SocialTwist in California is debuting a new type of social ad unit that is based on word of mouth marketing and advertising.

…the company is introducing advertising widgets that come with the ability for visitors to share the ads with their friends by e-mailing them a template e-mail and link to a destination chosen by the advertiser. The widget makes a clickable Tell-a-Friend link appear at the top right of an ad unit, which pops up a box where surfers get to e-mail a template message along with the original ad and a link to the website where the ad originally appeared to their Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail contacts, or alternatively send it out to a specific e-mail address.

I went and tried out the demo page and I noticed a small note at the bottom of the pop up window.

So we’re trusting an ad distribution agency to not store our personal information? What about the person’s email that we send the ad to? Are those safe as well?

It’s an interesting idea, but the only ads I’ve ever enjoyed so much that I have shared them with friends have been videos or an entire website, not a content ad on a website. And if the ad was talking about something I might want to send to someone else, I would typically click the ad and send my friend the website URL, not the actual ad itself.

Tell-a-Friend: Word of Mouth Marketing via TechCrunch article.

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