Social Networking

Are consumer advertising mashups as beneficial as today’s buzz suggests?

When Mixercast announced in June that its ad mashup initiatives surpassed one billion monthly page views, social advertising supporters celebrated. Soon after, the Contagious and Leo Burnett agencies delivered a pro-mashup presentation at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Ogilvy Worldwide proclaimed “revolutionary” mashups the Dada of the 21st century.

But there’s a flip side to each promised benefit.

Has Facebook cracked it? Will their new suite of “Engagement Ads” be the answer to social marketers' prayers? Eight major advertisers, including Adidas, General Mills-owned Betty Crocker, and DreamWorks Pictures will be testing the first three new Facebook ad formats starting next month.

For TV fans who are into shows like American Gladiators, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother, and WWE Friday Night Smackdown, the tvClickr(TM) application launched recently represents a brand new viewing experience. It lets Facebook users interact with TV and each other in real-time while watching the live action.

Starting this week and continuing for a year, luxury brand Cartier will feature branded pages on MySpace to promote its “Love by Cartier” product line.

Headlines of doom and gloom continue to forecast that social media will never produce the piles of money that marketers have dreamed of. So where’s the good news?

News Corp.'s MySpace is set to release a major redesign next week, company representatives said late Thursday evening. The site doesn't look that different; it's still clearly MySpace. But a number of features have been revamped to improve user experience: namely, the homepage, navigation tools, profile editor, search features, and the MySpaceTV player.

The question of whether social network sites will become major centers for online marketing is one that Debra Aho Williamson and David Hallerman have debated for the past couple of years.