Twitter Wants to Be Your TV

Technology

Photo illustration by 731; Photographs by Alamy

Twitter aims to take advantage of the sales strength of media companies that have more established relationships with sponsors. Its salespeople approach advertisers alongside representatives from media companies such as the NFL, the NBA, and . Together they present a unique proposition: Twitter will run video highlights from major live broadcasts, with advertisers' names and messages playing before the clip.

In September, for example, early in the second set of the US Open men's finals, Novak Djokovic outdueled Rafael Nadal in an epic 54-shot rally. Thirty minutes later, posted a 58-second video of the rally, preceded by a 5-second ad that declared, 'Heineken: Open Your World.' The video was watched, retweeted, and commented upon about 18,000 times, and the beermaker says it saw social media conversation about its brand jump 71 percent that day. 'Twitter is specifically about what is happening right now,' says Ron Amram, senior media director of Heineken USA, adding that Amplify has become Twitter's most promising ad tool. 'To allow a brand to have real-time ownership of a video that says, 'This is what you need to know right now' is pretty powerful.'

Viacom executives say they were in talks with Twitter for a year, trying to decide whether and how best to use the social network, before Twitter pitched them the Amplify program. 'What makes it work best is that it builds on our main screen,' says Jeff Lucas, the head of sales, music, and entertainment at Viacom Media Networks. 'Consumers, particularly millennials, don't want to miss out on a conversation,' he adds, citing Miley Cyrus's risqué performance at the MTV Video Music Awards last August as the kind of moment that drives Twitter users to TV.

Twitter is expanding Amplify, working on ways to improve targeting, so it can show people video they want to see. The company is considering creative ways to allow users to engage with video and share it with their friends, Bain says. 'People can't get enough video,' says Tom Bedecarre, chairman of digital advertising firm AKQA. 'But if it's not just any video, if Twitter has gone and cherry-picked all the best moments from cable networks, sports leagues, and all the top content owners, then they are going to have amazing content that people want.'