DIGITAS PERSPECTIVE
April 2011
facebook studio: hello sexy
Launched on Monday, Facebook Studio is Facebook's stand-alone shrine to creative work onFacebook. The site aims to be a destination for both creative agencies and their clients alike: asource of inspiration, a collection of best-in-class executions, a place to learn about Facebookproducts and a showcase for agencies' attributed work. It's a Facebook-sanctioned celebration ofFacebook. Three cheers for Facebook!That's right. Facebook has turned into your ugly duckling friend who is finally growing out of thatawkward stage of puberty and has realized she's actually kind of cute. Now she can't help butcheck herself out in every mirror she passes.Of course in Facebook's case, she actually is kind of cute, so you can't entirely blame her.Facebook has blindsided us, after all. It's completely changed the way we think about ourbusiness. As Facebook itself points out (as they introduce their new Awards): "The way wemarket is changing. Marketers have moved from broadcasting a message to engaging in aconversation." It's absolutely true. Facebook has played a big part in allowing us to turn passivebrands into Active Brands. Well done, Facebook.So what is this Facebook Studio, exactly? Well, the site does three things, really.
It's a showcase
.
Much like Apple's iAd Gallery, the Facebook Studio Gallery is the place foragencies to strut their stuff and show off their best work. The best of this will then be featured inthe Spotlight. The best of that will be recognized with Facebook's new Awards. Ostensibly, this isabout getting your agency's name out there and establishing credibility as a creative player in theFacebook space... much like the Preferred Developer Consultant program is for technologyplayers. It also serves to promote Facebook as a platform. Visitors can "Like" work, of course,and comment on it, which makes perfect sense. This is Facebook, after all. It'd be weird if theyweren't putting their social plugins on their own site.
It's a directory.
Submitting work to the showcase will associate that work with youragency in the agency directory, which lives on the bottom of every page. There will be a shortsummary about each agency alongside links to all of its work in the gallery. There's also a "Like"tally that counts up all of the likes your work has gotten... though it doesn't appear to be perfectlysynched at this point. They're probably still ironing out the kinks.
It's an educational resource.
In the Learning Lab, Facebook presents a collection ofinformation about all of its products: from ads, to sponsored stories, to places & deals. The list issure to grow, too. There's a featured video for each topic and a handful of FAQs. They're not verydeep at this point, but it should give marketers a high level look at what the platform is capable of.More than that, it's a handy one-stop reference site that saves us all the hassle of hunting aroundthe previously scattered documentation for what we need. There's also a blog that promises toprovide updates on product launches, trends and new resources.It's a little unfortunate that there's no promise of executional support here for agencies actuallybuilding on the platform, something that's long been painful given the rapid pace with which newfeatures are rolled out. Or guidance around how to interpret the grey area in some of theirpolicies.That aside, it's fantastic that Facebook is recognizing the crucial role that agencies playin driving innovation and creativity in the social marketing space. There's a lot of amazing workout there. Now it has a home.
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Beth McCabe - Facebook Studio: Hello, Sexy
What is Facebook Studio? And how will it benefit agencies? Digitas' Beth McCabe explains.
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