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Facebook Wants To Replace Morning Shows
May 10, 2016
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Facebook announced it has teamed up with ad agency, DigitasLBi, to create a mobile morning show to livestream on the social platform. The show is expected to be called "Rise and Shine" and will include local weather and segments like exercise, recipes and more.
But unlike traditional morning shows where it's typically our content first and advertisers brand around us - "Rise and Shine" will be a show using talent to create content customized to both the audience and advertisers' needs.
The show will be shaped by what brands get involved.
Clearly this is a move to separate them from traditional advertising (us). They are distancing themselves from "interruptive-style advertising," and creating a more native, product placement feel.
And before your cynical nature dismisses the idea, it might just work.
Besides the fact most of us wake up to our phones - some even making Facebook the first "tune-in" of the day - Facebook has the "cume" and "time spent" to easily grow a morning show audience and appeal to advertisers.
Mark Zuckerberg reported in the last earnings call that 1.09 billion people log in each day and the average user spends 50 minutes a day, throughout the day, checking in to see what's happening in their News Feed.
So the question is:
How are we driving social in a way that develops value for the audience and our advertisers?
It's probably time to think beyond "killing it on social" with memes and cat videos.
Think more on how we can use social to keep our brands in the hearts (and the mobile hands) of the fans, while sustaining and growing sponsor relationships.
But this is not about throwing in a value added post or tweet.
It's about creating real tactical moments and putting real dollars towards social.
And radio is set up to pull that off.
Consider the following:
- Access
Fans crave it. Clients love the opportunity.
Think past ordinary. Share your access.
Invite paying clients to invest in product placement.
Whether it's an in-studio, Facebook Live (and/or Periscope) Q&A with an artist/celebrity, or having artists'/celebs' autograph "snaps" for listeners, or an artist Twitter take-over to interact with fans - place some native advertising in with it.
- Anticipation
The best brands are those we look forward to in the social space.
But we have to earn that reputation by creating unpredictable moments consistently.
Whether it's "Tweet for Better Seats" or virtual gift cards (as seen below) - find ways each week to use social to surprise fans and build excitement for our partners.
- Attentiveness
Pay attention.
Often times we overlook the cool, organic ways to weave paying clients into our social presence, giving them a very natural feel in front of thousands.
Snapchat filters are a fun way to serve both the audience and advertiser during events:
The ideas are limitless.
But it's in these 'excitable' moments where we create the intangibles that every great brand has built its foundation on - all the while executing memorable brand building opportunities for our partners.
So whether or not Facebook's "Rise and Shine" morning show works long term, recognize where Facebook is going with this.
Brands' social assets are trusted real estate that should be monetized in a meaningful way.
Once we modify our thinking and focus on serving the audience and advertisers, we'll be offering emotional benefits fans and partners simply cannot get from radio's digital (and social) competitors.
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