First UK-brokered ad deals ready for Facebook launch

Microsoft secured the deals after buying a 1.6% stake in Facebook,
founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, for £115m in October.

The software and media heavyweight secured the rights to sell banner ads
on Facebook around the world as part of the deal and has been brokering
deals with agencies and advertisers in the past week.

Microsoft is also expected to build on its relationship with Facebook in
other areas, such as mobile advertising and embedding Microsoft Live
Search into the site.

Previously, there were only a handful of ad campaigns from UK
advertisers live on Facebook, brokered through the social network's US
sales team, prior to Facebook setting up its UK office headed by former
Yahoo! commercial director Blake Chandlee.

Alex Marks, head of UK marketing at Microsoft Digital Advertising
Solutions, said that since the deal was announced, Microsoft had
received a lot of interest from firms wanting to advertise on
Facebook.

He said Microsoft had no plans to hire a dedicated team to sell on
Facebook, but that headcount would increase as a result of the deal. He
denied that Facebook's offer will impact on Microsoft's lucrative and
dominant communications tools.

Marks said: "It's right to say that Facebook is a comms platform, but
despite a big growth in Facebook we haven't seen a decline in Messenger
and Hotmail."

Facebook's UK team, under Chandlee, will be responsible for developing
integrated ad opportunities and demonstrating how Facebook's recently
launched Beacon ad platform can work for advertisers.

Chandlee has been busy putting a UK sales team in place, with most
appointments expected to start in January after notice periods have been
served. Chandlee's ex-colleagues Stephen Haines, previously head of
agency strategy at Yahoo!, and Jon Harvey, ex-group head at Yahoo!, are
expected to start at Facebook early next year.