Short Takes: Facebook’s Agency Challenge

There was a time when Madison Avenue was obsessed with the threat from Google. The idea was Google, with its near limitless financial resources and engineering might, was hell-bent on automating the ad industry and cutting out agencies in the process. That didn’t happen. Now it’s Facebook’s turn to feel the concerns. Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, has a piece up on Harvard Business Review that makes a credible case for why Facebook is moving in a direction that will irrevocably change with media-buying agencies do. Media agencies tend to buy commoditized “nouns” (impressions, clicks, etc.) while Facebook wants to move to sell “verbs” (likes, shares, etc.) Like the Google threat, this one probably won’t materialize to much. Facebook needs agencies to convert its enormous attention into a similarly large media business. There will be room for media agencies to tap into Facebook’s enormous trove of data to do impression-and click-based buying, as Schafer himself notes. Read the full post here.

More in Media

TV with dollar sign representing balancing multichannel tv advertising to create revenue.

Streaming is the next frontier for Walmart’s, Kroger’s ads businesses

Walmart and other retailers have also recently invested in the ability to integrate their shopping data into video platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

‘A Super Bowl every two days’: Inside Unilever’s 50,000-creator World Cup play

50,000 creators activated globally, massive in-person pop-ups in host cities, and more are all part of Unilever’s World Cup creator push.

Amazon expands media footprint with iHeart sales deal and new TV outcome tool 

Amazon is deepening its role in streaming advertising with an expanded iHeartMedia sales deal and outcome-based TV buying technology.