Categories: OLD Media Moves

Bloomberg’s TicToc has added ads in live video

TicToc, the Bloomberg Media owned news service that exclusively lives on Twitter, introduced a new ad format Friday that embeds branding in live video, reports George Slefo of Adweek.

Slefo writes, “The ad ‘will display at a time where our viewers are highly engaged and focused on the live stream,’ says M. Scott Havens, global head of digital at Bloomberg Media. ‘To me, this is future of video advertising—not interruptive, not ignored, not pre-shot, not incongruent. It’s useful, additive, contextual and in real-time.’

“Havens says TicToc saw 1.4 million average daily views during the month of April, shy of the 2 million it previously said it hoped to achieve by now. Overall, TicToc has accumulated more than 160 million total views since it began in late December 2017.

“The new format came about after capturing feedback from TicToc follwers. Havens says his team noticed viewers were significantly more engaged during live events such as March for our Lives or the State of the Union address.

“The ad format will likely be featured during other live events, such as elections, award shows or global political events, Havens says.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.