Viacom Inc. and Twitter today announced a partnership to deliver social video advertising campaigns around the most popular shows and biggest events throughout Viacom's network portfolio, which includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV Land, Spike and more.
The partnership will launch with the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, during which MTV will deliver real-time, sponsor-supported highlights of the show's most outrageous moments, buzzworthy performances, backstage access, interviews and more via Twitter. The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards air live from Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Sunday, August 25.
"The VMAs virtually pioneered the social TV moment, triggering a demand among marketers to tap into the fan conversations and trending topics that Viacom networks create every day," said Jeff Lucas, Head of Sales, Music and Entertainment, Viacom Media Networks. "Through this partnership, we're allowing marketers to insert their brands seamlessly into the torrent of fan activity and engagement around our networks on Twitter."
"As events happen in life, we continue to see Twitter as the place people share those moments, especially when those events happen on TV," said Adam Bain, President of Global Revenue at Twitter. "Twitter Amplify will allow Viacom to connect people across screens, and tap into the social conversation on Twitter with complimentary TV video clips across all devices."
Viacom networks' shows and events consistently drive significant activity on Twitter, and the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards generated among the most Tweets of any news event last year. According to Twitter, more than 52 million votes were cast via Tweets for the "Most Sharable Video" for the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. The show itself generated 14.7 million Tweets. The biggest peak of the night went to the moment One Direction won Best Pop Video with 98,307 Tweets per minute. Taylor Swift's performance was the night's second biggest moment, generating 86,275 Tweets per minute.
