Who's Drunk On The Lure Of FB Local Advertising? Anyone?

APPARENTLY, THERE'S FEAR AND LOATHING IN FRANCE
 
The entire advertising industry is at the epic Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
 
And in Cannes, every big advertising agency in the world is confronting Facebook.
 
Facebook is there, dominating the landscape with their huge trade-show erections along the pier and on the beach.
 
They're saying, "Oui, oui! Look at us! We are also a dominant force in the world of advertising! Drink up!"
 
Cue the popping champagne corks and high-priced moaning from ad-agency executives.

Let them drink Zuckerberg's Dom Perignon even while they bemoan his marketing megalith. 
 
AT LEAST, THAT'S THE IMPRESSION ONE CAN GET FROM JIM RUTENBERG
 
He's the Media Columnist for
The New York Times.
 
He's at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity looking for The Big Story.
 
And his Big Story for the NYT on June 26, 2016, is that top advertising executives are "talking about existential threats to their business," mainly from Mark Zuckerberg's social-media juggernaut.
 
Apparently, the view among industry executives is that "Facebook's 'walled garden' makes it a new intermediary between brands and their customers, and between newspapers and their readers. That gives Facebook the potential to steal them all away if it ever chose to do so. (It says it won't.)"
 
Ha! One of the most classically pointless two-word phrases ever to pass the lips of an ad salesman...
 
"TRUST ME!" 
 
And who really trusts Facebook at all except for the chronically naïve and the hopelessly addled?
 
That such fear extends to the ad community is pah duh surpreez (as the French would say it phonetically).
 
"We'd never steal your clients!"
 
Again I say, "Ha!"
 
But here in the weekly screed, what does it even matter? How is this of any relevance to the small-business owner?
 
If you read this screed on a weekly basis, it is 100% certain that you've never been in a position to go to the Cannes International Lion Orgy Of Champagne Cork Popping On Behalf Of Catering To Epic Consumerism.
 
It's entirely possible that your annual ad spend is dwarfed by Facebook's one-week budget for spilling Dom Perignon in the white sands along La Croisette.
 
HOW DOES ANY OF THIS AFFECT YOU?
 
Have you ever even bought a Facebook ad?
 
Seriously.
 
And if you did, did Facebook advertising work?
 
Because here's how it looks from over here, on the mountaintop outside Brigham Young country where the state legislature makes it difficult to even buy a bottle of Dom Perignon, much less spill it into the slipper of an overpaid, private-jet flying global ad agency CEO.
 
Ready?
 
IT LOOKS LIKE FACEBOOK JUST DOESN'T MATTER
 
There. I said it.
 
In the world of the small, local business, Facebook advertising isn't even a blip on the radar of media mix.
 
Even for our most wildly successful clients, the idea of advertising on Facebook elicits peals of hyena-like laughter.
 
You know what paid advertising media they've found to be most effective?
 
Radio.
 
Print.
 
Local sports sponsorship.
 
Yes, seriously. We have a client who would pour money into putting his logo on a local stock car before he'd ever buy a single Facebook ad.
 
AND HIS BUSINESS IS CRUSHING IT
 
Why is this?
 
And why, as a branding & marketing agency that bangs the drum for what small business can learn from Big Brands, do we eschew the Zuckernaut of FB advertising?
 
For the same reason we would tell you to never buy a spot in the Super Bowl.
 
It might be really effective for the right advertisers.
 
But most small businesses simply do not have deep enough pockets to make it work.
 
If you're a local business, where is your local customer?
 
Yes, she might be immersed in the social-media miasma that is Facebook or Instagram 
 
BUT IS SHE PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO THE ADVERTISING?
 
As opposed to when she's driving in the car listening to her favorite local talk radio station?
 
And an actual, relevant message comes out of her car stereo reminding her that your local business is right there, in her town doing the things that matter to her?
 
If she's paying attention to the radio and the local businesses that support her radio station with salient messages, doesn't that make a whole lot more sense than an easily ignored ad on Facebook?
 
The problem with Facebook advertising for the small budget advertiser is similar to the problem described in the Jim Rutenberg article about Cannes.
 
Mr. Rutenberg talks about a shift happening in the advertising industry "to mobile phones, where more and more digital advertising is going.
 
"But the industry hasn't quite figured out how to make us regularly watch more than three seconds of a telephone-based video ad, or to click on a mobile display ad on purpose."
 
THAT'S KEY: WE CONSUMERS DON'T PAY ATTENTION!
 
The industry hasn't figured out how to make us consumers CARE about ads on our cell phones.
 
Just like it hasn't figured out how to make us consumers CARE about Facebook ads from somebody without enough money to spend.
 
Just because you build your ad there in Facebook's cornfield doesn't mean they will come.
 
Prospect behavior is key.
 
And it's very difficult to change how people use their phones and their social media.
 
AM I WRONG?
 
I know I do not in any way speak for the small-business ad industry at large.
 
But I have a suspicion that my allegations ring true for the small-business advertiser.
 
Or am I just like one of those nitwits who walks around saying, "I tried radio once and it didn't work!
 
"And therefore, radio is a waste of money."
 
A does not necessarily beget B.
 
So, what is your experience?
 
Has your business ever effectively used Facebook advertising to attract customers?
 
Have you ever actually received a return on your investment in FB?
 
Do you have any evidence to blow these snarky allegations out of the water?
 
If so, send your reply to submissions@slowburnmarketing.com and we will present it here while your faithful scribe wallows in humble pie.
As always,

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