TNT analyst Charles Barkley's "new gig as a Capital One spokesperson during March Madness may soon be bringing the ultra-quotable Round Mound of Rebound to Twitter," according to Christopher Heine of ADWEEK. Barkley has never had a Twitter account, but Captial One Senior VP/Brand Marketing Marc Mentry said, "I think he's going to (join Twitter) as part of this pretty soon. We hope he's pretty out and proud in terms of what he's doing with us." Heine noted Twitter is a "big piece of the puzzle when it comes to Capital One's March Madness plans." Capital One has been "running a bevy of Promoted Tweets that utilize relevant, college-basketball-related copy in a campaign dubbed #RallyCry." The brand had a "newsroom-styled social media team on-the-ready" over the weekend, "responding to tweets while watching the games and Twitter to pounce on real time marketing opportunities." It has "become apparent that tweeting is now an important piece to TV-based spokesperson deals." For instance, ESPN's Dick Vitale has been "constantly plugging -- and in some pretty random contexts -- Allstate, Wendy's and Hooters on Twitter in recent days." Vitale "regularly appears in the brands' TV spots" (ADWEEK.com, 3/22).
