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Sarah Shearman states that despite having 600m ‘friends’ across the globe, Facebook has, of late, been turning its attention to the befriending of brands.
Glimpses into its strategy of recruiting brands by developing a platform that allows for more advertiser creativity emerged earlier this year, when Facebook held its ‘Influencer Summit’. It flew in top creatives and executives from UK ad agencies to its offices in Palo Alto, California, to discuss exactly what brands want from the platform and how they can work together.
The facebook portal invites brands and agencies to upload their best Facebook campaigns, that allow them to throw down the gauntlet for members of the creative industry to discuss their effectiveness, choosing whether or not to ‘like’ the work.
Sarah Shearman states that popular campaigns featured on the portal include Coca-Cola’s ‘Like Machine’ and Reinert Sausages’ ‘Wurst Face-App’.
She furthers to say that while Facebook Studio could be viewed as a mouthpiece for marketers to blow their own trumpets, Facebook wants it to be a valuable resource for creating effective campaigns, even featuring tutorials through its ‘learning lab’ tab.
David Parfect, Facebook’s agency sales group head, says ‘we are always listening to feedback from brands and trying to make any changes on the site easier to understand,’ he explains. ‘Facebook is giving brands the opportunity to see what more the platform has to offer, beyond just buying an engagement ad.’
The latest figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau shows brands increasing their marketing spend on Facebook, with social media accounting for a 200% surge in display advertising growth. But it is the wider opportunities beyond paid-for media that are capturing brands’ attention and shaping Facebook’s strategy.
Sarah Shearman (Brand Repubic) states, the launch of Facebook Studio is a very positive step. It is a community within a community, bringing together the best talent in social media and allowing them to interact and gain inspiration from one another.
Ultimately, this will enable facebook to push the standards of our creative higher, resulting in a more engaging social media space.
Marketers are gearing up to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in buying their own brand as online domain names, amid fears that the new URLs will provoke confusion among consumers.
From next year, the scale of the internet is set to expand significantly as more and more domain names hit the market, many are sceptical and fearful of the news.
The new positioning also marks the renewal of Coca-Cola’s media partnership with ITV1 and prime time TV ads will carry the existing “Saturday night tastes better with Coca-Cola and ITV1” tagline.
The campaign will also feature outdoor and radio activity, communicating a new strapline: “meals taste better with Coca-Cola”.
Zoe Howorth, market activation director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, says: “Celebrating the role of the Coca-Cola family at mealtimes, the activity showcases the brands as an enhancer of happiness, helping to bring families together to share precious moments.”
The TV ads were created by McCann Erickson and will run every Saturday night until the end of the year.
