Is Twitter’s Flirtation With Agencies An Effort To Court “Normals”?

Looking for a higher profile outside its social network, Twitter is turning to advertising agencies for help, according to a post in Advertising Age today.

In the last several weeks, the trade journal reported, Twitter has been inviting agencies to pitch creative concepts for marketing Twitter’s service and building its brand. Twitter’s media spend is expected to be low and it’s looking for one-off projects rather than a long-term deal.

This move can be seen as Twitter hedging its bets and making itself more accessible to regular (not especially techie) people. Its place as the social platform for discussions about pop culture,  live events and news of the day is secure and was reaffirmed by this week’s Academy Awards bonanza. The company reported 3.3 billion Oscar-related impressions on the network, including more than 32 million for Ellen DeGeneres’ record-breaking — and briefly Twitter breaking — selfie.

But with 241 million users, Twitter is playing catch-up to Facebook’s 1 billion plus. And Twitter growth rates have been declining — the fourth quarter of 2013 was its slowest quarter ever.

Turning to more traditional ad platforms looks like an attempt to goose those numbers and convince late adopters — and dormant users — to be active on the network.