Remember that thing earlier this year when a Facebook executive predicted that the News Feed will be “probably all video” in five years? That’s still a long way from happening, but the company most certainly wants its users posting more video — particularly using Facebook Live.
To that end, Facebook is launching an ad campaign this weekend in both the US and UK to promote Facebook Live. It’s a two-phase effort beginning with ads focusing on increasing awareness of the Live video platform, followed by a second phase focused on showing users how to use Facebook Live. Phase one kicks off this Sunday night (October 23) in the UK and Monday (October 24) in the US, and will run for about two weeks. The tutorial phase begins on November 7.
There’ll be digital ads running on Facebook and around the web, and there’ll be TV spots, as well as out-of-home ads in airports, on buses and billboards and elsewhere. Facebook CMO Gary Briggs says all of the content being used for the entire campaign was shot on a phone with Facebook Live, and none of the content was scripted.
The ad push comes at a somewhat curious time. You may recall Facebook’s announcement back in April that Live would get a prime spot among the main tabs on its mobile home screen. That’s only happened for a small percentage of Facebook users. And just a couple weeks ago, Facebook changed its mind and said its new Marketplace product would get the tab that Live was supposed to get. Just when you might’ve started to think Live wasn’t as much of a priority for Facebook, here comes a new ad campaign that suggests otherwise.
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