Using Twitter in Ads

Recently Nestle decided to try using tweets in their Juicy Juice ads. What’s interesting about these new ads is that readers can interact directly with the ad. They can tweet an answer to the featured question or respond to a previous comment. All from the ad (if you’re logged in to Twitter). And the tweets can be featured anywhere the ad shows.

It’s a whole new level of interactivity.

Of course, my immediate concern was live tweets. It would be quite easy for someone to graffiti the ad by making inappropriate or belligerent comments. “For juice?” you say. Yes, it’s amazing what people will say when they are behind a screen — even with a Twitter user name attached. Fortunately, the ads are able to be moderated. I think that’s a good thing, but it may limit the immediacy of a real Twitter conversation.

The ads are supposed to be follow-able on Twitter via hashtags. I was surprised, though, that the articles I read didn’t take the opportunity to mention the hashtag so people could go find out what others are saying. Or maybe see if there’s any participation. (But maybe that hadn’t been determined yet – it wasn’t clear if the ads were up at BabyCenter and CafeMom yet.)

So what I’m really curious about are your reactions. What do you think about this? Sure, a few companies have used tweets in their ads, but not at this level. Do you think it will open up a new type of interactive ad? Will people even bother answering questions posed in the ad? Is it worth the time of monitoring comments? We may have to just wait and see how it plays out, but I’d love to hear what people’s initial thoughts are.

image: Lin Pernille ♥ Photography on Flickr