TV x Twitter driving the evolution of live storytelling

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend time with Australian agencies and brands and speak about the value of TV x Twitter at the #livestudio events in Sydney and Melbourne.

As part of this, I talked about how the combination of TV and Twitter has seen a return to live storytelling, creating a social soundtrack in which everyone — Twitter users and brands — can take part in the conversation around a TV show.

What we have seen is that Twitter has become the live second screen, with 70% of Tweets being viewed while the show is being broadcast. In effect, this makes Twitter the digital campfire around which we gather to discuss the TV shows and moments that matter to us.

This means that brands can use the power of TV to tell live stories and target the TV conversations that matter to them. The sheer size of some of these conversations means that brands can reach viewers by scale just by joining the conversation. For example, there have already been more Tweets about the 2014 World Cup in the last 30 days than there were on the entire 2010 tournament.

Many brands are also optimising their existing TV campaigns using hashtags, generating a 42% lift in response. They are also taking advantage of TV moments by maximising the value of their sponsorships for a 22% increase in message association.

I had a lot of insightful conversations with people at the #livestudio about how they are looking to combine TV and Twitter to improve their results and campaign effectiveness, with three key outtakes:

1. There’s a real desire to start using hashtags and two-way storytelling among the Australian media community. You guys have a really active social and TV community, so advertisers are watching closely to see how major international shows are using hashtags and wanting to get involved.
2. People were keen to talk about mobile, and how to accelerate the benefits of this from the agency and brand side. Twitter has the potential to reach more than 1 billion iOS and Android users monthly via our MoPub mobile advertising exchange, so many advertisers are keen to work with Twitter to better understand how to capitalise on consumer behaviour.
3. There was also a lot of talk around how brands and agencies can set themselves up to be able to respond with tailored audience interactions. The great thing is that advertisers are looking at the full scope of these conversations, from the everyday ‘surprise and delight’ interactions to how to manage major events like the State of Origin.

Ultimately, at the heart of all this is live storytelling. People want to be part of the story and part of the social conversation while they are watching TV. The opportunity for Australian brands is to tell deeper, dynamic stories within these conversations to interact with consumers across multiple platforms at the same time, and it was great to learn more about how some of partners here like @Optus and @LOrealParisAu are already doing this.

To see all the highlights of the TV x Twitter event, check out the #livestudio stream.