UTV Interactive Partners Izea To Rollout Sponsored Tweets In India

UTV Interactive, the digital arm of media and entertainment group UTV, has partnered with IZEA Holdings, Inc., a US-based social media marketing firm to launch SponsoredTweets.com, a website that is endorsed by few Hollywood stars and international tweeters in India.

SponsoredTweets is a Twitter advertising platform where marketers pay for advertising campaigns on either a Cost Per Tweet (CPT) or Cost Per Click (CPC) basis. Twitter users can earn money for sharing sponsored content within their Twitter stream. There are an estimated 12 million Twitter users in India, the company said, who can benefit from this platform.

Under this deal, UTV will leverage the platform to connect advertisers with Izea's international celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Diddy and Nick Cannon as well as Indian stars Lara Dutta, Mahesh Bhupati, Anurag Kashyap, Rohan Bopanna and Neetu Chandra. Advertisers will be able to hand pick individual Tweeters such as celebrities to participate in Twitter advertising campaigns. SponsoredTweets.com will hence open up avenues for monetisation on Twitter, the company said.

"In just six months, UTV's ability to monetise digital rights for celebrities has become unparalleled across platforms, be it voice, video, web and now social media. Izea's SponsoredTweets.com is the ideal platform for advertisers, celebrities and users to connect and capitalise on their Twitter presence," said Sameer Pitalwalla, Senior Vice President, UTV Interactive.

Besides SponsoredTweets, Izea also operates other marketplaces such as WeReward, and SocialSpark and has completed over 2 million social media sponsorships for customers ranging from small local businesses to Fortune 50 organisations. Companies that have used SponsoredTweets.com internationally include Bloomingdales, Computer Associates, Dish Network, FOX Home Entertainment, LG, Microsoft, NBC, Time Warner Cable and Volvo.