For those who love second-screening during sporting events, Twitter has launched two new Amplify programs built around the holiday season’s two biggest hockey events.
From Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, Twitter will share highlights from the World Junior Hockey Championship through a partnership with TSN and Hockey Canada. It will also share game highlights for the NHL Centennial Classic featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1 through a partnership with Rogers Sportsnet.
This is the third consecutive year that Twitter has run an Amplify program around the World Juniors, but the first time that Twitter Canada has run one.
The Amplify program, which promotes posts to targeted users, will run short game video highlights featuring pre-roll adds that range from six to 30 seconds. TSN’s partners include Air Canada and Canadian Tire (Twitter head of sales Ivan Pehar told MiC that TSN will also be creating custom content for these partners, which will be exclusive to Twitter). Hockey Canada will partner with Samsung for the first time and Sportsnet will partner with Wendy’s and Universal Studios to promote the upcoming movie Split. Pehar said Sportsnet has not yet confirmed whether or not the content for these partners will be exclusive to Twitter.
Rory Capern, managing director of Twitter Canada said the conversation with Bell Media, which owns TSN, began shortly after Twitter launched an Amplify program for the iHeart Radio MMVAs in June. Capern said the activity around the program was highly successful, although he was unable to share specific numbers.
“The next question was, where was another good national fit between us,” Capern said.
He said Canadians’ affinity for hockey — not to mention the heavy activity of Twitter users around sports content — made it an ideal fit.
On top of its linear airing and digital highlights, TSN will also be broadcasting live coverage, highlights and pre- and post-game content on 19 different radio stations across Canada with the radio feeds sponsored by Esso. It will also stream on Bell’s iHeartRadio app.
Sponsors for TSN’s linear coverage of the championship include new sponsors Kraft Maxwell House and Molson and returning partners General Motors, Home Depot and Canadian Tire.
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