Mumbai: Twitter announced on Thursday that it has launched in-stream video ads to marketers in India.
The company said with in-stream video ads, brands in India could align with videos from Twitter’s premium content partners across sports, news and entertainment globally. These include TV networks, publishing houses, leagues, magazines, digital creators and professional news outlets.
Companies like Amazon, Maruti, and Motorola have come on board as the in-stream video ad partners showcasing their Diwali campaigns and new product launches.
Twitter said its premium content partners in India are handpicked by the company for their video first content strategies and include: 9XM, Akash Chopra, AajTak, Bloomberg Quint, Buzzfeed India, CNBC TV18, CNN News 18, ESPN CricInfo, ET Now, Femina, Film Companion, Filmfare, Filtercopy, Firstpost, Gadget 360, GauravKapur, Grazia, HistoryTV18, Hungama, India Today, Mashable, Miss Malini, Mirror Now, NDTV, NDTV Profit, SanjeevKapoor, The Quint, Times Now, TVF, YRF, and Zoom TV.
Soumya Parmar, Head of Video Solutions, Twitter India, said: “Twitter hosts premium video content from world’s top publishers, and collaborates with them to develop and scale diverse video content that people are interested in. With the launch of in-stream video ads in India, it now creates an opportunity for advertisers to better align with relevant video content at scale across 15 content categories. These publishers are established hand picked partners, ensuring brand safety for our advertisers.”
Rachna Lather, marketing head, Lenovo MBG and Motorola Mobility said: “The consumption of video content is on a rapid rise in India and at Motorola, we prefer to tell a rich product story through engaging audio visual formats. The in-stream ad platform on Twitter will let these be consumed along with premium content specific to genres and creators, that resonate with our audience. And the fact that we will be able to serve our communication when the right audience is watching topically relevant content, is an added bonus. The importance of storytelling through videos is undeniable, and we are excited to be the launch partners for Twitter In-Stream Ads in India.”
“We’re excited to be the first automotive brand in India to be associated with Twitter In Stream Video Ads. It’s our constant endeavor to experiment with new and engaging formats to leverage the power of social media,” said Vinay Pant, VP Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India.
With Times Network being listed as one of the publishers, Jignesh Kenia, Senior VP and Head, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Times Network, remarked “Times network is very glad to partner with Twitter in this initiative. Twitter is definitely the platform of choice now for real time, breaking news. The engagement that our channels, specifically Times Now with more than 7 million followers, generate is a testament to this. Driving video monetization on Twitter is the next logical step for publishers like us who are already leveraging the platform to create a dedicated, engaged audience pool through video content.”