3 things to expect from Facebook’s inaugural marketing conference
Last week, Facebook announced its inaugural marketing conference, to be held in New York City on February 29th. Anticipation and speculation are high for this first-of-its-kind event, as marketers in all verticals anxiously await innovative new products that will compose a growing portion of next year’s ad budgets.
Even if you weren’t invited to the one-day gathering in New York City, you can watch online here, and continue to follow our blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for live updates on the developments. Additionally, while we’ll provide more details once they are available, here are three things you can expect that will emerge:
1. Timeline for Pages:
Since the introduction of Timeline at Facebook’s F8 conference in September, page managers have been eager to use this new platform to enhance their brands. According to Ad Age and other sources, Timeline for Pages will make its debut next week in New York. What does this mean for you?
Creative flexibility to tell your brand’s story.
Do you have Timeline? If you do, you know that it has wholly enriched the ability to tell your life story online. For politics, where a candidate’s story is everything, Timeline will turn Facebook into a destination where voters can find out not just what’s going on now with a politician, but the entire story that led them to run for office.
Need an example? Watch the Timeline video that Facebook released at F8, and replace the subject with a political candidate. You just watched a pretty decent biographical ad.
Also on the horizon: As Ad Age said, watch out for changes in the way that apps and tabs work. You might just see them integrated into Timeline pages the way that Open Graph apps are integrated into Timeline profiles.
2. Mobile advertising
In Facebook’s S4 statement filed with the SEC earlier last month in preparation for going public, a huge emphasis was placed on the importance of mobile advertising in Facebook’s business model. Next week, according to rumors, expect them to deliver on this potential by introducing a mobile ad platform that caters to their 425 million mobile users (not a typo).
What will this platform look like? There are few details available, but look for ads to exist within the newsfeed promoting existing social content. Also anticipate the importance of geo-location in targeting. Campaign Solutions has long innovated in the mobile advertising space, and we’re thrilled to apply this expertise to include Facebook’s capabilities. Imagine targeting only people at your rally with ads to like you on Facebook. It’s a brave new world.
3. Expect the unexpected
What’s a high-profile, invitation-only event without intrigue? Facebook’s culture of innovation continues to surprise us, and I expect at least one development that will dominate the tech press for at least a few days. What will it be? Comment below with your best conjecture.
Takeaway: Timeline and mobile advertising would be huge developments in the evolution of brand management on Facebook. One might even call them giant leaps forward (It’s a leap year, I’m here all week.) In any case, stay tuned to Campaign Solutions in the next week for updates on these developments and what they mean for political brand managers.