• by Melynda Fuller , January 30, 2018

After Facebook’s recent announcement to devalue content from brands and publishers and promote community posts instead, outlets that have come to rely on traffic and revenue dollars from the platform were in a tailspin. However, last week, Twitter announced a new form of advertising on its platform, sponsored “Moments” that partner advertisers with appropriate publishers.

The first Moment publicly launched last week from Bloomberg’s coverage at Davos and was sponsored by Bank of America. The company is reportedly testing out features with a select few brands before opening the advertising option to other brands and publishers.

The sponsorship option opens a new avenue of social-media revenue at a time when publishers are scrambling to determine how the various platforms fit into their marketing strategy. Twitter sees the move as a way for a beneficial symbiosis to emerge from content people are already interested in consuming.

In a Moment, a publication builds a story from a series of tweets featuring photos and short videos circling back to editorial content. For example, the Bloomberg Moment features interviews with British PM Teresa May and the IMF’s Christine Lagarde alongside an image Bank of America’s Anne Finucane taking part in a roundtable discussion at Davos. The Bank of America tweet is labeled promoted, but fits in rather seamlessly with the Bloomberg-provided content.

According to TechCrunch, Twitter plans to open up the new advertising option to outlets like TV networks and digital publishers with substantial audiences. Like the already available “In-Stream Sponsorships,” the new Moment’s sponsorship allows advertisers to closely target its key audience. Twitter will help connect brands with partners that seem particularly aligned.

The cost for a sponsored Moment varies, as does the stake of shared revenue, based on “the client, event, industry or audience." 

“Sponsored Moments gives us a great new way to seamlessly join that conversation as it is happening,” stated Meredith Verdone, CMO at Bank of America.

More partnerships are expected to appear soon.

Twitter isn’t considered the most lucrative among social-media platforms—Facebook comes first, followed by Instagram (also owned by Facebook) then Twitter. The strategic partnering by Twitter seems a boost, as all parties strive to benefit from carefully curated branding. In the process, Twitter may break through as a force in social-media ad revenue.