What Happened
Following up on its quest for more live sports events, Twitter has announced that it is partnering up with CBS News to livestream the upcoming Democratic and Republican conventions later this month. Similar to its live coverage of the Wimbledon games last week, the live streams will be enhanced with convention-related tweets. This is not the first time Twitter has worked with CBS to cover the election as Twitter used the CBS News’ feed for its live coverage of two presidential debates in November and January. The stream will be available globally to any visitor to Twitter’s site or apps with no log-in required.
Why Brands Should Care
As Twitter continues to build out its livestream capabilities, it is becoming clear that it is taking a different approach than its archrival Facebook. Whereas Facebook is paying publishers and celebrity to use its live video products and encouraging user-generated live content, Twitter is mainly focused on courting media owners to cover high-profile media events, be it political conventions or sports games, and leverage those events to attract and engage with users.
Naturally, the differing approaches of the two platforms resulted in different ways of monetization. Live content on Facebook is more suited to product integration and sponsorships, whereas Twitter’s live streams rely on ad sales for now, functioning more like a digital and social extension of the traditional broadcasting system. Despite the differences, there is no denying that live video content is exploding, and it would be beneficial for brands to understand the nuances of different live-streaming platforms and choose the ones that best fit their campaign goals.
Source: AdWeek
