Written by Ophir Gottlieb
PREFACE
Last night Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) broadcast its first ever NFL game. The user experience was wonderful based on various main stream media accounts, but the media missed the single most important event of the evening, and maybe, just maybe, this little experiment for Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has turned into a juggernaut for Millennials.
STORY
Millennials are the generation of people with ages 19-36 and their consumption patterns, as with all generations in that age group, have differed from prior generations. Lumping a group of people together by age, especially ranging from teenager to full blown adult can be silly, but we have to move past that in order to see what happened last night that shook the world of advertising, possibly forever.
Before we get to what happened, we need context, so here we go.
CONTEXT
Here is a study from Pew Research that examines the cord-cutting phenomenon (emphasis added).
"A shift in how people watch TV is underway.
[New] Pew Research Center data suggest 15% of American adults are now "cord cutters" – that is, they indicate that they once had a cable or satellite TV connection, but no longer subscribe.
Another 9% of Americans have never had a cable or satellite subscription at all, meaning that a total of 24% of Americans currently do not subscribe to cable or satellite TV in their homes."
Source: Pew Research
Using data from Forrester Research and Statista, CML Pro annotated this cool visual.
The point is that the cord-cutting phenomenon is just getting started and will rise by as much as 50% within five years.
GOING DEEPER
Pew Research dove deep into this trend, and here are some facts:
While 24% of all Americans are either cord-cutters or "never had corders," it turns out that 37% of young Americans fit into either of these categories (Pew).
- That means that young Americans are 54% more likely to not have cable.
- 64% of young adults without a cable or satellite subscription cite alternative access to content as the reason (Pew).
To nail home the final points, here is a snippet from Pew:
"Those without pay TV – and cord cutters especially –rely on a different mix of access tools for digital content, a mix that emphasizes smartphones over a home broadband subscription."
Smartphones means mobile, and over 80% of Twitter's MAUs are mobile.
ADVERTISING
In an article penned by Daniel Newman on Forbes, we learned about Millennials ad behavior: "Millennials have turned the traditional marketing strategy on its head, requiring an entirely new approach."
After a long description which was an interesting read, we are left with this conclusion (emphasis added):
"Millennials want more. They want it now. They want it newer. And they want it faster than ever before.
They consume and share content like crazy – but it has to be good – innovative, and cutting edge. They want easy and transportable. They want connectivity and share-ability."
The point here is, as with every generation that hits this age, they're just smarter shoppers. The focus is speed -- look at the words above, "now," "faster, "innovative," and "connectivity."
And now, finally, here's why Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) may have landed on one of the greatest discoveries of our generation for advertising, and it might have been by accident.
SO WHAT HAPPENED ON TWITTER ALREADY!?
Now that the landscape is set, we can move to what happened on Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) last night with the NFL live-streaming broadcast. Here is a tweet exchange between Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain and a Millennial on the stream.
@AdamBain: "Wow. Check out Nicole's tweet string :)"
@nicolestockdale: "You guys these commercials on the #TNF live stream are the first commercials I've seen in a month"
@AdamBain: "you mean like at all in the world? or just on twitter?"
@nicolestockdale: "like in the world. I'm your typical millennial cord cutter. I don't have cable and sports are the only thing I watch live."
@nicolestockdale: "I used to work in media planning so I know how hard it is to reach my generation. Props to your team!"
@AdamBain: "oh DAMN"
And then it gets even better.
@NYCDias: "another cord cutting millennial here.these are the first ads I've seen in a long time. Great job. Wow Twitter"
I'll end the tweet storm there.
THE POINT
Perhaps without knowing it, the live streaming of a NFL game touched some Millennials, anecdotally, and the response was not negative, but rather positive. It sounded a little bit like what Forbes wrote:
Millennials want more. They want it now. They want it newer. And they want it faster than ever before.
They consume and share content like crazy – but it has to be good – innovative, and cutting edge. They want easy and transportable. They want connectivity and share-ability.
To this point Snapchat has been seen as the way to reach the younger Millennials, and Facebook's Instagram comes in second. But what Twitter delivered in its live streaming NFL game may be bigger. And it may be a game changer for the entire advertising and social media world. Twitter may have found the way to advertise using "traditional" formats but delivered in a non-traditional facility.
WHY IS THE NFL SO IMPORTANT?
It turns out the NFL is wildly popular, likely beyond the casual observer's understanding:
"In 2015, the top 20 and 45 of the 50 most-watched shows of the fall season were NFL games. Sunday Night Football was the No. 1 show in all 17 weeks of primetime."
Source: http://ftw.usatoday.com/
That's absurd and that's what Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has access to.
The author is long shares of Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR).
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