Twitter Increases Efforts To Integrate With TV Programs

Sure, he’s biased. But here’s an intriguing prospect for networks and advertisers: Twitter and Facebook could overpower the DVR. Jean-Philippe Maheu, a top Twitter executive, said Monday that he believes live-TV viewing for top shows will increase as viewers increasingly fear that social media will yield more spoilers -- although he admits the evidence is "anecdotal."

Maheu, who led Bluefin Labs before Twitter acquired it, spoke at the IAB Cross-Screen Afterfronts conference and emphasized Twitter’s efforts to integrate with TV programming, whether through hashtags in commercials, its Amplify offering or TV ad targeting.

Maheu offered statistics to amplify the convergence: 40% of people who own a smartphone or tablet are using social networks while watching TV and 95% of social-media conversation around TV takes place on Twitter.

Twitter technology allows it to build graphs useful for advertisers through its monitoring of 121 channels. It can track which shows the ads run in and then provide information on the Twitter activity around the shows -- perhaps offering some insight into engagement and influencing media strategy.

“All GRPs are not created equal,” Maheu said. (Twitter can also offer data on conversations about ads. It is tracking in real-time some 58,000 ads a day.)

In September, Nielsen will launch its Twitter TV Rating that will track Twitter conversation. Even with acquisition of social analytics company Bluefin, Twitter is looking to move out of the measurement arena, believing that more credibility will come from a third-party data provider.

Maheu was asked whether advertisers and networks might take pause in viewing Twitter activity as a signpost since tweeters may not be representative of the full TV viewing population. Maheu said Nielsen is working on building correlation models.  “We don’t believe our signal should be a substitute for something … we think it should be additive.”

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2 comments about "Twitter Increases Efforts To Integrate With TV Programs".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, June 11, 2013 at 9:46 a.m.

    So "40% of people who own a smartphone or tablet are using social networks while watching TV" eh? What was the question asked? Based on the quoted results it was probably something along the "Have you ever used a social network while watching TV?" or the marginally better "Do you use a social network while watching TV?". Of course, neither of these questions equate to the frequency or duration of TV watching and therefore are not directly comparable. A respondent would typically answer "Yes" if they tweeted or commented on FB once during a programme. A TV rating is an estimate of the 'average minute audience' of a programme. For the data to be comparable the question would have to revolve around something like "Do you use social media consistently for the duration of viewing a TV programme". In essence this data appears to be the equivalent of a reach potential rather than an average audience. Caveat emptor.

  2. Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, June 12, 2013 at 5:33 a.m.

    First the on-screen logo now a hashtag, just one more item to clog and distract from the program content...

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