AR&D Reinventing Local Media

We’ve suggested before about the power of advertising on social media networks. Here’s some proof why.

On the day after the election, The New York Times purchased ad space on the front of Facebook, along with an interactive question (”What should Barack Obama do as his first post-inauguration action?”). In addition, Facebookers could “gift” each other a virtual copy of the Times’ front page from November 5th, with the headline “Obama Wins.”

Was it a success? An internal memo from New York Times President Scott Heekin-Canedy positively gushes:

“From our perspective, the (campaign) was a great success, garnering us 4.3 times the value of our spend. We reached 68.3 million individuals with our brand message. We increased our number of fans more than three times in just 24 hours — from 49,000 to 164,000 — and in the process far exceeded our 2008 goal of 100,000 fans. And we engaged the Facebook community in a lively conversation (more than 34,000 comments shared) on which issues are most important for the President-elect. More than 400,000 New York Times “gifts” were given by Facebook users to their friends. Possibly the greatest success of this campaign, however, is that our fans continue to rapidly grow (181,000+ fans as of November 19 ) into a powerful, free word-of-mouth network that we will leverage for future marketing messages.”

68 million people got the brand message. That’s about three times the audience of a top-rated TV show these days. 100,000 people actively signed on to “friend” Facebook, effectively volunteering to get future marketing messages. The Times was at the center of the Obama conversation on Facebook the day after the election. Good investment.