Was the Washington Post ‘s Twitter ‘Election’ sponsorship a success? Yes
In a recent interview with On The Media, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams mentioned that The Washington Post’s purchase of the trend ‘election’ yielded a “9 percent engagement rate.”
Host Bob Garfield added context to the result by saying “the click through rate on a display ad across the Internet is substantially less than 1 percent.”
NOTE: Jump to 3:25 to hear the exchange.
At posting, there is no transcript at the moment, but here’s a link to the story: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/11/26/04
Whether it was a gimmick and a proof of Twitter advertising concept, you have to admit it is a bit of a success… well, compared to the crappiness of Internet advertising, which you know is, well, crap.
Two questions come to mind:
1. Whose idea at WaPo was this?
2. What were the factors in this scenario that made for a “success?”
If you know the answer to Q1, let me know. And what’s your theory on Q2?
A bit of a success. I have a feeling that the early bird gets the sponsored hashtag attention.
Will be interesting to see if sponsored hashtags are able to sustain an audience. Big ones maybe: #Election #SuperBowl #Oscars … Haven’t seen stats yet on #BlackFriday sponsored by Target.