Media companies are already paranoid that Facebook could begin deciding the winners and losers in journalism, so their fears won't be allayed by the social media giant's new branded video program.
Facebook announced Thursday that it has rolled out Anthology, a matchmaker for advertising. Anthology will pair companies looking to advertise with a group of seven well-known media organizations who will produce Facebook-worthy video ads for the brands. Prospective advertisers can choose from Vox, Vice, The Onion, Tastemade, Disney, Funny or Die or Electus as partners.
Brands can still work with whatever production company they want to make ads and run them on Facebook, but
Anthology is a closed program for seven select media organizations. That's a big vote of confidence from a network with a whopping 1.44 billion monthly users.Anthology is a closed program for seven select media organizations. That's a big vote of confidence from a network with a whopping 1.44 billion monthly users.
Facebook faces three dovetailing challenges: It will need to convince people that it can create quality advertising and achieve enough scale to make the program worthwhile. At the same time, Facebook will have to be careful to avoid the label of media kingmaker, making sure not to alienate other publishers who aren't participating in the program.
The Anthology program is a way for Facebook to make money off its booming video business, which has grown significantly since the company began to emphasize its own video player. A year ago, Facebook served about 1 billion daily video views. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said on Wednesday's earnings call that number has grown to 4 billion.
Anthology serves as something of a conduit between brands and video producers. Prospective advertisers are paired with media outlets through Facebook's "Creative Shop," which taps Facebook's ad tools including audience targeting, planning, distribution and measurement. Facebook does not take a cut of any fees paid by advertisers to the publishing companies who are making the videos. Instead, Facebook will make money from the video ads that the brands choose to buy.
The program is the formalization of a business Facebook has been trying to break into for several years. Almost two years ago, Budweiser worked with Facebook and Vice to create an advertising campaign around the Made in America music festival.
Facebook and the search for quality
The move to tap media organizations that have experience making web video follows the company's emphasis on quality. Facebook has repeatedly said that anything and everything — including the ads — that show up in the Newsfeed need to be good for the user experience.
"We’ve always believed that the format of our ads should follow the format of what consumers are doing on Facebook."We’ve always believed that the format of our ads should follow the format of what consumers are doing on Facebook. The fact that there is so much consumer video, that gives us the opportunity to do more marketing video as well. It's still early days and we are focused on quality," Sandberg said on the earnings call.
Anthology, the company believes, is not only a step towards that quality but also represents perhaps the most high-profile move yet to develop deeper relations with media companies, which depend on the social network for a healthy chunk of their readership.
That's an interesting proposition, particularly as Facebook tries to woo media organizations to put content directly on its platform.
Facebook occupies a drastically important place in U.S media, particularly among companies that primarily operate online. Its referral traffic can often make or break a website. Just a couple weeks ago, a minor freakout rippled through the digital media world when it appeared Facebook was suddenly reducing how many people could be reached via the Newsfeed.
Meanwhile, Facebook is trying to attract publishers to put their content on the social network rather than linking out to their own sites. That effort has been met by widespread paranoia that Facebook could cut back on referral traffic while also taking a chunk out of advertising revenue.
Add to that concern about Facebook picking and choosing which media outlets will benefit from this plan — the New York times and National Geographic are reportedly among the initial select few — and Anthology feels like a step toward publishers' fears coming to fruition.
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