The Sales Deck That Landed Facebook Its First Major Advertisers

In June 2004, a new website called TheFacebook was struggling to gain the attention of major advertisers, despite the best efforts of then-CFO Eduardo Saverin.

In an attempt to remedy the situation, it enlisted the help of college-focused ad sales firm Y2M, which became the exclusive third-party representative for the burgeoning social network’s ad opportunities. (Related: Inside Facebook’s Earliest Ad Deals)

It worked. In a matter of months, Y2M had brokered ad deals on “TheFacebook” with national brands including MasterCard, Paramount Pictures, Ford, The North Face, Verizon and even Apple.

Facebook continued to sell its own smaller deals, too, but this is the ad sales deck that Y2M salesman Josh Iverson took to market in October 2004.

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_1

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_2

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_3

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_4

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_5

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_6

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_7

FacebookAdDeckOct2004_8

More in Media

Media Briefing: Inside publishers’ real Cannes agenda – AI money vs agentic hype

For publishers, Cannes this year isn’t just about showing up for clients and sponsors. It’s a mid‑year checkpoint on two hard questions: who is going to pay for the open web in an AI world, and whether agentic media buying is a real fix or just a freshly branded ad‑tech tax.

Forbes tests a creator-led audience play to grow off-platform reach 

Forbes is yet another publisher tapping creators and their audiences to drive off-platform growth – with a slightly different structure.

How Lipton Ice Tea is using local creators instead of building in-house social teams 

Lipton worked with Billion Dollar Boy to activate local creators across six different markets; a new approach to global marketing