Still from Facebook’s new ad campaign, “Good ideas deserve to be found.”
Facebook continues its very public defense of personalized ads with a new ad campaign called “Earning Great Ideas to Be Found.”
The company says the campaign aims to “help people understand how the personalized ads they see, help them discover new things they love, and support businesses in their community.” It will be released on TV, radio and digital platforms starting Thursday.
Facebook executives said the initiative aims to support small businesses struggling during the pandemic.
But Facebook has another motive: Apple is making a change to the iPhone that is expected to turn the mobile ad industry upside down, making it harder for advertisers to target ads to cell phones and track their performance. The change essentially requires a privacy option for users to share their advertising ID, or “IDFA,” that was previously buried deep in users’ phones and bring it to the forefront when they open an app. The change is expected to hurt Facebook’s business as early as this quarter, the company warned in a recent earnings report.
Facebook executives have publicly denounced Apple’s change for months. Facebook even launched a print ad campaign late last year arguing that the change will hurt small businesses, suggesting that online content creators should turn to subscriptions to replace lost ad revenue, forcing users to pay for what was once free.
When Apple’s changes take effect in early spring, Facebook will display a prompt to encourage users to share their information. The company began testing prompts last month that say Facebook is using that information to “provide a better ad experience.”
The new ad campaign is designed, in part, to encourage users to say “yes” to this prompt.
Andrew Stirk, Facebook’s head of corporate marketing, said the company’s survey found that 47% of small businesses fear they won’t survive the next six months, or are unsure how long they will stay afloat as the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns devastated everything. from retailers to restaurants.
But he said Apple’s changes “add some urgency to this,” he said.
“The goal is to help people understand the role personalized advertising plays for small businesses, their ability to grow and thrive, as well as the role they play in discovering ideas that otherwise might not exist, that they might not otherwise would find, ”he told CNBC in an interview this week.
What the new campaign entails
The campaign will run for 12 weeks on and off Facebook’s platforms. It features TV spots created with agency Droga5, directed by David Wilson and voiced by Grace Jones. They contain real companies and contain the phrase, “And yet for every great idea that has been hugely praised, there are so many more who never found their fame.”
The TV spots end with the text “Good ideas deserve to be found. Personalized ads help you find them.”
“We want to make sure [small businesses] are aware of the tools we provide and make that experience as positive as possible, ”said Stirk. And then we want to make consumers aware of the role that personalized advertising plays for small businesses and the ability to discover ideas. ”
The company said it provides more information on how personalized ads work on dashboards on Facebook and Instagram, and that ads for the campaign will be sent to those hubs. Companies can post on Facebook with the hashtag #DeserveToBeFound, and on Instagram there will be a sticker with similar text.
Facebook said it is also trying to make it easier for small businesses to get started with marketing. The company is waiving certain fees for businesses using Facebook’s online shopping platform until at least June this year, and paid events until at least August.
Annette Njau, whose House of Takura lifestyle brand is featured in the campaign, joined Facebook executives in a briefing. She said personalized ads as it stands will help her advertise as a larger company, but is concerned that Apple’s IDFA change will affect that.
“I’m not Louis Vuitton or Chanel right now … We can’t just blindly throw money away,” she said. “So what Facebook did with ads leveled the playing field for us.”