Twitter continues TV engagement with Trendrr purchase

Trendrr is a tool to track social engagement with television in real-time

Twitter clearly wants to be in the television advertising business. The company has gone out of its way to prove that tweets can actually lead to higher television ratings, and it has also created tv ad targeting software, in order to help advertisers capitalize on that increased engagement.

What it all comes down to is being able to deliver ads, in real-time, as users are watching their televisions. Twitter has now taken a big step in that direction by purchasing real-time TV data company Trendrr, it was announced via, what else, a Tweet on Wednesday.

Excited to welcome @Trendrr to the Flock! Will help us to build great tools for the rest of the TV ecosystem. https://t.co/5PSbbIA2N6

— Twitter Media (@twittermedia) August 28, 2013

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim explained even further why the two companies are a good match in a post on Trenddr's blog.

"Over the last five years we have led the way in working with real-time data and television, unlocking the power and value of engagement around TV and creating compelling media experiences around content," he wrote.

"Having sat at this intersection of TV and social media for years, we’ve analyzed data from lots of platforms. What makes Twitter uniquely compelling among these platforms is its connection to the live moment — people sharing what’s happening, when it’s happening, to the world. We think we can help amplify even stronger the power of that connection to the moment inside of Twitter."

Curatorr, Trendrr's Twitter certified product, will work with media companies, marketers, and display ecosystem partners to create user experiences, he explained, and the company will continue "to pursue our initial charter of focusing on the real-time aspects of TV and media."

Trendrr's technology would seem to go hand in hand with Twitter's tv ad targeting software, which it premiered in beta mode in May, and then expanded to to all U.S. advertisers that run national television spots in July.

The technology allows advertisers to engage directly with people on Twitter who have been exposed to their ads on live television. 

It works by identifying Tweets that correspond with that television show. Because the person was engaged enough to tweet about it, the company figures that they watched the ads as well (which, in all honesty, is a bit of a leap. It is more likely they were sending the tweets in question while the ads were playing). Twitter will then push out promoted tweets that extend those advertisements.

Say, for example, someone is watching the newest episode of the Big Bang Theory. If they send out a tweet about what happened in that show, and then a commercial comes on for Holiday Inn, that company can then send them a promoted message.

During the beta period, Twitter said  that users that Twitter identified as being exposed on TV, and who then engaged with a Promoted Tweet, demonstrated a 95% stronger message association and 58% higher purchase intent compared to users identified as being exposed on TV alone. 

Advertisers using TV ad targeting also reported engagement rates that were 27% higher than their historical averages.

Twitter has made ts relationship with television an integral part of its monetization and advertising strategy.

It was reported back in April that Twitter was in talks with both Viacom and Comcast's NBCUniversal to host television clips on the site, allowing it to stream videos on its site and then split the resulting ad revenue with the networks.

Twitter already has deals with ESPN, the Weather Channel and Turner Broadcasting, and these new partnerships would bring clips from other big channels, with popular content, including USA, MTV, Comedy Central, Spike and Nickelodeon. 

Twitter and Trendrr were not available for additional comment.

(Image source: https://www.techradar.com)