Twitter has released research showing that it can help marketers better reach viewers when they’re watching live events, particularly sports, on TV.
Data from comScore showed Twitter is the only social network that gets a lift in unique visitors when sports is on the air, Twitter said. During the 2017 Super Bowl, for example, Twitter usage was 19% higher than average while the other social platforms combined were down.
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Twitter commissioned a study from Neuro-Insight, which uses biometrics to gauge the impact the social platform has on sports fans; the company came up with three main findings.
The first is that Twitter makes live sports events more engaging and memorable. When Twitter was used as a second screen to see what others are saying in real time, engagement was up 31% and memorability was up 35% compared with engagement and memorability among fans using TV alone. When a sports event was streamed on Twitter, engagement rose 60% and memorability 59% compared with TV-only viewing.
The second is that when the sports event is more engaging, the advertising in it works harder. Engagement with Twitter ads were up 42% during games on TV, and memorability rose 52%.
Finally, TV ads were also more effective when viewers were also using Twitter during sportscasts. Engagement with TV ads was up 18% and memorability rose 13%.
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“Through our past work, we know that generally the presence of the second screen, specifically with Twitter, helps TV, and we saw a similar effect for live events in this study,” said Pranav Yadav, CEO of Neuro-Insight US. “This means that by having Twitter as a part of the marketing mix, brands can not only reach a bigger audience, they’re actually giving a boost to their original investment in TV. It’s a win-win.”
