Twitter's been busy positioning itself as the standard channel for the second-screen experience when it comes to television viewers—most recently striking a deal with Viacom to run MTV Music Awards highlights on the social platform. Out of all the iterations, though, Twitter's Amplify TV program, announced last month, seems to have caught brands' attention the most.
Via a data dashboard, digital marketers can see in real time when their television commercials air and what resulting tweet activity occurs about either the brand or TV show. Then, at least in theory, they can more intelligently target Twitter users with Promoted Tweets based on who tweeted about the commercial or show. Per the San Francisco-based tech giant, marketers can use the data to inform not only the timeliness of their Promoted Tweets but also the creative (e.g., copy, GIFs, Vine, etc.).
With the help of digital shop iCrossing, Beam Inc. this week started employing Amplify TV to push its Jim Beam Red Stag bourbon brand, as one of the program's select beta advertisers. Adweek spoke with Andrea Javor, the liquor giant's global director of digital and media strategy, about what she expects from the program. Below are excerpts from the conversation.
What kind of metrics will you be looking at via Amplify TV?
Overall, the purpose of the test is to see if we have a better branded recall, purchase intent and retention-advocacy rate for people who have seen our television spots and tweeted about the brand vs. those who have [tweeted but not seen the commercial]. Because there's a control group, we can really measure the effectiveness.
How could the program affect your Twitter creative?
What's great about this is we are testing a couple dozen sets of copy. So if it's a female-focused show that someone is tweeting about, we'll know that we can serve up [a Promoted Tweet] that's more creatively appealing for a woman. It can be a recipe or something like that. If someone is tweeting about sports, we can serve up a sports-related message. We think a contextual creative message will help the brand resonate even more.
Does Twitter have a leg up on Facebook in terms of consumers interacting with social and TV?
It's not really a leg up because they are different. We are using these social platforms—even channels that don't have a paid model like Pinterest and Instagram—to serve different purposes. With Twitter, it's all about real-time, self-expression and content-based conversation. To take advantage of the TV data, what I think Twitter is doing really well, is enhancing consumer behavior. Even though there is time-shifting happening in TV viewing, for the most part, you know tweets about shows are live. Facebook has an entirely different angle because the reasons people go to the platform are different than why they use Twitter. Different advertising goals might point to Facebook, while others call for Twitter. Facebook is probably the best way to get targeted mass reach, while Twitter is the best way to be a part of real-time conversation.
Does Beam use Twitter to brand in the classic sense or are there other marketing goals?
Our approach is that we want to engage, listen and respond. For all social channels, we want to keep the conversation going and find consumer advocates. If we can use different platforms to [leverage] those advocates, I think we are winning because they are actually speaking on behalf of our brand. And that is truly the power of social media.
