You can think of marketing on Facebook in mass-media terms and not just in terms of fans: Kirthiga Reddy

Interview with Head of Facebook India

Kirthiga Reddy became the first Facebook India employee in 2010. As the India head of the $5,089-million social media giant, she has seen Facebook move from 71 million Indian users in Q4 of calendar year 2012 to 82 million in Q2 of calendar year 2013. She tells Sayantani Kar that advertisers need not think about how many people are talking about them and can actually look at capitalising on reach and frequency on it just like any other mass media. After all, Facebook, which, in 2012, got $4279 million as advertising revenue globally, is looking to drive business objectives beyond the role of a social media vehicle. Edited excerpts:
 
Do you want advertisers to go beyond 'likes'?

Marketers need to go beyond likes and they are. Fans do have a special place as studies show they are your brand loyalists and buy more. However, fans are just a small percentage of the target audience that they can reach on a medium like Facebook. Fans are just one part of the audience.

Why would advertisers want to go beyond their pages?

That is because Facebook is not just social media but mass media.

What makes you claim so?

There are 82 million active users, 62 million on mobile (not exclusive to mobile, though), and 34 million return every single day. Comscore even says that users spend more time on Facebook than other pages, even those of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google such as YouTube. Users spend 3.25 hours every month on Facebook.

With Facebook, you don't have to think about pages or people talking about you. You can think about marketing in mass-media terms. When you think of mass media, you think of reach, frequency, target audience, measurement and great creatives. Those are exactly what you need when targeting on Facebook.

So, advertisers don't always have to start with a brand page?

We have brands, especially large advertisers, who don't even start with a page to reach people for a specific business objective. After all, the platform is about 'every day, all the day'. IDC says that the average user checks her phone 150 times a day. Prime-time, then, can mean anytime of the day.

What are the ways for brands to reach users on the platform?

On mobile, an advertiser can reach users through their news-feed. We also have placements on the right-hand side for desktop use and the log-out page.

Mobile news-stream targeting would require brands to define the audience sharply for targeted reach, which is possible on our real-identity platform.

Which brands recently have used the site beyond the fan base?

Coca-Cola launched its signature property, Coke Studio, season 3 first on Facebook before going on TV. In one day, it reached 17 million people, got over 1.4 million video-plays. Its fan page in India is nowhere close to 17 million fans. It was a result of defining the target audience.

How targeted can brands get?

Samsung used our log-out page for its recent Galaxy Note III launch by having different creatives for men and women. Brands can use their own CRM data to tally with Facebook's and send the message to the right people. Tata Docomo won back 350,000 lapsed pre-paid users by targeting subscribers with recharge packs; its data pack consumption rose by 46 per cent, and during the month of the campaign, the brand's revenue increased by $2 million (Rs 12.5 crore).

But Facebook still remains a part of social media strategy. Have marketers begun to use it for business objectives?

We are seeing them lean towards driving business objectives - influencing purchase decisions and driving offline sales.

Reliance Trends recently wanted to get insights on consumer shopping behaviour. It reached out to its target audience, and had them fill out a survey. In return, the respondents were eligible for a Rs 500 voucher. The retailer saw a 3.5 times return on its ad investment. The ticket prices went up of the ones encashing the vouchers and the brand found a tangible RoI offline.

What measurements will convince a CEO of the spends?

We partner with Nielsen for measurement solutions of specific brand metrics such as ad recall. We track all traditional mass and digital media metrics such as frequency, reach, cost per impression, cost per installation (apps). There is a Nielsen study that shows there is a 70 per cent co-relation between reach and RoI. By the way, the correlation between CTR (click-through rate) and RoI is just 0.07 per cent.

Have spends gone up?

The increasing sophistication indicates budgets going up. I would not have been able to cite the same examples in 2012.

What do brands use Facebook mostly for?

Different sectors move at different pace. We have solution sets for different objectives and see a lot of activity around launches. We work with brands to think through how best to complement other media, the right measurements and the content strategy.

Do you lose out on vernacular communication?

We are supported on nine different languages on even feature-phones. Even if one uses an English interface, brands can tell what vernacular language a user speaks and can communicate accordingly.

Have you done innovations based on advertisers' feedback?

We do a lot of changes by recognising feedback. For example, our mobile app installation which lets brands, say a bank, remind their users to download an app, at the click of a button. The feedback was brands wanted users to use the apps and not forget after downloading them. We then introduced regular enhancements such as reminders for them to download a new song on a music app, for example.

Twitter is working with TV channels to tap viewer insights. Are you looking at something similar?

It is something that is important for us and if you look at the last few months, there has been a ton of innovation. Over 50 per cent of users in India say they discovered breaking news first on Facebook. We are committed to helping discovery of content through. We have recently partnered with Star India and Discovery at the API (application programming interface or beta) level.

How is it going to help the channels?

Star India can see trends of what is going on in Facebook and integrate it with its TV channels. Channels can then create a multi-screen experience for online and TV based, on such conversations.