While I was out on vacation last week, Twitter unveiled its new TV ad targeting product Amplify, introduced in a blog post by Bluefin Labs founder Michael Fleischman. It’s the first big rollout since Twitter acquired Bluefin in February and it reiterates what I’ve already said: this was a smart buy for Twitter.
The idea behind Amplify is to target sponsored tweets to users who just saw the buyer’s TV commercials. That’s great, but more significant is Twitter offering advertisers the analytics that have long been Bluefin’s core competency as part of a new dashboard (seen above):
Whenever a commercial airs during a TV show, Twitter not only determines where and when it ran, but can identify users on Twitter who tweeted about the program where the ad aired during that program. We believe a user engaged enough with a TV show to tweet about it very likely saw the commercials as well.
It’s easy to see why a company would find value in hitting someone who just tweeted about their ad with a follow-up. But just as powerful is the data on which commercials see how much engagement when.
Consider the old advertising adage: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Online, advertisers are quickly learning what works and what doesn’t. What Twitter can now offer, through Bluefin’s technology, is the opportunity to do the same with the much larger TV ad budget. Consider:
For all the changes to advertising in the last decade, TV ad spending is both sizeable and holding steady. With Amplify, Twitter can start siphoning some of that spending into digital, offering buyers both a relatively cheap way to get more bang for their buck on existing campaigns and the data to determine which campaigns foster engagement and which flop.
No doubt this is just the start of what Bluefin will bring to the table. TV is going to be a big business for Twitter, and it’s being built in Boston.
Check out the video explaining Amplify below:
Images via Twitter, Business Insider
