In today’s connected world, consumers can use social media to share their experiences and opinions with friends and followers, in an instant. And when it comes to television, they’re sharing and commenting through social media not just about storylines and stars, but also about the surrounding ads, brand integrations and sponsorships. This behavior has introduced a new key objective for some advertisers: turning paid media into earned media.
For Microsoft, this meant optimizing its TV advertising to drive social activity around its brand. To help the company understand its audiences’ reactions, Nielsen Social analyzed Microsoft-related Twitter activity around a recent U.S. ad campaign. The study found that exposure to the Microsoft TV campaign drove a dramatic lift in Twitter buzz. Microsoft also learned that ad placements in more social shows drove more Twitter chatter. This underscored for the company the importance of factoring Twitter TV activity into TV planning in order to select shows with high social engagement and thus a greater likelihood to drive earned media.
Ultimately, the study gave Microsoft the information it needed to optimize and improve future TV media schedules and campaign creative decisions to maximize earned media.
