Leo Burnett has today become the first agency to develop an unit for Facebook : The Comment Ad. The ad was developed and submitted as part of Facebook’s call for submissions from agencies for ad suggestions, at the 2010 Ad Expo, and announced today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ad is inherently social, as it works by allowing brands to post a piece of content, whether this is an update, photo or video firstly as an update with the brand Page wall itself, but then as an ad unit to people’s profiles. Significantly, people can then respond within the ad unit itself, making comments visible to friends. Each action within the ad unit can then be supported by a sponsored story, helping to make the ad even more social.
This represents an exciting new step for Facebook, as they show that they are clearly open to working with agencies. Indeed, Blake Chandlee, VP of global relations at Facebook said “With the most creative minds in the industry, agencies can and should be leading a new way of marketing that is personalized, social and engaging. We look forward to working with others to see future innovations that come from the agency community.” And you can see why this ad works for Facebook, as it continues to make the ad experience something social, and completely integrated within the main functions of Facebook. Unfortunately for those brands wanting to get their hands on the new ad format, Leo Burnett have exclusive use of this for 2 months.
New Facebook ad format in partnership with Leo Burnett
What is a Facebook ad anymore?
What this ad format also shows, is that Facebook are beginning to make less of a distinction between the paid and organic activity on their site. This forms part of their over-arching ambition for the Facebook platform to become a place where everything is a social object, with no distinction between people, brands, content or interactions. Everything will just become a social object, and this new ad format fits perfectly into that. We saw it first with the sponsored story, which many people don’t actually realise is paid for content. And with this new ad format allowing for commenting within the ad itself, it will become less and less clear for users just what is advertising and what is organic activity. And indeed, what originated from a brand and what actually originated from a friend. The opportunities for brands here are significant, as it presents the most real opportunity to engage with your users on a personal level, instead of being seen as a corporate identity which has a very set place within the site. Now it’s not just Pages, but actually enabling commenting with profiles.
Focus is on conversation, not Likes
What is especially encouraging about this ad unit, is that it starts to move the emphasis away from the number of Likes on your Page, and towards the actual conversation and engagement with your fans. This ad is designed for brands to start a conversation among their fans by posing a question, something that will get people talking instead of just something that will get people Liking. It’s as yet unclear how friend’s responses will translate into Likes on the Page, but given that the activity happens within user profiles, there will be less emphasis on the Likes on the Page, and more emphasis on what people are actually saying. This presents a new, welcome challenge for brands who have to get back to the roots of a good Facebook Page : the engagement, not the little number on the left hand side.
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