Facebook also announced today that it will be kicking off an advertising campaign to promote its brand, specifically targeting 13 countries including Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Spain, U.K., and the U.S. The campaign will appear in 12 different languages and will be housed on Facebook itself initially.
The social network said in a press release attached to the announcement that it wants to express “who we are and why we exist.” The campaign is the work of agency Wieden and Kennedy, Facebook’s existing agency of record, and the first video embedded below focuses primarily on chairs. Yes, the things you sit on.
The timing of this campaign’s launch, coming alongside the 1 billion user milestone, along with the countries it’s targeting initially, could indicate that Facebook wants to expand its brand presence in markets where it already has considerable penetration. The idea might be that additional outreach and marketing efforts can help it get past a potential growth plateau and reach even wider market saturation, possibly in less tech-savvy demographics. But the strategy seems initially aimed at existing users, so it could also be the case that this is an attempt to ramp up engagement and make Facebook users feel more connected and invested to the brand, and less likely to wander. Whatever the case, it’s a well-shot, well-edited video, and it’ll be interesting to see what else comes out of the promotional effort.