Are advertisers scoring big with hashtags?
You may have noticed that many advertisers are adopting a sign of the times by sporting hashtags in their commercials. The question is - Are hashtags making their mark or falling short of the goal?
Hashtags were created in 2007 as a way to track discussions and online discussions on Twitter. Clearly, that motive has evolved. Today, advertisers use it to increase brand recognition, attract followers or, hopefully, motivate the consumer to include a tweet using the hashtag.
Sheldon Levine pointed out in “Are Hashtags In Commercials Effective?,” the continued use of hashtags in TV commercials is more of a “keeping up with the Jones” (or other advertisers in this case) mentality or another example of appearing more “digital” in a trend-driven industry.
Whatever the motive, we can be sure of one thing. Hashtags are unique because of their innate tracking ability. Unlike other advertising strategies such as a coupon the whole world knows if it worked or not – not just the business that created it. All it takes is a simple hashtag on Twitter to find out what the buzz – or lack of it – is for a particular hashtag.
