Twitter Offered $500k For One-Day Banner Ad

A marketing firm has offered Twitter $500,000 USD to carry a banner advertisement for just one day. However, the ad to be carried by Twitter is not guaranteed to be accepted because the advertising firm in question has a controversial reputation.

The CEO of uSocial, Leon Hill, said of the offer "While half-a-million dollars may seem like a large amount to invest in one banner for one day, we believe that the investment will be more than worth it." (Source: adoimagazine.com)

However, Twitter does not currently carry advertising; therefore, even if it wanted to take up this offer, it's unlikely it could redesign its site to allow for banner advertisements immediately. It's yet to comment on the offer.

uSocial: Paid Leads via Twitter

In any case, uSocial would be an unlikely choice for the first advertiser. That's because it offers to "sell followers" to clients. The service works by the client paying uSocial a set amount for a guaranteed number of followers. A follower is a Twitter user who has their account set to read your messages.

uSocial then searches for users who have posted messages on a topic related to the client's business, then sends them a message suggesting they follow the client's account. They repeat this process until enough people have agreed to follow the account. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Users Object Commercial Requests

While uSocial argues that this helps businesses get in touch with interested readers, and that nobody is forced to accept the follow suggestion, some site users object to receiving the requests, referring to the messages as spam. They also believe the idea of firms paying to find followers is overly commercial and contradicts the feeling that sites such as Twitter should give every one an equal voice.

If Twitter did accept the ad, it's unclear if it really would be the most expensive banner advertisement ever carried. However, it would certainly dwarf a previous attempt to set a record; that was carried out by the owner of mostexpensiveInternetad.com who sold his first advertisement on the site for a dollar, the next for $2, the next for $4 and so on. Three years on, the highest amount paid on that site remains a pitiful $1,024. (Source: mostexpensiveInternetad.com)