jeudi 23 février 2012

Facebook's Great Advertising Expectations as TV's Risk Factors?

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Facebook's "mission" is "to make the world more open and connected".
Facebook's business is advertising (advertising accounts for 85% of its revenue, 2011).
Facebook emphasizes its value for advertisers: building long term branding and awareness. Is Facebook doing what TV and traditional offline media do, but better? Let's check the text of the IPO Filing.
  • Reach: more than 840 million monthly active users (425 million mobile users), and growing
  • Frequency: people connect many times a week, often many times a day
  • Engagement via social context and affinity ("relevance") 
  • Highly targeted GRPs (TRPs)
  • International campaigns (nearly impossible with TV)
  • Local, regional, national, international advertising: all possible dimensions, tailored to advertisers' needs
  • Richer measurements: GRPs and many new indicators to measure efficiency of campaigns (likes, comments, fans, etc.). A new advertising currency.
  • Not even to mention Facebook for mobiles (which will translate into immediate purchase):  425 million monthly users already
  • And finally, keep in mind that Facebook is the most used social media while people watch TV (MultiScreenTasking)
"Historically, advertisers interested in generating awareness or and demand for their brands have heavily relied on offline media to reach their audience at scale. We believe that these brand advertisers will increasingly dedicate a portion of their advertising dollars to Facebook because the broad audiences they are trying to reach are active on Facebook on a daily basis, because we can reach their desired audiences with precision, and because they can spark word of mouth marketing through Facebook. IPO Filing (Prospectus, Feb. 1, 2012).
To make its point clearer, Facebook mentions Walmart's huge campaign for Black Friday (cf. "Walmart, média total du jour le plus long"), Procter & Gamble, Nike (in 20 countries), American Express, etc.

If it were true ? It probably is... Facebook should now be included in TV's business risk factors.

See what the CEO of P&G has to say: "We’re using technology to shift our spending from more traditional advertising on television to digital and mobile advertising."We’re using technology to more effectively and efficiently target consumers, allowing us to build one on one personal relationships with every consumer." (Source: quoted by D. Farey-Jones in Marketing Magazine (Feb. 24, 2012).


* By the way, most of the off-line media, which are also brands, use Facebook and show off proudly with their Facebook pages and all their "likes", fans and comments. "Curiouser and curiouser", as Alice says, in another wonderland.
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3 commentaires:

Unknown a dit…

Like everything that comes without expecting in a dashing way is seen negatively and dreadly, especially by those that have the power to dictate the rules of the game ,in this case the television. But how,in the time of the ancient greece, greatly feared Democracy and rejected it, now advantages of communication via social networks are feared from the forward giant of advertising and only with the passing of time,with consciousness and more familiarity they come to accept. The worst opponent will become the best ally and it will be exploited.

José - Fribourg a dit…

I agree with you Monica. I think traditional advertising media companies are feeling a sort of vertigo when confronted with Facebook's meteoric rise. Their apprehensions might be well due to their inability to properly gauge the implications of this new medium on the advertising industry. Hence, all the speculative talk.

On the other hand, this uncertainty has not stopped these same companies from using Facebook to leverage their own company and client brands.

Personally, as relevant as Facebook might become one day in advertising, I don't think it will replace traditional media. People have a limit as to how much they use computers and phones and how much time they spend online. Ultimately, they will live their lives as they always have, essentially in the non-digital world, where they will be constantly exposed to television, radio, outdoor advertising, etc. A readjustment might take place in the composition of companies' promotional mix in favor of media like Facebook, but to a large extent traditional media will continue to play a major role in advertising.

This is my opinion at the moment, which is also speculative. Only time will show the true outcome of this phenomenon.

Fribourg
José Antonio Pérez Velarde

Carmela UniFr a dit…

While it is true that Facebook's growing popularity and success in the world of advertising may seem threatening to methods used in the past by traditional advertising companies, it seems to me that these companies have adapted quite quickly to this on-line phenomenon. I do not think that Facebook advertising will ever completely replace traditional tried-and-true advertising methods. However, as José noted, adjustments have already been (and will continue to be) made to the composition of promotional methods used by companies in order to include Facebook advertising.