With the launch of the latest social platform Threads, we eagerly await the user reaction. Will it take Twitter by storm? When will advertising opportunities come into play?
Our Managing Director, Head of Paid Media and PPC Director give their thoughts and expectations on the new platform.
The opportunity for Meta to hoover up lapsed and disenfranchised Twitter users is obvious and clear. It makes sense at every level as something to aggressively target. However, the success of Threads may well come down to a few nuanced factors. Firstly, who is Threads actually being created for? Let’s be honest, it’s for advertisers who want access to the Twitter audience but don’t want to have to deal with the continued disruption and brand safety concerns driven by the new ownership. To do this, Meta needs the audience – you, me, media consumers – to get on board with their new platform. Many users however project different personalities and behaviours on different social platforms: stronger opinions and sharper engagement have been the foundation of Twitter’s past growth. The keystone to success for Threads is simple. Will consumers be willing to dial down their ‘Twitter’ behaviour now that it is associated with their Meta profile for all to see? Time will tell.
John Barham, Managing Director
The decision to muscle in on Twitter’s territory is a timely one by Meta. Given the recent turmoil on the platform and following uncertainty from advertisers, seizing the opportunity to gain valuable market share is a potentially revolutionary move. They’ve received upwards of 30 million on their first day of operation according Zuckerberg himself.
While Threads is not alone in the market with smaller competitors such as Bluesky and Mastodon, the ability to keep your Instagram handle and followers is an obvious draw for people looking to mirror their digital following cross platform. The app is clearly aligned with Instagram rather than Facebook in the parent company’s portfolio, presumably to benefit from Instagram’s younger and faster tech adopting audience. This will likely keep it more attractive to potential future advertisers, as and when Meta decide to launch their ad offering on the platform.
What impact will this have on advertising in general? This is very early days, but if it becomes a true competitor to Twitters huge corpus of human conversation then it will naturally have a place on media plans. I’m in no doubt that Meta will market this to advertisers as a further benefit to utilising their full ad suite, with the ability to track a user across their increasing platform count, helping to close the loop of lost attribution between walled gardens. It’s also likely to appear a far safer bet considering it will benefit from all the targeting and brand protection levers available on Facebook and Instagram. One thing is for sure, Elon Musk won’t cave to the competition easily, so expect some more waves to be made before full-service resumes and a winner emerges.
Will Jennings, Head of Paid Media
The Twitters Ads platform tends to not be as sophisticated or easy to use when compared to Meta, so if there is an option for advertisers to eventually target Threads in the existing Meta Ads Manager ecosystem it will be a lot more attractive. This is especially true when it comes to automation and machine learning, providing more ad placements to run alongside Instagram and Facebook. This will provide more data and an opportunity for machine learning to optimise campaigns by reaching users on the best platform at the best time.
George Stolton, PPC Director
With these thoughts in mind, it will be exciting to see what happens with Threads…
