Twitter's Super Bowl Goal: More Ad Credibility

Super Bowl sponsor PepsiCo said Twitter employees helped with a hashtag strategy around #halftime. Parker Eshelman/The Wall Street Journal

On Super Bowl Sunday, TwitterTWTR +1.62%will again serve as a grand stage for advertisers to promote brands to millions of people captivated by gameplay, half-time shows and slick commercials.

Super Bowl Sunday will be a litmus test for Twitter as to whether it can convince marketers to hand over more of their ad budgets instead of simply sending viral tweets stamped with hashtags. YoreeKoh reports on digits.

But Sunday's game also will be a litmus test for whether Twitter Inc. can persuade marketers to spend more money to have a presence on the service instead of simply sending out free tweets, hoping their hashtag-stamped witticisms go viral.
In preparation, Twitter has been offering consulting services, grounded in analytics, which it says can lead to smarter tweeting.
On game day, Twitter will feed data to brands like UnileverULVR.LN -0.81%PLC's Axe deodorant to gauge reaction to ads and to predict the next Internet meme before it happens. It will also suggest targeted keywords for ads based on conversation topics, such as blasting tweets to Bruno Mars's fans when he sings at halftime.

Super Bowl Spending Driven by Automotive Ads

A history of advertising spending by company, provided by Kantar Media, shows some trends.

For the past few months, Twitter's staffers have huddled with Unilever and other large advertisers including PepsiCo Inc. PEP -0.89%and Bank of America Corp. BAC -1.06%to share more detailed analysis of user data, and to help with Super Bowl ad campaigns earlier than in previous years.
Twitter isn't charging the marketers for its consulting. The hope is that these advertisers will feel more comfortable with Twitter as a bona fide ad platform and eventually steer more of their marketing budgets that way.

A new study by marketing research firm Communicus finds that 80% of Super Bowl adds fail to lead to actual purchases, or build brand awareness. The firm's president Jeri Smith joins the News Hub to discuss why the study says these ads fails to register with viewers.

Many advertisers still view social media, particularly Twitter, as largely a free vehicle to promote their brands. Marketers have seized on the hyperactive, conversational nature of the 140-character public messaging service as a means to talk directly to consumers.
Twitter, which touts itself as the world's "town square," faces pressure from investors to show it can sell more ads and do it for the long haul. Twitter issues its first quarterly report as a public company next Wednesday. In the three month period through September, its ad revenue doubled to $153.4 million. (By comparison, Facebook Inc. FB +2.44%on Wednesday said its quarterly ad revenue totaled $2.34 billion.)
When the Superdome in New Orleans went dark during last year's Super Bowl, the Oreo cookie brand posted a tweet that said: "Power Out? No Problem." The tweet included a picture of a cookie with the line, "You can still dunk in the dark." The tweet—shared on Twitter and Facebook more than 20,000 times—became a marketing sensation and the standard-bearer of what advertisers could do on Twitter. But it didn't translate into much revenue for Twitter.
In that Oreo vein, brands including Dannon and Toyota have tweeted up a storm in the lead up to the game and plan to tweet plenty more on Sunday, while putting most of their ad dollars elsewhere.
Other advertisers show more promise for Twitter.
Unilever says by working more closely with Twitter it is now more confident that Twitter ads work. The consumer product giant is spending more than $500,000 on its Twitter Super Bowl push, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Twitter's alliance with Axe includes buying a wide range of ads that the social-media company offers and represents a significant increase in how much the Axe brand spent on Twitter during last year's Super Bowl, according Gail Tifford, Unilever's senior director of media for North America. Ms. Tifford says it isn't enough to simply send out tweets organically.
"When you look at reach of organic tweets, you are not reaching the scale you need," she said.
Adam Bain, Twitter's president of revenue, said some advertisers like to experiment with different kinds of organic content, testing out different voices and messages on Twitter. Then, once "they feel confident that a piece of content is strong" they may start paying for ad products.
Josh Nafman, senior manager of digital brand engagement for PepsiCo, which is sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show, said Twitter employees provided guidance on what kind of content is more shareable on the platform, and helped come up with one hashtag: #halftime.
"I would love to say it seems like a very obvious thing but the coordination of not only hashtag strategy but also when to leverage paid media throughout that" is a difficult trick, Mr. Nafman said.
"A lot of us feel more comfortable with spending money behind" products that are "based in data and science and insights into our consumers and sports and music, said Mr. Nafman.
Twitter has developed or acquired many of its measurement and tracking tools in the past year.
"Our goal is to be as strategic as we can to the marketers and their respective agencies and that means even pre-running ad campaigns before they run ad campaigns," said Twitter's Mr. Bain. "Often times, we're now in the room when they are working on the concept for the creative that is going to run on TV or on digital."
Mr. Bain declined to disclose how much revenue Twitter earns from the Super Bowl.
Bank of America, which will run a Super Bowl commercial featuring U2 performing a new single, has increased its ad spend on Twitter in general this year and said the consulting service could compel it to spend more down the road.
Creative executives' strategist and data analysts from Facebook and Twitter have been helping Anheuser-Busch InBev, BUD -0.72%the biggest advertiser during Super Bowl Sunday, monitor what people are saying in social media for the past few weeks and then helping the respond in real time, the company said.
For example, after Peyton Manning won an NFL playoff game, he said during a press briefing that "what's weighing on my mind is how soon I can get a Bud Light in my mouth after this win."
The brewer, with the help of Twitter, responded quickly to take advantage of the buzz and paid for a tweet that included the video of Mr. Manning talking about his desire for a Bud Light that read: "Proud to be Peyton's refreshment coordinator." The tweet eventually was retweeted 6,200 times with the potential reach of 3.5 million, according to Anheuser-Busch.
Still, it's hard to beat the return on investment for something that is free, namely a regular tweet.
Toyota Motor Corp. 7203.TO -1.27%is paying for only a "handful" of promoted tweets. It will air a 60-second commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII, and use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vine videos to generate buzz. Russ Koble, Toyota's advertising director in the U.S., said he believes Toyota's ad, which features the Muppets, is creative enough that it will be able to sustain buzz in social media without having to pay much for social ads.
GroupeDanone SA BN.FR -0.87%'s Dannon, which will advertise its Oikos yogurt during the game, is spending less than $250,000 on its social-media ads for Super Bowl, including both Twitter and Facebook. Dannon says the actors in its Super Bowl commercial—those from the sitcom "Full House," including John Stamos —have lots of Twitter followers and will be active on the site.