Advertisers back Facebook move

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 09-Aug-07, 09:00

LONDON - UPDATE: Advertisers have backed Facebook's new blocking feature, after the website moved quickly to head off problems with UK ads appearing alongside contentious content.

The move, which comes less than a week after the discovery that some campaigns from brands such as Vodafone were running on a page promoting the British National Party, will come into force with immediate effect. It allows advertisers to opt out of part of the site.

The US-based website has updated its system to permit UK advertisers to avoid appearing next to listings for the estimated 6m user groups on Facebook. The move has been backed by ISBA, the voice of British advertisers.

The blocking feature, which will be offered to international advertisers at a later date, is a swift response to market concerns about buying space on social networking websites "blind" through media buying agencies.

The BNP profile appeared in the political groups section of the site and Facebook said the political party did not break any of the site's terms of use.

Facebook is in the process of building a dedicated UK sales team as part of its attempt to avoid a repeat of further problems in the UK.

This week, the Central Office of Information, the body that coordinates government advertising, said it would no longer advertise on social networking websites until it had received strong assurances it did not run the risk of appearing alongside near racist or sexist material.

Other advertisers to pull campaigns from Facebook in the last week include Virgin Media, First Direct, Halifax, the Prudential and the AA.

ISBA said it hopes the action will become a "new standard in online brand protection which will become the benchmark to which other site owners will aspire".

Bob Wootton, media and advertising director at ISBA, said: "Today's Facebook announcement has been quick and decisive and looks encouragingly like a solution advertisers can work with."

Comments

Will Callaghan - 09/08/2007

Does this block ads on all groups or can you pick specific ones?

Ben Mason - 09/08/2007

that's great that advertisers now having the option to block facebook groups, how about facebook users now having the option to block blanket advertisers? we applauded when they didn't sell out to Yahoo!, but the end result seems to be the same with advertising shoehorned into the friends' updates. Isn't about time more brands started getting clever and identifying the people using social media who will actually be interested in their offering? The information is there, and we have seen that people do respond well when provided with information they have demonstrated an interest in, so can we start using it?