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If you had any question about the future of Facebook and it’s ability to make a dent in the television advertising business, look no further than Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest global advertiser. With a 2009 advertising expenditure of $9.73 billion, P&G has the greatest influence in global marketing. So what was the company saying at today’s “Innovation Outreach Venturing Day” in the Bay Area? Facebook is the future.
According to David Hornik, P&G is sees a brilliant future ahead for Facebook. In fact, they are so bullish on Facebook that they believe the company is on track to reach “5 billion people”. Read the excerpt from David’s post:
It was particularly interesting to see how bullish they are on Facebook. In a small group discussion about social media, one of P&G’s technology leaders talked about Facebook’s growth trajectory and how they are on a path to serve 5 billion people. Accordingly, P&G feels that it needs to have a significant presence on Facebook. If you are wondering if Facebook is making any money, you need look no further than P&G. It is clear that Proctor & Gamble is working with Facebook in a big way — as an advertising platform and a brand destination. P&G’s explicit goal for 2010 is to assure that each of its brands has a meaningful presence on Facebook and they are willing to pay dearly for that. And while P&G’s thought leaders expressed some skepticism about the efficacy of Facebook’s “engagement ads,” they certainly view Facebook as a must-have for digital advertising and brand building. They didn’t quantify what they are paying for that exposure, but it is quite clear that the numbers are very big.
Even more interesting was the company’s position on Twitter:
Perhaps as interesting as P&G’s love of Facebook, was its skepticism about Twitter. They described Twitter as “much more like television than one might think.” To P&G, Twitter is a great broadcast medium — it is best for one to many communications that are short bursts of timely information — but as good as it is for timely information, the P&G folks do not view it as particularly relevant to what they are doing on the brand building and advertising side. For those things that Proctor & Gamble thinks are most interesting and important, they do not believe that Twitter will ever approach the value they can get out of a Google or Facebook.
While a sampling of a few P&G executives does not paint an entire picture, it most definitely holds a significant bearing given that the company outspends the second largest global advertiser, Unilever, by almost a margin of 2-to-1. Facebook is still in their growth process and while P&G executives are not sure that Facebook’s engagement ads are the best way to go, it’s clear that the company is highly invested in making Facebook an increasing part of their ad expenditure.
P&G image via BrandWeek
First of all, I declare myself as a big fan of AllFacebook.com. You are one of our favorite Facebook sources. We always try to keep our german followers up-to-date, and we refer often to your postings. And sorry for my English, if there are any mistakes in this post.
We would like to say a few things about P&G and their view on Facebook Fanpages. As you can see on their Pringles Fanpage, they don’t use it 100% regarding professionality, tools and monitoring. Their fanpage, with more than 2,8 million fans, gives the impression that they never monitor, assist or control what happens on it, even they don’t communicate. If it is not their proper fanpage, maybe the fanpage of a real fan, the page is seen as the official Pringles page by Facebook users. So they have to react, at least together with the fanpage admin.
For example: Would any other brand accept postings like that one posted on december 28: “Pringles is manufactured and/or distributed by Procter & Gamble; which is a company who has for a long time used animals in tests of it’s products. Please don’t support them if you care about animals.” http://www.facebook.com/Pringles?v=app_6261817190&ref=search
Would any other big brand let the fans alone, without communicating brand infos, news, updates, games or anything else for about half a year? (You can see it on the wall: The last two postings are dated january 18 and july 25)
One can say, that they embrace the “real Social Media”-way of using the Fanpage in trying to let the community communicate itself without any control. But we think, that every fanpage has to be administered, at least to avoid damages to the brand or to persons concerned (even battles between fans). It does not leave a good impression. This is a surprise, as we all know, that big brands spend a lot of money to leave good impressions via Advertising. So hopefully they try to optimize their Facebook presence.
Mmm animal testing 4 u
Interesting read for marketers who work on P&G.
P&G,unilever has reason- they cannot suggest, propoqe, that one day .. facebook and twitter are ONE - I love that idea…and it is a good solution for.. a lot of facts
That’s really valuable knowledge for people like me
/ Henrik
is the thin ice for them, a fanpage of product, where they want the fans being loyal consumers, loyal without question, on the open networking mainly friend based platform, hard to be a friend with someone who does not speak to you, just acts from position of bold, large and that way desiring respect, the one who has something what you want, and he gives u for money.
I believe must be a challenge for cold blooded calculators, every step programmed, and proofed, to apply such on friendly behavior, while their only interest is that you pay, leaving us with as less information as possible, because the truth behind their products, is really nothing you actually want to know, and the truth is better not to say, while it can became a weapon against them self …
that way not that many information, they know that there is potential, but to act really honestly is not their strongest point, hmm… and since the social networking space is getting soo crowded, and the content value and engagement becomes to be the recognized value, instead just being present there, where the others are, I am curious how they will deal with that thin ice, they made them self standing on, the friendly behavior, of connecting network, when they can not be a honest friends..
so far they better shut up, stick with generous bullsh*t and be there, but won’t last too much longer
anyway ..no problem for procter, they are clever, very clever they will grow on us, no worries :))))))
there will be the consumer marketing stuff applied on us, the discounts and sales, bullish = bullsh*t