Advertising to predictable old men just got easier: Twitter brings ads to BlackBerry

If your company’s target audience is average, middle-aged men who don’t like change (e.g. Hank from King of the Hill), then Twitter just did you a huge favor.

The microblogging social network announced today it is extending the ability of advertisers to target BlackBerry devices with mobile ad spots and Promoted Tweets.

The Promoted Tweets on BlackBerry devices are advertisements that double as Tweets and that are displayed near the top of a user’s timeline. Much like the experience on Twitter’s main website, the Promoted Tweets only appear once and can be dismissed.

Twitter first started rolling out the ad targeting functionality to advertisers back in February. In addition to BlackBerry, advertisers can also choose to target iOS devices, Android devices, desktops/laptops, and mobile-optimized web apps.

“Promoted Tweets on BlackBerry and the ability to target campaigns to specific devices and platforms will help brands more easily connect to Twitter users —anywhere, anytime,” Twitter said in a statement on the company blog.

Research In Motion (RIM), which produces BlackBerry devices, is currently experiencing a downward spiral due to increased competition from iPhones and Android phones. Because of this, we had assumed Twitter was intentionally leaving BlackBerry devices out of its ad targeting platform when it launched. However, this is clearly not the case.

While BlackBerry devices might not have the growth they once did, advertisers undoubtedly see BlackBerry owners as a valuable demographic composed of enterprise users, government employees, and many international consumers.

Image courtesy of Fox Network