July 16, 2018

Anna Hubbel

Without looking, what was the last Twitter ad you saw? Hard to remember, isn’t it? That’s because Twitter, as a predominantly news and trending topic platform, isn’t the first place that comes to mind when it comes to visual ads. Now, however, it appears that Twitter is changing that.

The platform is now testing Promoted Trend Spotlight ads, which come in the form of a big visual banner displayed with tweet text on top of either a GIF or static image background. When users click the banner, they are directed to a feed of tweets with the ad’s headline and a relevant tweet by the advertiser at the top. Promoted Trend Spotlight ads appear in Explore for users’ first two visits in a given day before resorting back to Twitter’s typical Trend’s feed.

With this new ad format, Twitter aims to make its platform more useful to brands. A Twitter spokesperson told Tech Crunch, “We are continuing to explore new ways to enhance our takeover offerings and give brands more high-impact opportunities to drive conversation and brand awareness on our platform.”

Apparently, it’s working. In a statement given to Tech Crunch, Anthy Price, Disney’s executive vice president for Media, said, “The Promoted Trend Spotlight on Twitter allowed us to prominently highlight Winnie the Pooh and celebrate the launch of ticket sales for Christopher Robin while four of the characters took over major Disney handles on the platform to engage with fans.”

Disney is the first to test Twitter’s new ad format.

Although Twitter is a leading platform that’s predominantly successful when it comes to post engagement, it hasn’t been a show-stopper when it comes to ads. Perhaps this new format is just what the doctor ordered for better monetization.

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