Sam Scaife - Digital Media Design BA

I'm still looking at what is possible with advertising on Facebook. I think in generating ideas it is important to consider all the variables which are available I have found several adverts which make interesting use of this.

Opinel (source)

Bleublancrouge created a stunt on Facebook for Opinel knives. Using an app called Picscatter, various images (carrot, cucumber, sausage and leek) were “chopped” and Facebook user’s were then tagged. The effect was a large chopped image across the top of the user’s profile page. These images were then be published on the Opinel Canada fan page, with instructions on how their friends could also chop up fresh new profiles pictures.

This advert makes interesting use of the users own facebook page by 'invading' it with a banner advert for the product. Its created through a Facebook app with the users permission and it put on the home page by tagging so the images can be removed by de-tagging them. Due to the social nature of Facebook this is an interesting way of pulling more people into the campaign as it creates another channel in which the advert is visible.

This have made me think of an interesting section of the Spotify brief;

Installation. All Spotify music posts feature a Play button. Clicking this button will start that song or album in Spotify. If the user isn't already on spotify, they can sign up there and then. in just a few clicks they can enjoy access to millions of tracks for free.

To me this seams really annoying! when I see a play button within my web browser I expect the content to play there. However this dose have the effect of making it a kind of in crowd who would use this where signing up is required for direct involvement, It is almost exclusive. This brings to mind the idea of small social groups, cultural elites, and the idea of being cool.

Unexpected Future (source)

It's the beginning of the year, a time to look back and reflect. Schweppes and Red Urban, Toronto believes it's also a time to look forward, to bigger and better things to come, to the Unexpected Future of 2012! Discover your unexpected future with the new Schweppes app on Facebook.

When you navigate to unexpected future from within Facebook it launches fullscreen with no reference other than the sites url that you are still on the Facebook site. with the strong image and a load of black it creates a mysterious feeling where you are then presented with 5 cards which get shuffled and one is chosen for you. You are then left to click the card and progress the experience.

After you select the care you are prompted to install the app by Facebook which kind of spoils the illusion. once installed there is a load screen which keeps getting stuck at 99% for me. so I cant actually see how it works but I'm imagining its like a horoscope style fortune telling. They do however keep subtle branding in the all the none main scenes I saw which I think might be a little over kill.

Israel’s Anti-Drug Authority (source)

McCann Digital has used Facebook’s new timeline in an interesting way. For Israel’s Anti-Drug Authority they told the story of fictional character Adam Barak’s two lives: one getting addicted to drugs, one staying clean. In a ‘split page’ style you can retrace Adam’s choices and stages of demise (or happiness).

like the Opinel advert this makes use of the profile feature of Facebook however instead of allowing you to personalise your own you get to look into the life of a fictional character. This is a really interesting idea as you use Facebook as your medium for storytelling, I think that getting a narrative which the audience can identify with is really powerful in advertising. This breaks Facebook user agreement though so the profile has since been removed. The power of this type of advert is that it get documented at the time then becomes a talking point which spreads the brand message.

For Spotify this would have to run alongside a more permanent location which the initial advert could direct people to. This would be fitting with the idea of it working within multiple channels as it could be build around an interaction between a html5 website and Facebook.