Facebook Running Out Of Cash? Good!
This week, for example, Starbucks paid to use a modified version of Facebook's calendar tool to promise US users free coffee if they vote. That kind of "branded experience" is a sign that Facebook might finally be finding ways to use its assets in a way few other sites can.
The problem with Facebook, after all, hasn't been advertiser demand, it's been the site's inability to supply marketers a compelling advertising product.
Since the Beacon fiasco, Facebook has tried to sell brand advertisers on a Google-esque automated ad buying process--in part because investors expect Facebook to eventually turn in Google-esque revenues.
Facebook won't produce these revenues, and it's unlikely that Facebook will be able to automate the sales process. But a top interactive agency exec told me last month that Facebook could make more than a few bucks -- think primetime ad rates -- selling what Madison Avenue likes to call "branded experiences":
Facebook needs to come up with ways for advertisers to be seen as providing new functionality on Facebook itself. By way of analogy, my source told me to imagine American Express sponsoring a normally congested toll road for a day. Drivers approaching the toll booths would see them empty and maybe billboard that read: "No toll today. Drive on through and see what it's like to be an American Express cardholder." Facebook should encourage users to feel like a site improvement was brought to them by a brand. Maybe Facebook's Video application should have been sponsored by Sony's CyberShot line, for example.
(Screenshot by AllFacebook)
See Also:
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Facebook Hemorrhaging Cash, Runs To Dubai For Money
It would be so simple to either a) start up it's on eBay-type offering, b) do some sort of widget deal with eBay or c) (not as easy) merge with eBay and make the experience seamless (and get Skype a seamless experience for it's users as well.
Here's how it would work: I want to sell something. I post my eBay-like ad on Facebook and everyone I know who is interested in said product would get a headsup in a seamless, non-annoying manner.
They could also make a lot of money if they were to start having a tagging feature on their photos like Flickr and then sell ads (or even the photos themselves).
I still think that Facebook should get over itself and figure out a way to merge with AOL and start to intergrate all the AOL stuff directly into Facebook. Facebook is a bunch of 23-year-olds and maybe they need to take a deep breath and realize life sucks and sometimes you have to do something that's not "cool."
If they do get funding, I sincerely hope they invest it into developing a rational user interface. I'd even tolerate a certain amount of adware noise if that's what it takes for them to return to a state of usability.
Lurking behond the next quarter is a social networking site that will really put the cat amongst the pigeons, in fact its gone behond the catergory of social networking to more of a social habitat.
No more clues but when you start to hear'Whay hay' CaChing' and 'Oh la la' the beast will be climbing to sit in its throne to rule the jungle and will for a long time to come.
Bainzy.