Dive Brief:
- A day after naming Jack Dorsey as its new permanent CEO, Twitter launched the long-awaited curated news feature "Moments," also known as Project Lightning.
- In the coming weeks, Twitter will reportedly start testing out "Promoted Moments," similar to "Promoted Trends," so that advertisers can take advantage of the new product, according to Marketing Land.
- Twitter will only run one "Promoted Moment" at a time, at least to start, according to Ad Week. Promoted Moments are expected to function largely like other Moments.
Dive Insight:
Moments might be the biggest product change that Twitter has made since it added embedded images to tweets. The new Moments feature is intended to make Twitter more accessible to new users, and will display streams of tweets around trending topics and live events.
Now, the microblogging site is said to be testing out a version for marketers. Similar to "Promoted Trends," "Promoted" Moments will allow advertisers to tell stories in a multimedia format, using text, images, videos and Vines.
"This is going to be very different than a search text ad. This is going to be videos, images, and should provide a canvas for brands to move people and shift their hearts and minds," Twitter VP of Sales Matt Derella told AdAge.
Twitter did not disclose the pricing for Promoted Moments, but a representative told AdAge the ads will run in the live events section beginning in the next several weeks. AdAge further reports that at least initially Twitter plans to run only one Promoted Moment at a time, and the ads will run in 24-hour cycles.
The San Francisco-based company is reportedly talking to about five brand partners about the possibility. According to Adweek, the product is more similar to Promoted Trends than Promoted Tweets in that it is more of a premium purchase, and there will not be ample available inventory.
"We're just beginning to test this with brands – so we expect to learn a lot from these test and understand how consumers react. This means things may change. There are so many possibilities for brands here – but we're starting slowly to ensure we learn from what users like best in this environment," a Twitter representative told Adweek.
