Twitter, New Partners, Kick Off SVG Singapore OTT Summit with Social Monetization Overview By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Thursday, March 15, 2018 - 4:33 am
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Twitter has inked nine new deals with Asia-based entities for premium video sports content that will make use of Twitter's In-stream Sponsorships feature to monetize highlights and other content for Fox Sports Asia, Eleven Sports, BallBall, and more. Aneesh Madani, Head of Sport Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Twitter, says the key is to enable brands to be where the fans are and that is often watching video clips of key highlights, interviews, and even feature pieces and athlete profiles. Twitter made the announcement at the SVG Singapore OTT Workshop, held on 15 March.
(l-to-r) Aneesh Madani of Twitter, Simon Barnett of BallBall.com, Ashwin Sridar of Fox Networks Group Asia, and Mohit Lalvani discussed ways to monetize content via Twitter at the SVG OTT Singapore Summit.
Fans can be scrolling through their timeline and see a Ballall.com video they want to watch and then there is a six-second pre-roll for a brand before they can watch the highlight, he explains. It is seamless, and the brand can choose the clips they want to be in front of so they get to be in front of trusted content while the content owner gets additional distribution of clips and make some new revenue.
Simon Barnett, BallBall.com, VP, sales director, says it has been difficult to monetize social media content and that Twitter's program can change that.
The reality is we get audience and reach but we are not a charity and we need to make money from social media, he says. So now we are working with partners who can marry us up with advertisers who will pay what the content is worth and help us commercialize content across multiple platforms.
Madani says that one of the challenges with social video is marrying quality content and scale as there is a lot of video but much of it is of poor quality. So, the sponsorship program is designed to match up the top content with the top brands.
We are allies to our partners like the federations, broadcasters, teams, and athletes and we now have a good way to work together and bring the richness of sports to the platform, he adds.
Ashwin Sridhar, Fox Networks Group Asia, SVP, Digital, says Fox Networks Group Asia is focusing its efforts on creating an OTT experience that is as simple as flicking on a TV and watching what you want and when you want it.
The beauty of digital is offering a personalized experience but doing that across 10 or 15 markets in Asia is incredibly difficult, he says. You need to get the content right but also the experience.
Mohit Lalvani, Eleven Sports, director of business development and partnerships in Asia, says that content on Twitter like local football matches has worked well for Elevent Sports. And the use of social influencers instead of anchors is one of the more interesting ways Twitter can be used to build relationships with fans.
It's something Twitter can do that very few platforms can, he says. Twitter is the most important platform because there is nothing faster than Twitter.
Sridhar adds that the live aspect of sports and Twitter's ability to get key moments of a game out to an audience is the key to creating moments of engagement.
We have also started using Twitter as a way to provide feedback for original shows we produce and as a way to make shows more engaging as the chatter on social can throw the planned discussion for a show out of whack, he says. But it gives a new live element to a traditional TV show.
Another way Fox Sports Asia has embraced Twitter is through the creation of Fox Sports Ambassadors which are people who are passionate about a sport in a given country like Vietnam or Cambodia.
We give them a Twitter handle and then they cover the sport for us and have a platform to talk about their favorite sport, he says. It's done incredibly well for us and some of our best content is produced by ambassadors.
BallBall.com was just acquired by Dugout from News Corp. and is now part of a new entity, Dugout SE Asia, which will be headquartered in Singapore. BallBall.com was launched by News Corp in August 2013 and is now one of the leading football video platforms in South-East Asia as it distributes short-form highlights from European and other top football leagues to the region, generating 800 million video views during the 2017-18 football season.
The agreement to acquire BallBall will see Dugout showcase the mobile and online platform's unique aggregation of football content in two key territories, Vietnam and Indonesia, through a BallBall section on the Dugout platform, with plans to expand into other countries in the region. From today, the best of Dugout's content will also be showcased on ballball.com. which will distribute BallBall content in Asian markets along with exclusive off-pitch content supplied by Dugout clubs and players. Dugout represents the first time the world's biggest clubs have joined forces to create a business, with partners including AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid CF, Inter Milan, Roma, Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur, Atletico Madrid and more.
We are working with clubs to produce content and we have digital media editors with the clubs that are behind the scenes and creating much richer and deeper stories, says Barnett. Our view is we need to get ingrained with the clubs to have compelling content the viewers want to see.
He says Twitter is used to publish in-the moment content as Ballball has the rights to publish EPL goal clips within five minutes of a goal being scored.
And we have seen marked improvement in the Indones
