“We launched event targeting to provide a fast and easy way to reach a target audience on Twitter that’s actively interested in an event,” says Jay Bavishi, the Marketing Manager at Twitter. “Event targeting gives you the ability to target the Olympics as an entire event or an individual sport throughout the entire Olympic Games.”
Twitter has previously posted a best practices guide to event targeting on Twitter. “For brands who want to engage with this live audience, Twitter created event targeting,” stated Eric Farkas who is Twitter’s Product Marketing Manager. “It gives advertisers a fast and easy way to reach a target demographic that’s actively interested in an event.”
Twitter’s event targeting makes it easy to connect your brand to a live audience during major events.https://t.co/C5D2dDlBUu
— Twitter Advertising (@TwitterAds) February 4, 2016
“Unlike the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals which happen over a day or the course of a week, the Olympics are an “always on” sporting event that runs from August 5-21,” Bavishi said. “Not only are competitions occurring throughout the day, but athletes, fans, and broadcasters are poised to make news away from the field of play at any point. Given this, it would be impossible for a brand or agency to stay attuned to everything that is happening on and off the field in Rio at all times. We’ve got you covered: event targeting gives you the ability to target the Olympics as an entire event or an individual sport throughout the entire Olympic Games.”
Bavishi recommends that marketers “leave the targeting to Twitter” stating “by relying on keywords and other contextual cues, we’re able to help you zero in on only the conversations that are related to the event you want to target.” Bavishi added, “Layer on demographic and geographic targeting to refine your audience. Don’t use tailored audiences or additional targeting as it may limit your campaign’s reach. If you are planning to use follower targeting based on an athlete or another Olympic-related account, we recommend setting up a separate campaign.”
He also says that advertisers should “start engaging before the event” noting that “typically we start tracking an event audience 30 days before an event begins, giving you plenty of time to plan your campaign.”
“To seed interest,” Bavishi says, “Send Tweets early. Doing this will increase the list of people engaging with the event (and your campaign). As activity levels rise, your connections multiply and you’ll find yourself at the heart of a growing crowd.”
Lastly Bavishi suggests that marketers “build 360-degree engagement by aligning multiple channels.” He wants you to tie your TV, print and other internet marketing to your Twitter event marketing strategy in order to maximize impact noting, “This will help drive home your message to Olympic fans.”