Ad Agencies Show Willingness To Forgive Facebook’s Beacon Missteps
By David Kaplan - Mon 10 Dec 2007 06:49 AM PST
The concern over Facebook’s Beacon ad system appears to be waning quickly into a non-factor among media buyers, Mediaweek reports. Not only are advertising agencies unlikely to pull their ads from Facebook, some are giving CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company credit for taking a risk. What matters now is how the social net handles future marketing initiatives.
Facebook’s troubles began with a protest initiated late last month against Beacon by left-wing activist group MoveOn.org, which said the program violated users’ privacy by automatically listing members’ purchases from Facebook’s partners in other members’ news feeds. A series of small steps designed to ameliorate those concerns only seemed to add to fuel to the fire, contributing to Facebook’s sudden tone-deaf image. Then, last week, Zuckerberg issued an apology, promising that the social net would simplify the process of opting-out of Beacon.
Mediaweek’s general surveying of digital ad shops’ opinion show that Facebook has a small window of time to repair the damage to its brand and its relationship to its users. Most agencies say they’ll take a wait and see approach, noting that its significant membership numbers make it impossible to write off. In comment that reflects the feelings of many of the agencies, Scott Shamberg, SVP, marketing & media for Critical Mass, tells Mediaweek he was “disappointed they missed something that is so glaringly obvious” - namely the need to be more transparent about its marketing moves and gauge its users feelings about what’s acceptable.
Posted in: Advertising, Marketing, Companies, Facebook, Social Media, Community
