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Trevor Kaufman: Facebook Is Not An Effective Ad Medium

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, September 29, 2010

That's right, Trevor Kaufman, the CEO of WPP digital flagship Schematic, doesn't think "the social network" is a very effective ad medium for a couple of reasons. One is that consumers don't really want advertising and brand messages when they are networking socially. And two, because the Facebook creators didn't create it that way.

"Facebook was not designed to be a particularly effective advertising medium," Kaufman said during MEDIA's Future of Media Forum in New York this morning. "I don't think advertising was in Mark Zuckerberg's head when they made that up, and we have to live with that."

Evan Williams, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, sort of acknowledged that about the social medium he spawned, but he implied that marketers are discovering other ways of using it to communicate that aren't necessarily advertising -- as we know it.

"Twitter wasn't designed as an advertising medium," he acknowledged, adding that "from the beginning" there nonetheless "have been companies there that feel it is a very useful way to get their message out there."

3 comments about "Trevor Kaufman: Facebook Is Not An Effective Ad Medium".

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Trevor Kaufman from Schematic, September 29, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
Saying Facebook is not a particularly effective *advertising* medium for brand advertising, which I did say, does not mean it's not an effective *marketing* channel. At Schematic, we recommend and implement Facebook programs for clients all the time. We just don't suggest they restrict themselves to trying to tell their whole story in the little text ads on the side.
I understand the need to print sensational headlines, but this isn't me criticizing Facebook -- the context was me talking about the impact of specific advertising units.
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