DrumTV: Twitter's Fred Graver on increasing role of TV in the social network and wider opportunities
The growing relationship between social media and TV consumption has brought a wealth of opportunities to Twitter, according to head of TV creative Fred Graver.
Speaking to The Drum at the recent Mipcom event in Cannes, Graver said that the doors opened by involved TV conversation in the Twitter experience had come as a surprise to the business.
“The interesting thing is we began as kind of an experiment three or four years ago, like ‘oh we’ll throw a hashtag up there, we’ll say follow us on Twitter and see what happens’. Well, a lot happened.
“Although Twitter wasn’t designed as a second screen app for TV, every night tens of millions of people are using it for just that. So what we’ve now seen is that broadcasters are going, 'wait a minute, this is part of our business, this is part of the way that we can build loyalty, build engagement and help tell our stories better'.
“And so the surprising part is that we become part of their business, and they work with us now to figure out how their shows can be more successful in more than just a marketing function; we’re actually part of the storytelling. And the really interesting thing that’s happening this time around at Mipcom is that we’re meeting with producers who are saying, 'here’s a show we are thinking about developing, here’s a show we’re going to bring to market, can we build Twitter into it right now?'”
Twitter in the UK recently launched the country’s first official Twitter TV metric in partnership with Kantar Media, a move broadly welcomed by the industry.