fbpx

Meta Makes Marketing Strategy Changes Amid Scandals


Since spring, the social media company formerly known as Facebook has been assessing where it’s advertising and how much it’s spending on it, and has been receiving pitches from agencies looking to help manage its massive marketing budget.

Pseudo-media review — First for Meta, New parent company name for Facebook and its sister apps Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger – came to an end on Tuesday when Spark Foundry selected the agency as its new global planning and acquisition partner.

Spark Foundry, owned by French advertising giant Publicis, will cover “strategic thought leadership, media innovation, planning and investment, cross-channel approaches, tools, technology and operations,” Meta spokesperson Lisa Stratton said in an email. The global agency, which replaced the social network’s previous media partners Dentsu and Mindshare, has also recently gained business from beauty retailer Clarins and automaker Toyota. The decision does not affect Meta’s creative strategy.

Meta made the change after a seven-month review, during which time it was under intense public scrutiny and fueled by the whistleblower for harmful disclosures about business practices and the effects of their practices on young people. Frances Haugen, a former employee.

Even as the social platform grappled with scandals, major advertising companies made presentations especially for those who would become a high-profile client. Meta spent about $3.6 billion from marketing and sales in the most recent quarter, 32 percent more than a year ago. Earning the meta account gave agencies access to the social media giant’s deep pockets and massive influence.

This underlines Madison Avenue’s dependence on Meta. Most of the ad industry either already does business with the company or hopes to do so, often by placing ads on their platforms or by placing ads on other platforms for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Last month, Meta said it earned 97 percent of its revenue, or $28.3 billion, from selling ad space in its most recent quarter. Advertising Week, a recent industry conference, panels presented also by meta sponsored events for National Advertisers Association and American Association of Advertising Agencies. Meta employees sit on the boards of industry trade groups such as: Interactive Advertising Bureau and American Advertising Federation.

The ad industry gave birth to Facebook and is the “hidden hand behind all the dreaded Facebook headlines”, but has remained largely wary about the company, wrote last month’s Ad Contrarian newsletter, veteran Bob Hoffman. “While the rest of the world is fed up with Facebook’s activities, we are the industry that has the deepest connection to it and will lose the most. And yet… the crickets.”

Bob Liodice, ANA’s CEO, said in an email that the group takes brand safety concerns seriously, but that its members are “responsible for making their own investment choices to determine the suitability of a particular platform or media tool for brand building.” ”

The IAB did not respond to a request for comment. The American Association of Advertising Agencies said it will continue to address issues related to providing a secure and transparent ecosystem.

But one company, Patagonia, a retailer of outdoor apparel and equipment, said Meta stopped all paid advertising on its platforms last year due to brand safety issues.

“Internal Facebook documents released over the past few weeks have made it incredibly clear that they know the irreparable damage that lack of accountability has caused to three billion users and the devastating effects on society itself,” said Ryan Gellert, Patagonia’s CEO. said in an emailed statement.

Meta, like many other companies, works both with creative agencies that help design and produce marketing campaigns, and media agencies that help determine where the ads will go. Mostly made up of six major conglomerates (Dentsu, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP), it has relationships with almost all of the modern advertising industry and these companies control a number of subsidiaries. Meta also works with consulting firms such as Accenture, which has acquired agents in recent years, and some independent stores.

On the creative side, Accenture-owned Droga5 is Meta’s enterprise messaging and generated videos for company made time for the Olympics. Omnicom-owned BBDO runs marketing campaigns for WhatsApp and the main Facebook app. Partially owned by WPP, Johannes Leonardo took over the Instagram business from Ogilvy this spring. Meta also has an internal team known as Creative X that works on marketing.

Wieden+Kennedy, an independent agency based in Portland, was responsible for the overall Facebook brand and created the company’s 2020 Super Bowl ad. But last year, during the social network’s widespread boycott by advertisers who were annoyed by the platform’s policy on hate speech, Wieden+Kennedy chief creative officer Colleen DeCourcy said the situation “created a lot of tough conversations within the agency”.

asked time magazine He said whether he expects Facebook to become customers in 2021: “What if I was a bookie? I wouldn’t spend a lot of dollars on that space. ”

A Wieden+Kennedy spokesperson said the agency is no longer working with Meta and they parted ways in the first half of the year.

Since Facebook began spending heavily on marketing in 2014, it has entrusted the media budget to Dentsu and Mindshare, an agency owned by WPP. He began his media review in April by working with management consulting firm ID Comms, a sort of matchmaker for Hershey’s and T-Mobile this year that oversees reviews.

Two people with knowledge of the negotiations and not authorized to speak publicly, Meta said he asked participating agencies to agree to restrictive contract terms before allowing them to move on to various budget planning and purchasing practices. Meta declined to comment on the process.

People said that as Meta’s problems escalated, employees at some agencies were protesting the idea of ​​being customers of the company.

In July, Mindshare removed itself from the social network’s virtual media scrutiny. Meta took down another advertising giant, Havaş, last month. Publicis’ Spark Foundry won the field against its latest rival, Dentsu.

“We have a long legacy of leading brands through transformation and we look forward to working with Meta in the next evolution of their business,” said Sarah Kramer, CEO of Spark Foundry USA.

“Meta continues to be a transformative global partner for Dentsu International,” the company said in a statement. “Our effort to co-create integrated marketing solutions for our broad partner customers will continue unabated. We look forward to the continuation of our pioneering partnership in 2022 and beyond.”

Mindshare and Havas did not immediately comment. GroupM, which runs Mindshare, declined to comment.

Meta is also grappling with complaints about mistreatment of the ad industry. Informant Ms. Haugen said the company misled advertisers in its efforts to strengthen its platform against harmful content and sought to thwart efforts to uncover data on political ads.

eMarketer analyst Blake Droesch said the real test of Madison Avenue’s patience with Meta will depend on the company’s popularity among users. a new podcast from the research firm.

“Users leaving Facebook is the only thing that will make advertisers leave Facebook,” he said.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

(0)