Interesting move here from magazine publisher Time Inc to sell a little piece of its Twitter real estate that I can easily see being replicated by others.

It has begun selling the background wallpaper of its Twitter page for People Style Watch.

The background image, which usually features something from the magazine for the People spin off title if anything at all, is running an ad from Jergens Daily Moisture.

It is a nice use of the space and could work really well for publishers with a sizable Twitter following.

You could also see that extended to the new larger profile pics that it unveiled last month. That could work if done creatively.

A spokeswoman for Time Inc told Ad Age that it was the first time People StyleWatch had used its Twitter profile page in that way.

It offered Jergens, which is owned by US cosmetics firm Kao, the ad slot as part of a larger media partnership, which also included print, web and social media.

Surprising that no one has done this commercially before as it is not something that Twitter prevents.

Twitter told Ad Age that “the space is the user’s to customise, and we encourage them to be clear if they are promoting something there, for money or other consideration”.