You don’t really have to wait until tonight, or even watch the World Series, to see Twitter’s new TV ad. Some articles have claimed it is their first ad, but Twitter launched another commercial in 2012 the company claims was a “one-off” which implies this new campaign will extend beyond the :30 second spot running during the game.
As Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated, the intention of the ad is to appeal to a “younger crowd” and drive awareness of their new product feature “Moments” which has received positive feedback.
As a believer in web companies leveraging TV to build brand equity and drive step level growth, I really wanted this commercial to be a “home run” – not to mention I am an avid Twitter user in my daily life. However, I think this is more of a “foul ball”. Here’s why:
After watching the commercial a few times, I’m struggling to understand how this appeals to a younger crowd, sufficiently explains their “Moments” product, or provides enough brand memorability. According to the most recent Pew Research data more than 71% of American adults use Facebook, compared to 23% online adults using Twitter. While the social networks are not apples-to-apples, it still seems that there is room to improve adoption and consideration. This ad does not do that, in fact it moves by so quickly one might completely miss the fact that the ad is for Twitter. To take the World Series analogy a bit too far, I think this is a case of “inside baseball” where the ad may have appealed to those who already understand and love the product, but doesn’t help to grow the consideration set.
I’d love to know your thoughts. You can watch the ad here. There doesn’t seem to be a hashtag trending yet, so we will update this post with any relevant commentary after the game. #youdecide #requisitehashtag #mocoglobal (P.S. Check us out on Twitter vis @followmoco)
About Us: Moco Global is a marketing advisory firm dedicated to helping web companies build their brand and scale in the US and International markets. Visit us at www.mocoglobal.com or on Twitter https://twitter.com/followmoco for marketing news, trends and insights on web companies around the world.
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