Shaving brand to roll out application on Facebook

The application is in the early stages of development and details have
not been revealed. King of Shaves digital director Steve Bowbrick has
said the company is exploring how best to transfer customer service to
online.

Rolling out an application would circumvent Facebook's ad rates, which
have reportedly rocketed in recent months.

Companies are increasingly looking into branded applications for
Facebook after the social network earlier this year opened up its
application programming interface (API), enabling users to create
compatible applications. King of Shaves' initiative is an in-house
project with no agency involvement.

The move is part of a larger investment in online from the shaving
brand.

King of Shaves has just rolled out a series of blogs to improve the
image of the brand and offer customer service online. The series of
eight blogs includes a community blog, a design blog and a digital blog.
King of Shaves founder Will King has also started a blog, producing news
on the brand's parent company KMI.

Facebook has featured heavily in the news over the past week after a
ratecard for advertising on the site was leaked by an insider.

The information specified that an average three-month advertising
campaign costs $150,000 (£73,700). Facebook had previously
claimed that it did not have a ratecard.

Meanwhile, in a blow for the nascent social network sector, Virgin Media
and the COI withdrew advertising from all social networks after it
emerged that branding messages had appeared on a Facebook group page for
the British National Party.

Dozens of brands appeared on the web page, some of which pulled their
advertising from the site after being alerted to the fact.