Twitter's plan to make money from Vine and Periscope looks a lot different from the
strategy it's pursuing with its core product.
Neither video platform will feature traditional, force-fed
advertising, at least in the near term, according to Joel
Lunenfeld, Twitter's VP-global brand strategy. Instead, Twitter is
working with brands to promote content from these platforms within
its core product, and serving as a middleman between brands and
stars with major social followings.
Twitter's Joel Lunenfeld on stage at Collision this week
"As of right now we don't have plans for promoted Vines or
promoted Periscopes," Mr. Lunenfeld said at the Collision tech
conference in Las Vegas this week.
For now, that means Twitter will likely lean heavily on Niche, a
company that connects brands with social media all-stars. Twitter
acquired Niche in February for a
reported $30 million. Niche, Mr. Lunenfeld said, has
relationships with 10,000 social media "creators" and is especially
well connected on Vine.
Twitter makes money from Vine, a personality-driven platform, by
connecting brands with talent. Those stars, who command massive
followings, then create branded content on the platform. Brittany
Furlan, one such star, is followed by 9.1 million people, for
instance. Nash Grier, another star, is followed by 11.6 million
people.
"A brand or an ad agency comes to us and says, 'I'm launching a
new product; it's targeted to this audience,'" Mr. Lunenfeld said.
"We'll say, 'Okay, here's 15 people [and] five of them, alone, have
a combined audience bigger than BuzzFeed.'"
HP, in one case, used Niche to find talent to create ten Vines
promoting the launch of a convertible laptop. The Vines were so
engaging, Mr. Lunenfeld said, that the company turned them into a
30-second TV ad. "We knew there was something special there, and
the backend metrics showed that purchase intent, brand awareness,
all those things went up," he said.
Twitter must be careful with its approach to advertising on
Vine. The community on the platform is tight-knit and not likely to
respond positively to ads forced into their streams. Instagram,
another visual platform, faced a
backlash when it introduced ads.
"We're really focusing on building the product, the experience
and the community first," Mr. Lunenfeld said. "Then we've got
strong relationships with every advertiser to learn how to promote
that through Twitter proper."