We all love talking about TV. Always have, always will. It is a great social pastime. And when consumers like something enough to talk about it, you can bet that marketers won’t be far away, dreaming up ads and trying to figure out how to interrupt your thoughts just long enough to get you to talk about their products too.
That is why Twitter’s goal is to be the first choice for your second-screen.
A recent study by Social TV Lab suggests that combining Twitter and TV results in strong gains in brand awareness. According to the study, TV and Twitter increases viewer retention, drives greater viewer engagement and results in improved ad recall. Here are some of the main findings of the Social TV Lab survey:
- Twitter + TV = Increased Brand Awareness vs. TV Alone. For brands that used Twitter alongside their TV advertising, the study found on average a 6.9% increase in awareness for exposed audiences and significant increases for exposed and engaged audiences across awareness, intent and favourability measures.
- Twitter Amplification = Sales Lift. For the brands that measured sales impact, sales increased 4% on average in households exposed to ads on Twitter and TV vs. just TV ads alone.
- The Twitter / TV Multitasker is Here – and TV Ad Recall is High for them. Only one quarter of tweeting occurs during the ad break, and it was highest during reality shows (27%). This supports existing Twitter research that found viewers who are actively engaging in social media while viewing TV are genuinely paying attention to both screens as TV show tune away is less and ad recall was higher for TV Twitter multitasks. Social TV Labs results found that television ad recall was also 13% higher among Twitter users versus non-multitaskers.
- Real-Time TV Content Engagement is on Twitter. Tweeting about events/shows is higher (20%) than “general browsing” about a specific event/show (15%.) In addition, most tweeting happens when something in show/game/ad is worthy of a tweet (70%).
According to Katie Lampe of Twitter, Social TV is here and it’s here to stay – and the winners will be those who figure out how to leverage and capitalize on the opportunities.
How broadcasters and content owners set themselves up to respond effectively to current events and make the most of marketing in the moment will separate the winners from the losers and the only way to be on the winning side is engaging with Twitter. The statistics speak for themselves…