Did you watch the Farage v Clegg debates?
Tens of thousands of tweets were sent as the two politicians went head-to-head but it was thanks to the skills of a Cwmbran-based firm that the broadcasters were able to make sense of what the electorate was saying online.
Within minutes of the end of the second debate LBC, who organised the event, tweeted:
Nigel Farage triumphs again in #EuropeDebate, according to the LBC Twitter Worm http://t.co/ecTJ6Ull3s
— LBC (@LBC) April 2, 2014
Over 20 minutes after this a YouGov poll also showed that Farage ‘won’. But it was Blurrt’s real-time analysis before traditional polls can be carried out after an event that helped LBC send their tweet and which has captured the imagination of investors including S4C.
Blurrt is based in the Innovation Centre in Llantarnam Industrial Park and its website says:
“Blurrt captures honest and uncensored Twitter conversations. Using clever analytics software blurrt shows you what people feel. Because Blurrt specialise solely on Twitter, it delivers simple, clear insight in real-time, every time.”
For the first time ever in the UK a broadcaster was able to feature a live real-time Twitter sentiment feed on their website to show the changing mood on social media. LBC’s website went down during the first debate because of the amount of visitors.
Cwmbran Life met Jason Smith, Managing Director of Blurrt, and recorded this six minute Audioboo interview. He said the day after the first debate Twitter contacted him to say “congratulations”.
Listen to Jason talk about :
- tips for entrepreneurs who are setting up a business
- why he chose Cwmbran as a base for Blurrt
- how LBC named Blurrt’s sentiment graph- ’the Twitter Worm’
- the plans to grow Blurrt in international markets
The firm has four full-time members of staff. Follow Blurrt on Twitter at @BlurrtUK
Blurrt’s website features the infographic they produced to sum up the second debate.
The Sun used Blurrt’s analytics:
Half-way through #europedebate, and here are our @BlurrtUK stats so far: pic.twitter.com/agftxMfZKd
— Sun Politics (@Sun_Politics) April 2, 2014
The political blogger Guido Fawkes tweeted
.@BlurrtUK worm showing Farage victory: pic.twitter.com/M5mcLbRJm1
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 2, 2014
And it’s not just political debates that are finding real-time Twitter analysis useful. During last Sunday’s The Voice final the data from Blurrt was being used by the Sun who tweeted:
Big support on Twitter for Christina and Jermain during the second half of #TheVoiceUK final, say @BlurrtUK. Will that show in the result?
— Sun TV Magazine (@SunTVMagazine) April 5, 2014