Mobile Fix – Facebook
Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, on Facebook post-IPO, Facebook advertising, and Google….
Post-IPO the recriminations are turning into lawsuits. One of the smartest investors (he started buying Apple stock at $5 and sold at $600+) says the true value is around $29.
And the value for brands continues to be debated. The key question is whether the ads work. Facebook are looking at new ways for brands to measure effectiveness. One of the most interesting could involve brands being able to compare the email addresses of the people who like their Facebook page, with the email addresses of their customers. This could give them really powerful metrics on the effect of Facebook – but there are a few privacy issues.
Getting this right is crucial for Facebook, and, as Michael Wolf argues, for the rest of the web too. His point is that Facebook is just another ad supported site but if ad prices fall here the sheer scale of the Facebook inventory means that they will drag down prices on other properties.
And if media content creators can’t make enough money, they’ll stop creating content.
How does Facebook advertising work?
A personal example of the potential of the Facebook ads; Of the thousands of ads served to me on Facebook I have noticed very few. When I see that my friends like a brand that catches my eye, but I can’t really recall any of the brands. But this week I have seen ads for an imminent Soul11Soul concert. I can’t imagine they have a big budget, so they have used really effective targeting, which I don’t think any other media could deliver.
That’s advertising so good, it’s a service.
But why did I notice this ad when I have not ‘seen’ so many others? As the new book from measurement guru Robert Heath points out, it’s all about Perceptual Filtering.
Cocktail party syndrome… one can concentrate on the voice of the person talking… but it is not as if we have closed our ears to the other conversations – they can easily intrude unasked, as for example if one hears ones own name mentioned elsewhere in the room. So the incoming information, in sound and vision, is entering our brains and is there being filtered for relevance by processes of which we are largely consciously unaware.
So of all the ads seen, my unconscious knows I love Jazzy B etc and alerts my conscious brain about this one. This is how we believe online advertising works and why comScore and DunnHumby research can show that much maligned banners and buttons can perform just as well as TV for CPG brands. More to come from us on this topic.
Google now own Motorola
The deal has finally been approved. Google have confirmed that the Moto CEO will be Dennis Woodside – who used to run Google across Europe and is a really smart guy. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. We worked on Motorola a few years back and they have a good track record on innovative products – in phones and TV. If Google can capture that spirit they could be onto something.
The effect on Android is going to be interesting. The first challenge is to get rival device manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC to accept that they still have a future with Android – otherwise they could switch to other OS such as Microsoft. There is a view that we’ll see 3 levels to Android. Level 1 is like right now where anyone can use Android and adapt it pretty much as they wish. Level 2 is around Nexus where manufacturers like Samsung work with Google to develop high-end devices that make the most of Android. And level 3 is where Motorola do their own thing with Android – getting early access to the new developments.
Another view is that Google might leave Android to everyone else and develop a mobile focused Chrome Operating System that Motorola gets first dibs on.
But as they move into new areas, the bureaucrats in Brussels are asking Google to answer concerns over their dominance in search.
Interesting times.
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