Twitter is giving shareholders an early look at how it plans to boost monetization by launching an ad offering called First View one day ahead of its Q4 and full-year earnings.
Based on internet rumours associated with the #RIPTwitter hashtag, this was supposed to be the week Twitter introduced a Facebook-like algorithm to manage what gets seen in users’ timelines. Instead, the company said First View will occupy the top spot in its ad network and will dominate the position for a full day.
First View ads will be video-only at launch. The company has not yet indicated when First View ads will be available to Canadian marketers, or the pricing for the ad units.
“Marketers come to Twitter to reach this live, premium audience through Promoted Trends and Promoted Moments, creating significant brand moments for their product launches, event sponsorships, and film premieres,” Deepak Rao, Twitter product revenue manager, said in a blog post. “Now, with First View, marketers can scale their efforts even further.”
The blog post also quoted Marc Weinstock, president of domestic theatrical marketing at 20th Century Fox, which has signed on to use First View to promote the upcoming film Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.
Even as tech industry spectators have wondered about Twitter’s future growth potential, the company has been continuing to evolve its advertising products. This includes “conversational ads,” which encourage users to pre-populate a tweet based on a prompt from a brand in their timeline. Samsung Canada has been among the first to pilot conversational ads so far.
Twitter has also been grappling with a slew of executive departures and reshaping its management team. Most significantly, the company announced the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, former Amex executive Leslie Berland, late last month.
