Last month, talk of Volvo invaded the blogosphere when the company embedded live Tweets into a YouTube banner ad for its XC60 model. The feed kept viewers abreast of live coverage of the NY Auto Show, then gave them the option to follow Volvo on Twitter. It's a simple enough idea: duh, use Twitter feeds to make ads more engaging!

Land Rover took it to the next level. With help from social-media affinity network Twittads, it organized a group of 15 Twitter users to promote the company's NY Auto Show debut to over 300,000 Twitter followers. Their evangelical efforts appeared in both online searches and out-of-home ads. (You can still reference these tweets by visiting search.twitter.com and entering #LNRY, a hashtag that Land Rover Twitter users implemented.)

The craze to integrate Twitter into ads isn't unique to car brands, either: Hollywood is tweeting! At April's end, Universal Pictures announced plans to start adding tweets into select rich-media banners promoting its films. Expect to see those pop up around mid-June. Fans will be able to tweet about a film, then—if they're lucky—see their tweets appear live in dynamic feeds on ads.

Integrating a Twitter feed into your promotions costs next to nothing and can serve cool purposes like these: provide users with LIVE! information about an event as it unfolds, or keep them apprised of buzz about your awesome product. Either way, you're a winner.

The Po!nt: Jump in! Once you get the hang of it, including a Twitter factor in your promos should be a breeze. Go ahead, drive those sales!

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