Article

Tweets for sale

Gaming

With over 400 million Tweets generated worldwide on a daily basis, Twitter captures and makes accessible global word-of-mouth to anyone willing to follow and access it.

Deloitte’s Economic Consulting practice conducted a new study, commissioned by Twitter, to test and quantify the predictive impact that Tweets have on the sales of video games in the UK, through analysis of the 100 bestselling Xbox360 and PlayStation3 games in 2012. The approach quantifies title specific impact of different types of Tweets, while controlling for other key drivers such as market dynamics, traditional advertising spend and price.

Key findings

  • Tweets are commercially relevant drivers of the sales of video games in the UK, and the balance of sentiment in Tweets is a more powerful driver of sales than reach alone
  • Overall, a 30% increase in positive Tweets is four times more effective in driving additional sales than a 30% increase in existing above-the-line advertising
  • The impact varies by title: each title is different in its response to Tweets and advertising
  • The impact of Tweets in any one week halves in each week going forward
  • The total exposure of Tweets impacts sales by amplifying the changes in the number of positive and negative tweets, and by amplifying the effect from the balance of sentiment expressed in Tweets.

 

"On average, increasing the number of positive Tweets about a title would be about four times as effective in driving additional sales, than increasing advertising by the same proportion form the existing levels."

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