Twitter and Facebook have long been criticized by marketing industry executives for the lack of monetization associated with the social media platforms, citing issues such as the tangibility of return and the misrepresentation of target demographics. Though the difficulty associated with capturing revenue streams in these media is well documented, many organizations have taken significant steps in transforming the subjective technology into objective results.
Octagon Digital, the new media arm of the marketing megafirm Octagon, has launched FanWaves.com, a new option for advertisers and publishers to fully monetize Twitter without significantly affecting the primary content. FanWaves inserts a banner ad on top of sites linked from the Twitter feeds of participating clients. So far, that list includes the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns, as well as NBA stars Rudy Gay, Chris Paul, and Stephen Curry.
Publishers are given the opportunity to utilize sponsors and more efficiently expand their brand. Advertisers can now tap into the Twitter platform and substantially increase their market accessibility. Though FanWaves website claims the product is non-intrusive, permission-based, cost-efficient, and viral, its true impact has yet to be seen.
“What we’re after is a large-scale, Twitter-based ad network, specifically for sports,” Octagon Digital VP Jim DeLorenzo told Sports Business Daily. “Since these are only on the linked pages of people and brands being followed on Twitter, we believe there is both really strong reach, and higher-than normal engagement and click-throughs.”
It is only a matter of time before the connection between new media and sports marketing fully blossoms into a fully integrated and central focus of industry organizations. Octagon Digital and FanWaves is one step closer to that goal.
