Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coming to a second screen near you as a Twitter Moment
Fifty million viewers are expected to tune into Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday. This year, Macy’s will also be testing how many people will be interested in swiping through a promoted Twitter Moment to catch behind-the-scenes footage, shots of the Snoopy balloon floating by, and video clips of the on-street Broadway performances on the platform.
Macy’s is running a promoted multimedia ad with Twitter’s Moments feature in order to capture a second-screen experience of its annual parade. The collection of tweets, photos and videos will give parade enthusiasts a look inside the coming together of the parade, as well as historic still shots of parades from the archives, none of which you’ll see on TV.
“Our goal is to show people what they haven’t seen before,” said Serena Potter, the retailer’s group vp of digital media strategy. “There will be the finished, polished production on TV and then the second-screen experience on your phone, so it’s up to us to tell that new story.”
Potter said that Macy’s tapped a robust social media team to pull together the curated tweets for the Twitter Moment. On the team is both Macy’s employees and social media influencers who will be catching scenes on the ground. While Potter said the strategy is in place, the actual content will be collected in real time and published from the parade itself.
“We have ideas — the kick off, new balloons — but it will all be in the moment,” said Potter.
Last Thanksgiving, Macy’s ran a sponsored story on Snapchat to show unedited footage from the parade that complemented the TV coverage. Macy’s didn’t respond to a request regarding the story’s engagement, but Snapchat data from February showed that event stories were averaging 10 million views over the previous six months. The Twitter Moment will provide a richer collection of varied media, like fun facts and fan shots. It’s about weaving together a series of micro-moments into a larger story, according to Potter.
Storytelling, she said, is the main priority, so don’t expect Black Friday promotions or shoppability functions popping up in the Twitter Moment. Elsewhere on social media, Macy’s has tested buyable pins on Pinterest in addition to last year’s Snapchat story.
“We love working with these companies who are pushing the limits,” said Potter. She said that when it comes to new social media capabilities, Macy’s takes the test-and-learn approach, rather than the wait-and-see.
The Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone film “Creed” was the first advertiser to test a promoted Twitter Moment on the platform. Adweek estimated that the cost of a promoted Moment was closer to that of a promoted trend — around $200,000 a day — than a promoted tweet, which is purchased via online bid auction based on keywords.
Macy’s promoted Moment is set to run in the main screen of the feature all day on Thanksgiving.
Homepage image via Shutterstock
More in Marketing
Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era
Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.
Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.
What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be
Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.