At ESPN’s upfront presentation today, the sports network announced a strategic relationship with Twitter to co-produce unique social experiences around larger sports events. Advertisers will be able to buy into both ESPN’s properties and the Twitter components in a single integrated buy: the first time Twitter has cut such a deal with a network around major events.
The first event gets underway shortly with the NBA Finals: fans will be encouraged — via ESPN and ABC promotion — to tweet photos of their best “game face” with the #gameface hashtag. At the end of each game, NBA Tonight will reveal the best photographs on-air and feature them in a gallery on ESPN.com.
A key element of the partnership is the promotion on Twitter. For the Gameface promotion, #gameface will be a promoted trend, and ESPN will promote the contests on its @NBAonESPN account. ESPN basketball analyst Jalen Rose will tweet his top five favorite #GameFace entries before revealing the final winner, who will receive a grand tour of ESPN headquarters.
Advertisers who buy into the integrated packages will have access to Twitter’s promoted tweets and trends along with ESPN’s full slate of ad products around the event. “Working together, ESPN and Twitter are giving marketers a clear and powerful way to link on-air and online social conversations around sports,” said Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s Vice President of Global Brand Strategy. “It’s the first time advertisers can engage the audience around ESPN’s premier content across screens and where the conversation is happening on Twitter.”
This partnership makes a lot of sense for both parties. For Twitter, it’s the first time the social network has broken into TV ad dollars, albeit indirectly. ESPN will be bringing sponsors to the table and extending their event sponsorships into the Twitter realm, so for Twitter, it’s net positive. For ESPN, it’s another tool in the toolbox to attract big-name advertisers.
“Advertisers and marketers have been asking for meaningful opportunities that tap into the power of social media,” explains Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN Global Customer Marketing and Sales. “We know fans use ESPN and Twitter as their main source for content and connectivity. By taking that scale and combining it with the passion of sports fans, this program answers the value equation of social media while providing a new way for fans to engage with ESPN.”
Upcoming events on the horizon for ESPN and Twitter: Global X Games, Road to the BCS National Championship, Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and NASCAR Chase for the Cup.
And you can bet this is a model that other networks are exploring, as well.