Rishad Tobaccowala likes to say he worked in digital before it was cool, going all the way back to the CD-ROM days of 1993. Nowadays, he’s less interested in digital technology, but more interested in people. The chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe told the audience at Digiday Social: “People want to be god.” He said, “Any company that gives people god-like power will win. One of the most important things we have to recognize is we’re marketing to the gods.” One of the key platforms driving the people network is Facebook, which Tobaccowala sees as a “discovery engine.” Its moves today to introduce Timeline and new ways to share content certainly point in that direction. But Tobaccowala isn’t worried about Facebook’s growing power. He’s seen it before. “You have to deal with them with some reverence,” he said, but with some attitude of ‘someday you’re going down too, sucker.’”
More in Media

Media Briefing: A history of media companies getting into the social platform business, in light of BuzzFeed’s plans
In light of BuzzFeed’s plans to launch its own social media platform, the Media Briefing evaluates other media companies’ past attempts to do the same.

As independent, creator-owned media companies flourish, Rooster Teeth is looking to join the party
In the wake of Rooster Teeth’s shutdown last year, corporate ownership is starting to feel like more of a poison pill than a benefit for creator-owned media companies.

How U.K.-based creators took advantage of the U.S. TikTok outage
In the week following the United States’ Jan. 19 TikTok outage — the seven days between Jan. 19 and Jan. 25 — video creators in the U.K. posted 15 percent more content than they did during the seven days leading up to the ban.