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Twitter Joins Facebook, Google & Launches 'Brand Pages' for Marketers

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Created on Friday, 27 January 2012 07:29

Brands Get a Home on Twitter With More Functionality

Twitter is looking to strengthen its relationship with advertisers by launching brand pages that will be unveiled today as part of a more comprehensive redesign.

Twitter's existing brand pages have been under the radar, especially compared with the buildup around Google+ brand pages, which were launched last month. Brand pages have two key elements, both of them free. They can be customized with large header images that advertisers can use to display their logo and tagline more prominently than under the standard format, where branded elements of the page design are often partially covered by the time line of tweets. Brands can also choose to keep a particular tweet at the top of their time line, and that top tweet also auto-expands to reveal an embedded photo or video from Flickr, YouTube or other sources, without requiring the user to take action.   

Twitter is launching brand pages with 21 marketers: American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell , Disney, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, JetBlue, Kia, McDonald's, Nike , PepsiCo, Staples, Verizon Communications Wireless, NYSE Euronext, Heineken, Subway and Paramount Pictures, specifically for the release of "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol." It has also partnered with some charities and individuals that it hasn't disclosed. All the marketers involved in the launch are strategic partners and advertisers that have been involved in ongoing dialogues with Twitter.

There's a clear application for entertainment brands like Paramount and Disney, which is promoting the upcoming movie "Brave" in its top tweet. But early-use cases are varied. Pepsi is deploying the brand page functionality for individual products such as Pepsi and Diet Pepsi . General Electric created video content for today's launch geared toward helping consumers understand what the company does in human terms. Mr. Bain pointed toward the company as a forward-thinking marketer that will be increasingly using promoted tweets and trends to drive eyes to its brand page in 2012.

For Twitter, launching brand pages could be a way of challenging Facebook's hegemony as the secondary branded destination for a company after its own site, as well as another means of inducing big brand advertisers to loosen the purse strings by making organic and paid content more interconnected. If brand pages become enticing destinations with rich content experiences, Twitter's advertising products become more appealing as a means of directing people there.

Twitter's global ad revenue is projected to reach $139.5 million in 2011 and approach $400 million in 2013, according to eMarketer. It launched its advertising program in April 2010 with six advertisers signed up to use promoted tweets.

Brand pages will also ultimately be deployed for Twitter's mobile clients, but not for today's launch.