Faces of Facebook – Steve Rubel

Digital Communications…

I spend a lot of time gazing into a crystal ball that I know is going to be cloudy half the time. Lately I have been pondering Facebook’s future.

Facebook is clearly on a roll and is knocking on Google’s door as the biggest site on the web. Will it continue to dominate or see its lead slip? Here are two potential outcomes.

The Google Scenario: In the more rosy picture, Facebook remains the disrupter. It transforms how we use the web.

Just as search changed our expectations that everything we want to know is accessible if we Google it, Facebook is the inverse. If information is important, it will find us through our friends and their friends and so on. We don’t have to Google it.

Digital Advertising

Digital Advertising!

Oct. 27 marks the 15th anniversary of the industry’s first banner display ads, which appeared on Hotwired.com. To the many of you reading this who weren’t in the business back then, that’s not a typo; I’m not referring to www.HotWire.com, the travel site, but HotWired — the first commercial digital magazine on the web and the offshoot of Wired magazine.

For us, it started with a speech. It was May 1994, and Ed Artzt, the chairman of P&G at the time, made his landmark speech at the 4A’s meeting in White Sulphur Springs, WV calling for marketers and their agencies to dive headlong into the “new media” revolution or be left behind.

My boss and mentor Bob Schmetterer, president of Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer (MVBMS), a unit of Euro RSCG, was in that audience and he was totally energized by Artzt’s challenge. It’s important to note that our largest account at the time was MCI, which employed Vinton Cerf — the “Father of the Internet” — as VP-data services.

The Five Biggest Digital Marketing Cliches

Why Marketers Use Them, Why They Often Don’t Work and What to Do Instead

DigitalNext

Once upon a time — say, 2002 — digital spending was a negligible proportion of total marketing budgets and we lived in a world where few marketers would dare go “beyond the banner.” Fast forward to 2008 and in some cases we have the opposite problem. Digital spending is still too low, but in the spirit of wanting to appear current some marketers have rushed to embrace any and every new digital tactic on the horizon.

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Letterman YouTube Video Outdraws CBS Clip Tirade Against McCain Gets 10 Times as Many Views

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Sen. John McCain’s snub of David Letterman last week may have deprived the “Late Show” host of some needed star power last week, but it’s given him a hit on the web. So far, video of Mr. Letterman’s tirade against Mr. McCain, who bowed out the day of the telecast, has generated more than 3.5 million views on YouTube. One problem: CBS is barely making a dime from the clip.

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Budweiser Ads Aim to Calm InBev Transition Fears

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The $52 billion acquisition deal that will make Anheuser-Busch part of the Belgium-Brazilian company InBev has a lot of people wondering about their beer. What happens to iconic U.S. brands such as Budweiser once Anheuser-Busch is no longer a U.S. company? VP-Brand Management Keith Levy admits there are fears about change and that Budweiser’s new advertising campaigns are being carefully tailored to address those concerns.

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Coming Soon From Paramount Pictures: Digital Feature Films Division Inks Exclusive Deal With Hollywood Producers for Full-Length Web Content

Madison & Vine

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — In a first-of-its-kind deal for the division, Paramount Pictures’ Paramount Digital Entertainment is entering into an exclusive partnership with two Hollywood execs to create and produce feature-length films for distribution online and through other digital media.

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GM to ‘Pull Back Slightly’ on All Media in 2009

For First Time in Years, Decreases Digital, Won’t Advertise in Super Bowl

DETROIT (AdAge.com) — General Motors Corp. plans to cut its digital-media budget after dramatically increasing it in the past few years, the automaker’s North American marketing chief told Advertising Age.

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New York Flash-Mob Group Partners With Yahoo A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Improv Everywhere, a flash-mob organization whose dramatic events have drawn high-profile attention in New York, has signed its first commercial partnership — with Yahoo. In one of its happenings earlier this year, more than 200 members of the art group infiltrated rush-hour commuter crowds in Grand Central Terminal. And then at precisely the same instant, all 200 froze in place for five minutes. As part of the Yahoo sponsorship deal, Improv Everywhere will be organizing happenings this fall in New York, Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco.

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For the Future of Digital, Get Your Head in the Cloud

Steve Rubel on Digital Communications

Here are three trends for marketers to watch as the concept of cloud computing heats up.

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Facebook Proposes ‘Engagement Ads’

It’s the next step in the evolution of Facebook Ads, and don’t expect the Beacon disaster to be revisited. Instead, the network’s biggest challenge is likely to be the education of advertisers.

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Is Digital Being Overhyped?

As consolidation and the quest to build the largest display network continues, it’s time to ask just what exactly is everyone chasing. For all the new media spin, is it just old media? FULL ARTICLE

Why Digital Marketing Needs a Reboot David Armano suggests marketers are too often reaching for toolboxes from the past and often ignoring how people really use the web. FULL ARTICLE

What Marketers Can Learn From Twitter’s Stumbles Its nonresponse to downtime is losing it fans. And in other news, has Twitter jumped the shark? FULL ARTICLE

Creativity Top 5: July 21

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, Leo Burnett lays an egg on Chicago for McDonald’s, Sweden’s Forsman and Bodenfors asks us to step inside Ikea’s closet, Mother, New York and Spike TV point out some Star Wars life lessons, director James Frost lends some tech wizardry to Radiohead, and Carl Weathers takes a break from drama coaching to let people know that change is beautiful. » Read more

Calling All Artists: Creativity/Penguin Book Cover Contest Deadline Extended to August 1 Thanks to the dedicated artists who have submitted entries to our talent contest, co-sponsored with Penguin Books. We asked you to design a cover for Sam Taylor’s upcoming novel, The Island at the End of the World, and from the covers we’ve received so far, it’s very clear that this will be a difficult contest to judge. And now, we’re going to make it even more difficult. Due to a tremendous number of requests, we’ve extended the contest deadline to Friday, August 1. Get those brains, brushes and mice working! See full contest details here. » Read more

People news from The Viral Factory, Avenue A | Razorfish and more Digital agency The Viral Factory hired award-winning interactive copywriter/CD Glenn Sanders (pictured) as its creative director. Sanders, a former ACD at TBWA/Chiat/Day/Tequila, will be based out of TVF’s Santa Monica office. … Avenue A | Razorfish, Seattle promoted David Hartt to group creative director. … » Read more