Twitter has signed on the dotted line of its largest ever advertising deal after agreeing to grant preferred advertising slots to clients of Starcom Mediavest Group in a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the micro-blogging service.
The deal will also enable clients of the Publicis owned group; such as Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, exclusive access to research and data - including an ‘in-tweet mobile survey’ that will allow firms to poll consumers in real time.
No exclusivity arrangement is in place however, leaving the door open for Twitter to strike similar deals with other marketing firms.
Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue said: “We think that the industry had been focused in the wrong area, which was making a decision between Twitter and TV. That’s not what we believe. Twitter is a bridge.”
Speaking to the Financial Times Laura Desmond, global chief executive of Starcom MediaVest Group, said:“Twitter, in a very short period of time, has gone from an experiment to something that is essential. This signals to the marketplace how we want to conduct business and measure the implications. This is the future. It’s convergence.”