Facebook plans to increase its staff by 50% this year, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
He told Bloomberg that a surplus of engineers due to the recession has presented the social network with an good opportunity, suggesting the areas of growth for the company would be on the engineering side and not commercial.
“No one else has been hiring. It has been a great environment for us because the economy has helped out,” said Zuckerberg.
Facebook currently has 1,000 employees, approximately 50 in the UK.
Earlier this month it bought social news feed aggregator FriendFeed for £30m, in a bid to improve its real-time search capabilities.
Competing social network MySpace cut staff by 30% in the US and by over 60% in the UK in July.
By Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 06 August 2009, 10:04am
Carphone Warehouse plans social media campaigns
LONDON – The Carphone Warehouse has appointed agency Face to work on a social media strategy for the brand.
The Carphone Warehouse is attempting to increase sales of laptops and broadband services, as well as its core mobile range, by engaging with new audiences. The Carphone Warehouse will use social media, experiential, consumer-interaction and word-of-mouth campaigns.
Rival Phones4u has relied on a strong viral element to engage with its core youth audience with its recent ‘Are you popular’ campaign.
The Carphone Warehouse will use Face to monitor the buzz about The Carphone Warehouse brand, and perceptions associated with it.
The company already uses Twitter to communicate with customers, answer questions and deal with technology issues but aims to increase its social media activity.
Peperami, the Unilever owned meat snack brand is turning to the public to create its next ad campaign.
The move to crowd sourcing sees the brand parting company with advertising agency, Lowe, which has handled Peperami’s advertising for 15 years.
Peperami is launching the global search on Ideabounty.com, an online creative community, inviting people to submit ideas for the next press and television ad campaigns for the brand with $10,000 (£6,000) going to the best idea.
The campaign brief goes live on the site on 28 August (Friday) and the entry deadline is 23 October.
“It’s a test to see if it works for the brand with a long-term view to using it in future advertising,” says a spokesperson for the brand.
The brand wants to retain the iconic Peperami Animal character, originally created by Lowe in 1993, because it’s such a well-known and recognised part of the branding.
Noam Buchalter marketing manager at Peperami says: “We believe Peperami is a brand that deserves radical creative solutions and are confident taking our brief out to thousands rather than a small team of creatives will provide us with the best possible idea and take our advertising to the next level.”
When the finalist is decided, the campaign will be produced by specialist agency Smartworks.
Orange is pitching its retail marketing account as part of a review of its in-store marketing strategy.
Orange store
An Orange spokeswoman says it is talking to a number of agencies, including the incumbent BD Network.
Earlier this year the mobile operator appointed Proximity to its agency roster following a pitch against several undisclosed agencies.
Other agencies on its roster include AKQA, Chemistry and Poke. Fallon handles the brand’s above-the-line work. They are not expected to be affected by the review.
Orange is planning to launch a major marketing campaign to promote Monkey, a free music service created in partnership with Universal Music and Channel 4.
The campaign by Fallon and Poke, will be unveiled early next month and encompass television, press, outdoor, online and experiential activity.
Fallon has also created an ad campaign to promote this year’s Orange RockCorps, the music-led volunteer programme.
The ad campaign echoes the Orange brand message “Together we can do more”, by showcasing the positive difference people can make when they come together.
Dairy Crest has relaunched its Clover dairy spread brand backed by a £5m investment.
The main aim of the marketing activity will be to attract health-conscious consumers and to reposition Clover as providing a good balance between taste and health with its “half the saturated fat” messaging.
The campaign kicks off with a burst of new TV advertising, created by Grey, which focuses on Clover having half the saturated fat but still with a great buttery taste.
The ad creative states: “The middle is the best of both, the happy place…
Clover is proud to be smack bang in the middle”.
The TV ads will also be supported by a new website, direct marketing, PR and promotional activity.
Dairy Crest says that the relaunch has been designed to continue the strong growth of Clover, which is currently the number one brand in the dairy spreads sector by value sales, according to Nielsen. It is also worth £79m and is the fastest growing dairy spreads brand.
Phones4u launches online community to engage youth
by Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk 25-Aug-09, 12:14
LONDON – Phones 4u is attempting to engage with young consumers to establish insight into what they want from a mobile retailer with the launch of an online survey community called the uBar.
Through the uBar, Phones 4u hopes to create a more active exchange of customer feedback and ideas, and create an ideal testing environment for new products and services.
Current and new Phones 4u customers will be invited to join the uBar via store and online at www.theubar.co.uk
uBar members will be regularly invited to participate in various research topics and surveys, including testing new mobile phones, products or marketing concepts and ideas. Monthly prizes will be given as a thank you for uBar members' feedback and opinions.
The socially interactive platform also allows them to engage in dialogue with other uBar members, socialise, share opinions and find out about new handsets and all things mobile related.
Econsultancy is an independent community-based publisher, focused on best practice digital marketing and ecommerce. Our hub has 80,000+ members worldwide from clients, agencies and suppliers alike with over 90% member retention rate.
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