FACEBOOK FROM P. 1
sharing user data with third-party sites,
as well displaying user activities on those
sites in the Facebook environment.
“We are listening and responding to
concerns,” a spokesman said about the
meeting. “We want to make sure our
innovations are understood and, if there
are things we can do better, we will.”
Facebook officially has a Washington
problem. But it’s not just Facebook.
The flap couldn’t come at a worse
time for online advertising, facing the
very real prospect that it will be regulated in the form of privacy legislation that
would require publishers, networks or
marketers to receive specific consent to
use consumer data for a variety of purposes on the web.
Some 20% of online ads are targeted based on online behavior, but that’s
just the beginning. A new generation of
companies, including Facebook and
Twitter as well as Foursquare and
GroupOn, are on the cusp of a new wave
of location-based marketing. It’s not
about where you are or where you’ve
been on the web—that’s so 1999—it’s
about who you are connected to and
where you’ve shopped, dined out or just
browsed shelves.
At the same time, a string of high-
profile privacy stumbles are keeping this
issue in the news and the minds of the
public. Google took international flack
from privacy advocates and governments
over its Buzz platform, which shared
users’ contacts with other users; Blippy, a
marketing start-up, let user credit-card
numbers slip onto Google search results
pages.
“The Facebook
presumption is
that privacy is
not important—
so if you really
want privacy you
have to opt in
and turn the dials
to get the privacy
you want. The
issue becomes
when people
have different
expectations of
what privacy is.”
Keep
following the
discussion on
social media
and privacy at
AdAge.com
micro-blogging service. News outlets
like The New York Times and Mashable
have published stories to help readers
decode Facebook’s changes.
Of course, Facebook needs to default
to openness because that’s where the
service derives its viral nature. The more
that is shared, the faster the Facebook
web grows.
In many ways, Facebook is still a
young company, unprepared for the battle it’s stirred up. Think Microsoft in
1999 or Google in 2004. Facebook has all
of four employees in Washington, compared to Google, which employs close to
30, and Microsoft, which has well over
100.
Facebook has a reputation for going
it alone and not getting involved in
“industry” issues, but one lobbyist
wondered aloud whether this would be a
“focusing event” in its history. What
happens in Washington could affect the
bottom line.
One former Schumer staffer told Ad
Age the senator has a strong bias toward
“opt-in;” that consumers should be asked
before their data is used.
That said, Sen. Schumer may determine that in the open web, there’s no
expectation of privacy, and that “opt-in”
presents too big a burden on the nascent
online ad industry. Sen. Schumer’s office
didn’t return a call from Ad Age.
The stakes just got a little higher,
which has the online ad business on alert.
“It’s too important an issue to be decided
by folks who don’t understand the intri-cacies of how the web works,” Will
Margolis, CEO of Innovation Interactive,
said.
LEAF FROM P. 3
process, the consumer has the final say
on what meets their budget and what
meets their expectations,” Mr. Perry
said. “From a consumer and education
awareness standpoint, we thought, if
we’re asking someone to make a decision
on the vehicle, they needed to also under-
stand what charge, if any, there would be
to get their garage plug-in ready.”
Even with those potential hurdles, in
the first eight days, Nissan scored 8,000
reservations and hopes to have more
than 25,000 by December.
Interest was also stoked by teaser TV
ads that depict the wall socket as “the new
fuel,” the home as “the new filling sta-
tion” and fully charged battery symbol
on an iPhone as “the new fill up.” The
spots are from TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los
Angeles.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Mr. Perry said people have a lot of questions, such as how far does it go, where
do I get it charged, what are you inspecting in my house, why are you inspecting and what are you looking for.
“A lot of the information is on our
website, and there’s a lot of video as
well,” Mr. Perry said. “But it’s also going
to be very personal. We are trying for a
white-glove level of treatment so you
understand what’s going on every step of
the way and what’s going to happen next.
To arrange for fueling of your vehicle is
not something you haven’t had to con-
sider before, and now the idea that your
gas station is in your garage is a big
change. They need to know what to do,
and we will walk them through that
process if they want us to.”
Iceology’s Mr. Cedergren already
likes what he sees. He said that Nissan
has done a great job in building buzz for
Leaf and has positioned itself as the
leader in electric car technology, so
much so that the automaker has the
potential to turn Leaf into another Prius.
“If the electric car segment takes off,
Nissan already has the tiger by the tail,”
he said.
CHICKEN FROM P. 2
agency Richards Group Dallas, have
stuck with cows, and “Eat Mor Chikin”
for 15 years. It’s a small but coveted business within the agency, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy said, and thus the campaign stays fresh with a new group of
creatives every 24 months. “So when
they come on, they’re already locked and
loaded with ideas,” he said.
While industry experts across the
board rave about the chain’s operations
and customer service, Mr. Cathy said his
wife recently visited a Chick-fil-A and
not only got the incorrect meal, but
thought she’d paid too much. Mrs. Cathy
then patronized a competitor, circled the
grand total on her receipt and taped it to
their refrigerator. “It said, ‘I’ll be back
when you get it right,’” he recalled.
Mr. Cathy takes such criticism very
seriously. He instituted the “second-mile
service” program at Chick-fil-A last year,
retraining the brand’s 62,000 employees
to say things like, “Yes, Ma’am,” and
“It’s my pleasure to serve you.” For dine-in customers, meals are delivered to the
table, each adorned with a fresh-cut
flower. Employees offer fresh-ground
pepper with salads. The chain’s sales
grew 9% last year, to $3.2 billion.
Popeyes chief marketer Dick Lynch
said when he arrived at the chain two
years ago, he “saw the great culinary
heritage of this brand and said, let’s get
back to the roots.” At most brands, Mr.
Lynch said, marketers have to search for
a point of difference. But at Popeyes,
there was a “real point of difference that
came right from the food”—its Louisiana
heritage. So the chain changed its name
to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and
changed its logo, from a cartoonish chick-
en to a fleur de lis. (Though founded in
Louisiana, Popeyes is now based in
Atlanta.) Mr. Lynch said the brand was-
n’t consciously glomming on to the
national swell of support for New
Orleans in recent years, but an under-
standing that regional cuisine has become
and is likely to remain trendy with food
lovers.
