Twitter turns to TV commercials to attract advertisers
updated 12:05 pm EDT, Mon June 11, 2012
Twitter's first TV spot aimed at new hashtag URL feature
Twitter touts itself as the platform best suited to advertising on the mobile web, but the site's newest ad isn't a tweet; it's a television commercial. The new ad is one of several the company is rolling out to publicize its new hashtag URL feature, which AllThingsD says is aimed at luring advertisers into a closer relationship with Twitter.
The ad directs users to the URL Twitter.com/#NASCAR, which links to twitter.com/hashtag/nascar. Some are speculating that Twitter hopes to turn hashtags into a new kind of domain name, allowing advertisers to pay for Twitter-hosted pages that aggregate content relevant to any subject.
The new ad ran during coverage of NASCAR's 2012 Pocono 400 race. It was announced on the web in a tweet by Omid Ashtari, head of sports at Twitter. The ad that aired is shown below, and the rest of the ads in the series are available on Twitter's YouTube site.
