Facebook says the coronavirus pandemic has 鈥渇orced鈥 clients to do more online as the social media giant touts its own role in 鈥渂uilding brilliant brands鈥, even as it faces another boycott over hate speech 鈥 this time by celebrity users.
鈥淚t was on every client鈥檚 horizon that you needed to do more in the online space but the pandemic forced us to do it鈥 has been a common view among clients, according to Nicola Mendelsohn, vice-president of Facebook in EMEA, who talked about 10 years of change being "concertina-ed" into 10 weeks.
She was speaking as Facebook launched a new book, , with chapters written by more than 20 marketing and agency chiefs from the company鈥檚 client council. They include: Aline Santos, executive vice-president of global marketing, and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Unilever; Dean Aragon, chief executive of Shell Brands International and global vice-president brand at Shell; and Benjamin Braun, chief marketing officer for Europe at Samsung.
Facebook has a reputation for driving business performance and sales through targeted advertising but Mendelsohn maintained the company鈥檚 family of services and apps, which include Instagram and WhatsApp, are also effective at building brands and creating desire.
鈥淲e often try to categorise, 鈥榠s it this or that or the other?鈥,鈥 she said, referring to the debate about brand-building versus performance marketing.
鈥淯ltimately, you want to convert down into the sale but if you [as a consumer] don鈥檛 know you don鈥檛 want [a product] in the first place, then you can鈥檛 go there,鈥 she said, explaining the growing importance of what she called 鈥渄iscovery commerce鈥.
She added: 鈥淭he [Facebook family of] platforms work across [the marketing funnel], whether you鈥檙e looking to drive brand and awareness and get reach or whether you鈥檙e looking to convert into performance and sales.鈥
Discovery commerce requires brands to move their focus beyond 鈥渢he narrow opportunity to capture existing intent鈥 and 鈥渢hink about how they generate fresh demand鈥, which 鈥渕oves ecommerce from a bottom funnel activity to a full funnel one鈥, Mendelsohn writes in her chapter.
The publication of the book came on the same day (16 September) that several celebrities, including Kim Kardashian West, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lawrence, said they would suspend activity on Facebook and Instagram.
It is the latest effort organised by Stop Hate For Profit, a US campaigning group, which persuaded several hundred advertisers to pull their spend from Facebook and, in some cases, from other social media platforms during July or beyond because of the rise of hate speech and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Facebook has nine million advertisers so the advertiser boycott had reputational, rather than financial, impact.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been an incredibly difficult and challenging period for us,鈥 Mendelsohn said, speaking about the July boycott and before news that Kardashian West was suspending her activity on Facebook.
鈥淥ne of the things that鈥檚 particularly difficult about this is that often if you have somebody that is boycotting something else, it鈥檚 usually because you鈥檙e in dire opposition to what one side wants versus the other and that isn鈥檛 the case [here].
鈥淲e care exactly the same way [as critics] because we share their goals. We don鈥檛 want hate on Facebook and we鈥檝e been very clear about that for a long time. Some people think we profit from hate and that isn鈥檛 true at all either.鈥
Mendelsohn added: 鈥淲hat we do need to do is a better job of explaining how we define it [hate speech] and also how we go about removing it.鈥
She said Facebook has already taken action by changing some of its policies around hate speech and increasing dialogue with civil rights organisations and with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an industry alliance of brands, agencies and tech companies.
鈥淔or the most part, advertisers have come back on the platform because of the actions that they can see that we are taking but also because of the effects of the use of our platforms in talking to the customers that matter to them,鈥 Mendelsohn said.