Facebook is working on the next generation of mobile ads.
The company is showing mockups of an immersive ad product to marketing industry executives this week at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in the south of France. It’s a work in progress; Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox emphasized during a presentation on the Cannes stage on Tuesday that he was showing off what mobile ads might look like on Facebook down the road. By bringing the mockups to Cannes, Facebook is able to get feedback from industry reps, many of the people who the company hopes wil be purchasing these ads in the future.
Facebook’s vision is an ad that opens full screen and gives people the ability to manipulate the content — photos, videos, GIFs and even 360 degree views of the product. Advertisers would in effect be able to create an alternate, interactive version of their websites on Facebook.
“Rather than looking at an image of a watch, or a video, you’re encouraged to pick it up and look around it, because it’s a beautiful piece of jewelry, the kind of thing you want to turn around in your hands,” Cox explained during his keynote presentation.
Here’s the demo video that Cox showed during the keynote (courtesy of Re/Code):
Facebook already depends on mobile advertising for the majority of its revenue — 73% came from mobile ads in the most recent quarter — so it’s no surprise that it is working to give marketers better ways to display their wares on mobile devices. With 1.25 billion mobile active users, about 500 million of which only access Facebook on mobile devices, the audience is there and growing.
“We’re trying to give marketers a canvas that’s more engaging,” Cox told the Wall Street Journal.
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