Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coming to a second screen near you as a Twitter Moment

“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.

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