Capital One Might Make Charles Barkley Join Twitter
Capital One svp/brand marketing Marc Mentry said: "I think he's going to [join Twitter] as a part of this. We hope he's pretty out and proud in terms of what he's doing."
Barkley has been pretty out in the out and proud about his thoughts on Twitter, though. He posted a video on his personal website in October 2011 that ranted:
"Tweet is for losers. And what I mean by that, if you wake up in the morning and you're worried about what I'm doing, you a damn idiot. You are a damn idiot. I don't feel the need to put every thought that comes in my head out to the world. I don't feel that. And I hope nobody wakes up in the morning and says let me follow Charles Barkley for the day."But Barkley has done crazier things for brands in the past. He put on a dress for Weight Watchers, after all. (He also got a lot of slack for accidentally calling the Weight Watchers spokesman gig a "scam" live on TNT — a comment which he later tried to clarify.)
Capital One would be smart to get the huge personality on Twitter and actively discussing the company. Social media is a crucial part of marketing campaigns, after all.
Mentry told Adweek, "We see digital as the next front where we need to engage consumers very specifically around things like March Madness."
Let's see if Barkley's Twitter sticks.