Twitter's 24-hour Promoted Trend ad buy has sold for $120,000 per day during the last couple of years, allowing brands to occupy a prime slot on a popular site that sometimes resembles a digital campfire for banter about incoming news and what's on TV. But don't think the tech firm hasn't recognized the likely heightened value of the Promoted Trend on days like the upcoming Super Bowl.
A source close to the situation told Adweek the Promoted Trend for Super Bowl XLVII cost considerably more when compared to the regular rate. The source neither gave a dollar figure nor the brand that bought the slot, but suggested that there were plenty of interested buyers.
The idea of "premium days" appears to be an emerging strategy for Twitter to improve revenues. For instance, during the Nov. 6, 2012 Election Day, the source said President Barack Obama's marketing team purchased the Promoted Trend for more than the normal $120,000.
And the source said Twitter doesn't have plans to day-part Promoted Trend ad buys for huge TV days like Election Tuesday, Super Bowl Sunday or Oscars night. But it's at least interesting to wonder what marketers would pay for simply the first hour of such highly-rated broadcast events—with millions of television viewers simultaneously tapping away on laptops, tablets and smart phones.
Meanwhile, if the current marketing era is being defined by second-screen media consumption, as many pundits and players contend, then maybe Twitter—with its 500 million-plus users and some 15,000 tweets every second—is becoming more than just a toy of the times. Perhaps it could help brands better understand how the chasm between TV and digital might be bridged.
Twitter can only hope.