Nielsen having a new metric for measuring Twitter engagement with TV shows is nice, but it's just the first piece of the puzzle.
On Monday Nielsen announced that, for the first time in Australia, TV Twitter ratings would be available to help measure the social conversation around TV shows.
Speaking to AdNews yesterday, Nielsen's Australian head of Twitter TV ratings, Scott Gillham, said the launch was “just the start of the conversation”.
“For the first time we can really start to get into that conversation and put some substance on it,” he said. “Before, it was talked about, but not really from a truly informed viewpoint. Now the real conversation happens.”
IPG Mediabrands chief investment officer Victor Corones backed up the sentiment, saying that clients had not been screaming out for clearer data on social TV engagement, but rather clearer social engagement strategies from networks.
“Networks are still grappling with the concept of social marketing and are yet to understand the true commercial opportunity,” Corones said.
“We see this only improving over time as networks focus greater energy into their own social strategies and for their programs.
“It’s these strategies that will ultimately be the lifeblood of a show’s future success.”
While Network Ten had helped Nielsen and Twitter get the platform get off the ground, Nielsen said it was currently in talks with other networks about signing onto the ratings system.
They'll be available in two main formats.
The first is a daily ratings list, a la OzTAM ratings, sent out at 9am each morning.
The second is a platform where anybody can view the conversation around a TV show in real-time. Well, for a price, anyhow.
“That ratings piece is interesting, but we think there's some really interesting stuff networks and buyers will be able to glean from watching it unfold in real time,” Gillham said.
But these two pieces could end up playing second fiddle to a product being developed for a Q1 launch next year.
“Where it gets really interesting,” Gillham said “is when we start to match up what TV shows people are tweeting about with what brands they are tweeting about.
“So, for advertisers and TV networks, that becomes incredibly powerful in being able to identify particular audiences, and what they tweet about in terms of a brand or brand category.”
Having a list of what shows people are tweeting about is one thing, but being able to profile users by what they're watching and what brands they're engaging with becomes a powerful targeting tool.
Gillham said Nielsen would be able to build a profile of twitter users and cross-reference which TV shows they were tweeting about with what brands they were engaged with.
Meanwhile Gillham said fears that encouraging second screen engagement would take eyeballs away from spot advertising were overblown, with research from its US program pointing the other way.
“We found in the US that 70% of related tweets were made while the show was being watched during air time. If something happens and you're watching Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad or whatever it may be, you want to tell someone about it immediately,” Gillham said.
“You don't want to wait until an ad break to engage in that conversation.”
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