Facebook – Advertising and Apps

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facebook-new-cpc-policy

Facebook applications. I consider it a minor daily triumph to remember to update my status. I feel guilty when I don’t approve a “friendship” from someone in the industry I vaguely remember meeting at a booze-fueled party (or someone I clearly remember meeting at a booze-fueled party). I don’t respond to Facebook invites. And I’ve never met a Facebook application I was interested in enough to have it cluttering up my profile. But today, not only did I sign up for the Ad Battle application, but I’ve been playing with it for an hour (purely in the interest of work-related research).

What is it? In its simplest form Ad Battle, a collaboration between Buddy Media and Atmosphere BBDO’s Jason Culbertson, is sort of like Hot or Not, but with ads. Watch two spots or look at two print ads, then decide which is better. You’re told if you voted with the majority or not and then you move on to two new ads. Anyone who’s wasted a half hour on Hot or Not or any similar website knows how ridiculously addictive this can be. But the fun doesn’t stop there.

You can upload your own contenders and see how the ads you choose fare against those uploaded by others. You can see where this would get interesting for marketers and agencies. I’d call it something similar to consumer ad testing, but I suspect most of the people playing along at the moment are people in the industry — like the folks in the “I’m in advertising … Hell yeah!” Facebook group.

Still, I can envision a marketer or two sneaking on to Facebook to see how his agency’s employees are judging advertising. It could be a problem if your creative director picks the losing ad 9 out of 10 times. (Not that I advocate Facebook stalking.)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to upload one of my favorite ads. I wonder how it’ll hold up against “Flea Market Montgomery.”

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