Acxiom, Twitter partner on pilot program to measure advertiser’s sales campaign

Acxiom announced this week that it plans to deepen its current partnership with Twitter by deploying a pilot program to give advertisers of the real-time online social networking platform the ability to measure the impact of ad campaigns on offline sales.

The new research initiative, called Offline Sales Impact (OSI), will leverage Acxiom’s recognition capabilities to allow Twitter’s brand advertisers to measure the offline sales impact of their campaigns, using a test and control approach alongside Twitter’s so-called Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs.

“Advertisers are searching for new measurement capabilities with comprehensive insights and information about whom they reach on Twitter, what drives audiences to convert, and the overall sales impact the Twitter platform has on their campaigns,” said Rick Erwin, president of Acxiom’s Audience Solutions Division. “The OSI initiative will enable brand advertisers to better understand the relationship between exposure to campaigns on Twitter and conversion activity offline.”

As part of the OSI study, Acxiom said exposure and client sales data will be analyzed to determine audience delivery and response, and campaign lift or sales increase. After the campaign is executed, advertisers will receive a complete analysis, along with insights, obtained from the results.

Currently, Acxiom is a “Twitter Official Partner” in the tailored audiences program which launched in 2014, allowing advertisers to match their customer lists to users on Twitter. In February 2015, Twitter announced a new program, “partner audiences,” within which Acxiom’s third-party data was leveraged to augment Twitter’s existing advertising targeting capabilities. The Twitter research project was kicked off this month, company officials said.

On Tuesday, Acxiom also announced the appointment of Debora Beachner Tomlin to the Little Rock data marketer’s board of directors, effectively immediately. Tomlin serves as chief marketing and distribution officer for CSAA Insurance Group in Walnut Creek, Calif., where she leads all aspects of marketing and distribution strategy, including brand management, customer experience, digital strategy, and direct marketing and sales. Tomlin has also held several senior leadership positions at Capital One Bank and USAA Insurance Co.