The Facebook ad campaign against Apple’s privacy change IDFA

Facebook continues its very public defense of personalized advertising with a new ad campaign called “Good Ideas Deserve to be Found”.

The company says the campaign aims to “help people understand how the personalized ads they see help them discover new things they love and support businesses in their community.” It will appear on TV, radio and digital platforms from Thursday.

Facebook executives said the initiative was intended to support struggling small businesses during the pandemic.

But Facebook has another motive: Apple is making a change to the iPhone that is expected to shake up the mobile advertising industry, making it harder for advertisers to target ads to mobile phones and track their performance. The change will essentially take a privacy option for users to share their Advertising ID, or “IDFA,” which was previously buried deep in users’ phones and bring it to the fore when they open an app. The change is expected to hurt Facebook’s business as early as this quarter, the company warned in a recent earnings report.

Facebook executives have been publicly denouncing Apple’s change for months. Facebook even launched a print ad campaign late last year, claiming the change would hurt small businesses and suggesting that online content makers will have to turn to subscriptions to replace lost ad revenue, forcing users to pay for what was once free.

When Apple’s changes go into effect in early spring, Facebook will start displaying a prompt to encourage users to share their information. The company began testing prompts last month indicating that Facebook is using this information to “provide a better advertising experience.”

Part of the new ad campaign is designed to trick users into saying “yes” to this prompt.

Andrew Stirk, head of corporate marketing for Facebook, said the company’s research found that 47% of small businesses are worried they won’t survive the next six months or don’t know how long they’ll stay afloat when the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have devastated everything. from retailers to restaurants.

But he said Apple’s changes “add urgency to it,” he said.

“The goal is to help people understand the role personalized advertising plays for small businesses, their ability to grow and prosper, and the role they play in helping uncover ideas that may not exist. maybe not otherwise, that they might not find otherwise, “he told CNBC in an interview this week.

The campaign will run for 12 weeks on and off Facebook platforms. It includes TV spots produced with the Droga5 agency, directed by David Wilson and voiced by Grace Jones. They feature real businesses and include the phrase: “And yet, for every great idea that has been acclaimed, there are so many more that have never found their fame.”

TV spots end with the text “Great ideas deserve to be found. Personalized ads help you find them.”

“We want to make sure that [small businesses] are aware of the tools we provide and make that experience as positive as possible, “said Stirk.” And then for consumers, we want to raise awareness of the role that personalized ads play for small business and the ability to discover ideas. ”

The company said it was providing more information on how personalized dashboard ads work on Facebook and Instagram, and that ads for the campaign will be heading to those hubs. On Facebook, businesses will be able to post with the hashtag #DeserveToBeFound, and on Instagram, there will be a sticker with similar text.

Facebook said it is also trying to make marketing startup easier for small businesses. The company is waiving some fees for businesses that use Facebook’s online shopping platform until at least June of this year, and for paid events until at least August.

Annette Njau, whose lifestyle brand House of Takura is featured in the campaign, joined Facebook executives in an information call. She said personalized advertising in its current form is helping it advertise like a big business, but is concerned that Apple’s IDFA change will impact that.

“I’m neither Louis Vuitton, nor Chanel, at the moment… We can’t just throw money away blindly,” she says. “So what Facebook did with the ads, it leveled the playing field for us.”