Launch of official Twitter TV metric: Industry reaction from Channel 5, Enders, MEC, Vizeum
After a year-long partnership, Kantar Media and Twitter this week revealed the UK's first official Twitter TV metric an at industry event in London. For the first time, the tool will enable broadcasters, agencies and marketers to measure the full reach of tweets.
The Drum caught up with some industry experts from Channel 5, Enders analysis, MEC and Vizeum to find out their views on the tool and the need for social TV measurement systems.
Nick Bampton, Channel 5 commercial sales director
TV has always been a medium to stir the passions, hence why it builds brands like no other, helping to shape consumer opinion and behaviour.
Twitter is already recognised within our business as a very useful feedback mechanism, so I welcome this initiative as it will no doubt help us to organise our thoughts in regard to the feedback we receive about our content.
It's important though to put this into context. According to SecondSync the number of daily TV-related tweets ranges from around 100,000 to 700,000. It’s highly likely that the number of unique tweeters is just half this, basically we're talking about the noisy minority.
But who's listening to the silent majority? These are the 44 million people who watch TV every day. How are we using new technologies to capture their views? Now that's something I'd really like to know more about...
Toby Syfret, TV and broadcast analyst, Enders Analysis
It’s a welcome development because we know that social media can make a big contribution to some programmes, so to be able to set up these metrics against the audiences and the programmes is a positive addition.
On its own it isn’t revolutionary but it’s a welcome addition. In a more complex world we’re going to need more metrics and more things we can refer to in what’s becoming a much more complicated communications environment.
It’s extending the possibilities and it will have value for some advertisers. It won’t be relevant to all but there will be some that will find it very useful and they may want to get in on the act.
Justin Taylor, digital MD, MEC
Naturally we welcome the development of any additional data tools that help us to quantify and understand the second screen space. The ability to include robust data from each facet of an integrated plan is important to MEC and its clients. So the demonstration of direct correlations, in greater detail, between social interactions and TV viewing allows us to have greater insight and certainty in the development of multi-channel advertising and content campaigns.
The differentiation between pure reach and actual engagement is important when considering value in any campaign so the addition of effective readership measures provides a new level of definition for evaluation of the kind of second screen campaigns we would like to recommend to our clients. Understanding the dynamic between the volume of authors initiating conversations and the number of people viewing those tweets is useful in helping us project campaign effectiveness and thus KPI setting at the outside and helps us learn more from the activity to deploy in the future.
Ideally we’d be able to understand individual authors and identify key influencers against programme type and indeed individual programming so that our campaign development could be even more rounded.
Of course the proof is in the pudding and we’ll need to see the tool in action to fully evaluate its accuracy and value.
Jonathan Palmer, head of social, Vizeum
The use of social data to get a better perspective of what programs and channels are creating the most social interest is nothing new. Before Kantar, there was the SecondSync, which includes an almost identical dashboard with the same amount of information on social activity around TV programing.
What’s more, agencies have been helping clients join social conversations in real-time for years. Some of our most notable work has involved bringing TV and second screen collaboration with clients, creating work such as the interactive Prometheus and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailers.
However, this new measurement gives us the opportunity to show the total amount of impressions generated via the Twitter platform.
This provides us with a view of the sheer size and reach of this area so agencies can consider this when planning TV spots and as such align brands with highly performing social programming.
Will the Twitter rating change the face of the media industry? Not yet – but it does open up a lot of other conversations that could well do just that in the future.
