The following post was authored by James Borow, CEO of GraphEffect.
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“Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”
– William Bernbach, co-founder of DDB, (1911-1982)
As cliché as it sounds, I often think about how people worked in advertising 50 years ago. They had no Internet, no social graph to leverage for targeting and lacked a team of engineers to make cross API products a reality. Instead, they had to figure out how to make ads engaging to enable a truly viral marketing campaign (Full disclosure, I am 27 so this is what I have been told, or seen on Mad Men).
It’s with these thoughts in mind that I want to give my two cents on fMC. For anyone who did not get a chance to attend the event, please take a few minutes and watch Facebook’s VP of Product Chris Cox own the audience and articulate the point that I think most in the blogosphere and tech space missed: Facebook just initiated the systemic destruction of ads as we know it, and this will extend across the entire Internet.
They have put a system in place that forces advertisers to go beyond just getting noticed, and are creating a world where you are rewarded based on your ability to make an impression. Facebook is listening to Bernbach and reconstructing a new marketing ecosystem that resembles the old.
It is simple, brilliant and disruptive.
The most tangible evidence of this was the announcement that Sponsored Stories will now appear in the News Feed of Facebook users – and that these new “ads” can derive from both marketplace and premium inventory. Cynics say this was a move to bolster revenue prior to the IPO. The truth though is that Facebook is doing exactly what it has always said it was going to do – create a personalized world where your friends are always nearby.
That is why Facebook’s killer “ad product” is simply the natural content you would have missed in your News Feed, but instead highlighted by an advertiser. That’s it. The genius is that this is discovery in its simplest form and the opposite of spam (the digital tradition). Advertisers who only want to “sling ads” will lose. The ones who create great content and focus on engagement will win and do so at an unimaginable scale (note that the average person has 130 friends on Facebook, so the scale on this gets very big, very fast).
If Facebook continues to execute (which I think it most definitely will), then Sponsored Stories won’t just appear on Facebook.com and mobile, but throughout the wider web in general. The future of advertising is one where I won’t see traditional ads, be it on my phone, television or even while riding in the car. All ad inventory will be derived from content and user engagement.
So what does this mean for advertisers today?
Invest in building distribution on Facebook, either through your page or through an open graph application. These two assets are the key to generating stories that will serve as the foundation to push your message out at scale. Then, create great content and/or an experience that people actually care about (easier said than done, I know). If you invest in these areas and adjust your KPI’s around viral attribution as opposed to post click conversions, you are going to be in great shape.
Lastly, and most importantly, listen to what William Bernbach said and truly focus on making an impression. The days of slinging ads are over. Zuckerberg killed them. Make an impression with your audience and ironically you will unlock the scale that the “ad slingers” could only dream of in the new world that Facebook is creating.
– James Borow