The media is flooded with reports on Twitter’s impending IPO and along with it articles on how tweets are being analyzed to generate insights in a variety of contexts. One particular item in the flood of Twitter related articles caught my attention. The article noted that Neilsen had compiled a new rating of TV shows based on the number of tweets the shows generated. The article argued that perhaps this new index was valuable since it might indicate the consumers’ engagement with the show and thus perhaps with ads embedded within it.

On reflecting on this, it seemed that it was too early to make a call on the value of this new metric. First of all, the level of tweeting would depend on the nature of the audience attracted to the show. Thus, shows that drew a more tech savvy audience or perhaps a younger audience is more likely to have more tweeters in the audience to begin with, thus increasing the likelihood of show related tweets. In that case, the tweet rating would have no value beyond signaling the audience composition. It would certainly be no indication of whether or not the shows viewers were more engaged with the show or with the ads embedded within the show.

If we for a moment assume that tweets about shows signal greater consumer engagement with the show, the question still remains as to its implications for advertisers. It seems to me that one needs data in this regard and one cannot make the leap of faith that greater engagement with a show translates in to greater engagement with embedded ads. Indeed, one could make precisely the opposite case. The more engaged one is with the show perhaps the more annoying the commercial breaks become since they interrupt the flow of the show. To the degree interruption is annoying; one’s negative feelings are likely to transfer to the embedded commercials, leading to poorer impact.

Indeed there is research that speaks to this issue. Work by Park and McClung (1986), shows that the more involved consumers are with a TV program the less they are involved with embedded commercials. Moreover, my own work on the impact of moods generated while viewing programs on embedded commercials (Mathur and Chattopadhyay 1991) .

References

C. Whan Park and Gordon W. McClung (1986), “The Effect of TV Program Involvement on Involvement with Commercials,” in Advances in Consumer Reseach, Vol. 13, ed. Richard J. Lutz, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 544-548.

Mahima Mathur and Amitava Chattopadhyay (1991),”The Impact of Moods Generated by TV Programs on Responses to Advertising,” Psychology and Marketing, 8 (1), 59-77.