter ID information.

The new targeting options mark an expansion of the tailored audiences program the company introduced last month for retargeting users, based on expressed interests in particular brands or categories by bringing their own or third-party data.

One of the additional ways to create audiences rolled out today allows marketers to use their own lists of customer email addresses to retarget them on Twitter or use CRM database records previously stored with an ad partner. Similar to how Custom Audiences work on Facebook, email addresses would be sent to Twitter as hashes -- unreadable alphanumeric strings -- for matching against its database to find the appropriate users.

In a blog post today, Kelton Lynn, product manager, revenue at Twitter, gave the example of a fashion retailer that wants to advertise a spring clearance sale on the site, but is opting to show the ad only to current loyalty cardholders.

The other new approach for audience targeting is to use lists of Twitter IDs -- either user names or the unique number that identifies a Twitter account -- to reach new prospects. The same fashion retailer could leverage public data on Twitter including a user’s bio, follower count, verified status or past tweets to glean specific accounts that are best suited to receive a particular ad or offer.

“The retailer would then use this list of Twitter ID’s to create a tailored audience through an ads partner, show those fashion influencers a Promoted Account and engage them as followers,” stated the post. Twitter is also allowing marketers to exclude certain CRM and user ID audiences from the set of users it wants to reach through existing targeting options tied to interests, keywords and TV.

If the retailer is running a new customer acquisition campaign aimed at Twitter users who are interested in fashion and style, it can use the loyalty cardholder audience to remove anyone who fits that interest category but is already a loyalty member.

Advertisers will continue to receive the same reports showing the number of users who viewed, clicked on or converted from an ad, without identifying individual users.

For the CRM-based ads, Twitter said it’s working with several third-party data providers -- some of whom also work with Facebook -- including Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon, Liveramp, Mailchimp, Merkle and Salesforce ExactTarget. The company will also allow marketers to use its Ads API to create both CRM- and Twitter ID-based audiences.

What about privacy concerns raised by the more direct targeting methods? Lynn explained in the blog post that Twitter users can uncheck the box in their privacy setting next to “Tailor ads based on information shared by ads partners,” and Twitter won’t match their accounts to information from its ads partners for tailored audiences.

Twitter also sets a minimum audience size for all tailored advertising to avoid overly specific targeting. 

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TV Viewers Use Twitter During Ads

9/20/2013

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Wayne Friedman, Thursday, September 19, 2013 

Good news for TV programmers: TV viewers use Twitter during their TV programming -- showing lots of engagement, according to analysts. The bad news? Many are also tweeting during commercials.

In analyzing some 59 episodes, a new Nielsen SocialGuide study shows that 30% of all those who tweeted did so during a program’s commercial time; with 70% of that tweet activity coming during program content.

The study also says “the more commercial time in a program, the more tweets were sent in commercial time.”

Where there was a high of 43% share of commercial time in a TV show, there was a 43% share of all tweets. Looking at the other end, a low 9% share of commercial time yielded a 8% share of tweet activity.

The study said there is little difference between the type of shows when this activity occurs. Where there was 35% share of commercial time in total airtime when it comes to comedy TV shows, there was 35% of all tweet activity happening in that commercial time. 

Share of tweeting was about the same in reality TV shows as well -- a 28% share of commercial time in an entire program drew a 29% share of overall tweets. Drama TV offered a 29% share of commercial time and 28% share of tweets; and sports was at 24% for commercial time, with a 25% share of tweets.


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