Twitter ramps ad-tech solutions; looks to drive RoI for advertisers through Next

Twitter Next claims to have partnered with large advertisers across categories

From just being a social media platform to initiate discussions sometimes local and largely global; Twitter India seems to have come a long way. Two years ago, the platform rebranded its in-house brand strategy team as Twitter Next. The aim behind the move was simple, to allow brands to maximise return-on-investments (RoI) on Twitter. “Twitter Next is a team of strategists, technologists and designers and these people have been former marketers, agency professionals. Our job is to help brands to get the most out of Twitter and we do that by focusing on data-driven concepts, innovation, technology that enable us to create ideas worth talking about,” Rishabh Sharma, head, Twitter Next, India, said. The division has expanded its services beyond consultation and now claims to provide solutions which are over and above usual advertising products and services.

Twitter Next claims to have partnered with large advertisers across categories such as technology, E-commerce, Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), media and entertainment (M&E). For instance, the team worked with Netflix India where it has created a solution for easy content discovery. “Analysing the data on what fans were discussing on Twitter, it was found that decision fatigue has seeped in during the weekends in regards to what to watch. Hence, ‘Netflix Matchamker’ was created, which was visible over a promoted tweet,” Sharma explained. As part of the campaign, followers had to reply to Netflix with some of the emojis they loved. Netflix suggested some of the trending shows guessing the followers’ mood based on the emojis shared by them.

Other brands such as OnePlus have created several campaigns in partnership with the platform. In fact, before the pandemic, the brand along with the social media platform rolled out several on-ground initiatives. As per Sharma, during One Plus’ retail store launch in Hyderabad, Twitter utilised its Live feature to connect the online world with the offline. “We invited fans at a given date to watch the unveiling of the store on Twitter but the physical set up of the store actually had a curtain and it was motorised. The motorised curtain was connected to the Twitter AVI. So, if someone was pressing hearts while watching the Twitter live, the more hearts the users pressed, the quicker the curtain moved,” Sharma stated.

As per Sharma, 91% of users on Twitter want to see new launches. If a brand launches something on Twitter, chances are two times more people will talk about it, he claimed. “There are two things that Twitter can do for customers. One when they are looking to launch something new, second when they are looking to connect with the events happening in and around us,” Sharma said.

With evolving needs of the marketers, the Next team claims to be creating new solutions such as gamification. With gamification, Twitter focuses on how it makes fans a part of the campaign. For instance, Amazon Prime Video partnered with Twitter during the release of Shakuntala Devi to gamify the experience for fans, Sharma. As the movie revolved around the life of renowned mathematician Shakuntala Devi, Twitter set up a test of mathematics for fans and they participated to see if they could beat her on their own skills.

“Live video has seen the maximum growth in terms of viewing hours on Twitter and brands are noticing that. Today whenever there is a live event, whether that’s happening on ground or TV, you always speak about those on Twitter. There is a symbiotic relation between Twitter and live events, the latter being the second screen,” Sharma noted. With the pandemic restricting live events, the social media platform claims that brands have been leveraging Twitter live products to broadcast content. This further allows users to join the conversations in real-time with multiple ad products.

Moreover, as per Sharma, the platform is creating regional targeting solutions, with South India being a key market. For example, Netflix has launched Netflix India South for better engagement with that community. “Another factor that is important today for marketers is ‘moment marketing’ trend as cultural relevance has become a key purchase influence decision and spending on Twitter ads makes it 88% more likely for a brand to persuade cultural relevance if they are able to plan or connect their calendar,” Sharma said.

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