I just read a post by Jeremiah Owyang, a man I truly admire, on today's announcements at AdTech about Facebook and Myspace's new social ads, and I think he is wrong. In fact, I think he's so wrong about whether this will be successful for Facebook that I not only commented on his blog but decided to post this to my own and the Social Media Club's â€" despite the fact that the Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference is only two days away and I have plenty of "better" things to do. I even think I know WHY he is wrong. He hasn't spend 35 years in marketing. He looks at it from Facebook's perspective, and not that of a consumer brand marketer. First, let's give a little. For MySpace, this has potential. Maybe I am jaded, but I don't think this will work for Facebook as well as for MySpace. MySpace has a demographic of younger consumers who are more open to peer pressure. This will work for certain types of ads on Myspace: skate and surfboards, music, cosmetics, etc. But Facebook has moved in exactly the opposite direction, going for a more sophisticated and increasingly older audience. As an "adult," I can't think of a single brand I would "friend." Not even BMW or Cartier or Chico's, or Garnier Fructis, all of which I either use or have used, own or have owned. And if "friending" them meant I would have to see their ads, I'd de-friend them even if I like them, because the presence of the ads â€" not why I go to Facebook â€" would deter me. I have other places to look at those ads. Not to mention all the marketers who will pay people to friend their brands, and start groups that game the system. I see great potential for abuse. I don't like this new idea. And believe me, I know somebody has to support social media companies. And I know marketers are struggling to get to these eyeballs. So let's talk about what I DO like. I DID like an ad I saw earlier this week for leggings from American Apparel. Why did I like it? 1)I wear leggings. 2) The ad was bright-colored, and actually stood out on the Facebook page (most Facebook ads don't) 3)It went away after a while. And I did like a Facebook Flyer from Charlene Li, a person I know, asking me to respond if I noticed the flyer. While I've been writing this post, I've been also trying to figure out what brands this could work for on Facebook. Maybe Apple? J.Crew? It will be a limited buy for the marketer, and many marketers, anxious to get into social media, will stub their toes on this one. As John Wanamaker said, 50% of his advertising dollars were wasted, but he was never able to tell which 50%.
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