Twitter has an undeniable presence on the 'net and has grown into one of the most popular forms of social networking. People still hold on to their blogs for dear life, but some users have opted to switch to Twitter exclusively. TwitVid is attempting to uproot the ad-world, similar in the way Twitter has for the networking scene. Their new video advertising service, SocialAds, seeks to serve relevant ads that will help advertisers reach their target audiences, while at the same time, doing away with the the need of traditional, ugly, and seemingly random ads that plague all corners of the web.
By combining relevant ads and unique pricing scheme for advertisers, its looks like a win-win situation for all parties. Advertisers will pay TwitVid an amount that is determined by the number of retweets and followers generated by the ads. A follower is worth a minimum of one dollar while a retweet starts at seventy-five cents. The placement of the ads will be determined by these rates, with higher paying ads landing on TwitVid pages of celebrities, professional athletes, and anyone else who can bring the viewership to SocialAds territory. It is worth noting that advertisers can engage a request for a retweet or follow before watching the video, but users are actually given the choice to skip the prompt and continue to the video. That alone is a step in the right direction if they are interested in pleasing the end-user above all else. People have responded fairly well to the ads so far. The initial testing phase indicates that an average of 400 new followers signed up within an hour, roughly 2% of the total viewership during that period of time.
“Traditional means of monetizing video has heavily relied on pre-roll ads, which work great for premium content but can be quite suffocating for an end-user who may only be trying to watch a short video,” said Mo Al Adham, co-founder of TwitVid. “SocialAds offers an alternative advertising solution, which provides measurable value to both advertisers and viewers. Through SocialAds’ proprietary technology media viewers are exposed to social media accounts targeted to be of high interest to them. In turn, advertisers are exposed to and gain engaged customers whom, once acquired, can be communicated with as a trusted brand.”
Twitter is not without its detractors. Some people still doubt that Twitter has strong enough staying power. Others point out that the number of tweeting services has reached a point of over-saturation. This is what every startup fears: obsolescence. TwitVid can certainly capitalize on their SocialAds service, but they will still have to rely on users to produce interesting and popular content in order to demand a higher stake in the ad world and substantiate further growth. Oddly enough, this plan could work out for everyone if TwitVid can attract enough attention away from their competitors.