As It Pushes Into Mainstream Advertising, Twitter Taps Horizon

Twitter hired independent media shop Horizon in conjunction with the airing of its first TV ad, Ad Age has learned. Horizon referred calls to Twitter, which declined to comment. The relationship, which is understood to be ongoing, coincides with the brand's foray into mainstream advertising and is also indicative of a continued commitment to consumer marketing. When a brand becomes a TV advertiser, generally it hires a firm to plan and negotiate the media placement. Incidentally, Google, which had largely been a digital advertiser, worked with Horizon as well when it did a TV buy during the 2010 Super Bowl. Twitter's TV spot ran during TNT's airing of the Nascar Pocono 400 last month. Meant to introduce hashtag pages, it featured Nascar driver Brad Keselowski taking a photo with his iPhone from inside his race car. The ad then displayed the tag line, "See what he sees," and the URL www.twitter.com/#Nascar. Twitter has been gearing up for change for a while. Last August, the company plucked Joel Lunenfield from his post as CEO of Moxie Interactive -- a digital division of Publicis Groupe media agency ZenithOptimedia -- and appointed him VP-global brand strategy. In December, the company launched brand pages as part of its ongoing objective to strengthen its relationship with advertisers. Horizon is another addition to the social platform's agency roster, which includes ad shop West, an agency venture by former Apple marketing executive Allison Johnson. Last year, Twitter also had a brief relationship with PR agency Edelman.

As It Pushes Into Mainstream Advertising, Twitter Taps Horizon

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