Chirpify_logoBrands typically pay for TV advertisements to elicit customer purchases. Now, Chirpify is using social media to make it easier than ever for people buy products or respond to campaigns they see on the tube.

The Portland-based startup today introduced #Actiontags for TV, a feature that allows companies to utilize social media and television together to create what’s essentially a new purchasing channel.

Here’s how it works: Brands include a hashtag with their advertising campaign, and if consumers use that hashtag in a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram post, they’ll be sent a link to a page with a purchasing form or other related information.

Oreo tested #Actiontags for TV during the Grammy Awards in January and included a hashtag in one of its commercials. The first 20,000 people to respond on social media with the hashtag received free Oreo cookies sent to their home.

Chirpify didn’t specifically name Oreo, but noted that a “recent brand campaign featured Chirpify’s #actiontags in a prime-time TV commercial,” and drove up to 5,000 tweets per hour for the #actiontag while helping Oreo’s campaign trend nationally on Twitter.

“We’ve added a ‘yes’ button to traditional media,” CEO Chris Teso said in a press release. “Never before has TV been activated as a two-way form of communication where consumers can respond immediately and get something in return, based on a hashtag they saw on TV.”

Chirpify also announced today that from November 2013 to January 2014, more than 300,000 people used its service to purchase or sample products, enter a promotion or access premium content. The company has raised $7.3 million to date, including a $4 million round announced this past July. Its customers include companies like Adidas, Lenovo and RCA Records.

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