Inside Facebook’s Pitch to Win Gen Z: An Interview with Tom Alison, Head of Facebook
Inside Facebook's Plan to Get Gen Z and Content Creators to Care
GM everyone, hope you’re having a lovely morning.
ICYMI: I announced the Who Do You Know? Run Club yesterday. Join me this Saturday at 8am as I train to run the entire 31 mile perimeter on Manhattan in a few weeks. Go sign up on Strava here.
In today’s letter:
Can Facebook Get Gen Z to Care? An Interview with Tom Alison, the Head of Facebook.
Apple’s AI Announcements and Bad Design
Merch is Far From Dead
Vice is Back… on Beehiiv?
Rhode’s New Product and Hailey Bieber’s ‘Creative Direction’
Can Facebook Get Z to Care?
The other week I was invited to Facebook IRL, a buzzy influencer event in SoHo where Facebook made their pitch to the creator community that it is a platform they should consider using.
I was skeptical at first, anecdotally I don’t know a single person actively on Facebook. Every time I have to login to Facebook for work, I have to hold my breath, not knowing if I’ll remember my password or how to even use the platform.
But this wasn’t always the case. In middle school (I’m 26) Facebook was the place to be, making it one of the first social media platforms I used to stay connected with friends online.
However, now I’d argue Facebook is seen as incredibly archaic by my peers, a place we either have to login to because we work in paid advertising, or stumble upon to see distant family updates.
But its important to step out of the coastal bubble every once in awhile and take a look at the actual data. At the event, I learned that over 40 million young adults in the U.S. and Canada are daily active Facebook users, which is a three-year high.
And as much as Elon Musk’s X is trying to be the ‘everything app’, Facebook is really doing it, offering everything from video, marketplace, dating, etc. on the platform, making it a comprehensive, albeit sometimes jumbled, experience for users.
Broadly speaking, we have seen how video is becoming the dominant content across apps. 86% of consumers spend at least a quarter of their social media time watching videos. And Facebook is investing heavily in improving its video experience and making the pitch for creators to begin cross posting their content on the platform.
They are integrating short form videos, implementing a full-screen viewing experience, and continuing to support Facebook Live and long form content. According to Facebook, “Video now accounts for over 60% of the time spent on Facebook today, and Facebook Reels Watch Time in the U.S. and Canada grew over 80% from Q1'23 to Q1'24.“
Facebook is also making it even easier to become a ‘creator’ and earn money on the platform. They offer a professional mode, which turns on a slew of creator-focused features, and has attracted over 100 million daily active users in 18 months. At the event, we heard from one video content creator who began cross posting on Facebook and was making a considerable amount of money, just by uploading there.
So Facebook seems to be putting in the work and making a compelling case, but ultimately this is not in a vacuum. Competitors like TikTok, have significantly more Gen Z users, 60% of their 150 million daily active users are Gen Z. And TikTok Shop, their e-commerce offering, has changed the dynamic of the app for creators and brands who want to use the platform to sell products via affiliate marketing.
But with a potential TikTok ban looming, it makes sense why Facebook is making the case it could be a replacement for creators should it go away for good.
I had some follow up questions for Tom Allison, the Head of Facebook…
Jake Bell: TikTok Shop has been a massive success for both brands and creators on that platform. Does Facebook plan on adding in a similar feature to compete besides Facebook Marketplace, which feels uniquely peer to peer?
Tom Alison: We currently offer Shops and Shops ads to make it easier for people to purchase directly from ads, either in our apps or on a business’ website. We’re making strong progress with our Shops ads product, which crossed a $2 billion annual run-rate in Q4.
JB: So much of this push for creators and Gen Z feels like it’s in response to the potential TikTok ban. Do you feel if TikTok is banned this presents a unique opportunity to capture market share?
TA: We’ve been focused on building for the next generation and for creators for many years, and we’ll continue to focus on providing the best experience on Facebook no matter what may happen to another platform. We’ve seen that making changes with young adults in mind is improving the experience for people of all ages on Facebook, so we’re encouraged that we’re on the right path.
JB: What are the main incentives for creators to publish their content exclusively on Facebook? Will there be a push to incentivize for native content?
TA: What’s really unique to Facebook is that creators can earn money from all the different content formats. Our Ads on Reels, Instream Ads, and the Performance bonus programs pay creators for long form videos, Reels, photos and even text that they share on Facebook. This makes it possible for creators of all sizes and experience levels to earn money - not just the ones who can garner big brand deals or have the means to produce high production long videos. These programs are all designed to reward creators who make authentic, original and engaging content for their Facebook community.
JB: Anecdotally, Facebook seems to be inundated with AI generated content. While Meta just rolled out a disclaimer label for AI generated content, does Facebook plan to roll out a similar feature?
TA: We’ve been working with industry partners to align on common technical standards that signal when a piece of content has been created using AI. Being able to detect these signals has made it possible for us to label AI-generated images in organic content that users post to Facebook. Now, we’re applying labels that say “Made with AI” in all languages supported by the app.
Facebook faces an uphill battle to win over Gen Z, but they are certainly making the effort to court the content creators who have made their competitors such compelling platforms. Without the right content, any social media company is dead in the water.
I’m curious what you guys think…
MORE NEWS
Do celebrity creative directors really exist? Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand, is launching a pocket blush on June 20th, and they announced it with this fun Instagram video with miniaturized actors. Watch here—
Its a great video, which I believe was produced in partnership with NYC’s Chandelier Creative, who has done creative projects for Rhode since they launched. After the launch, I saw this viral thread on on X, documenting all of Rhode’s excellently produced creative campaigns, but giving all the credit to Hailey Bieber herself for ideating these.
That’s when a brand designer chimed in to say,
Its so funny to me when people not in the creative industry give full attribution to these celebrities for creating these campaigns themselves. For those are not in the industry, that’s not how this generally works. Hailey has an incredible team on payroll at Rhode, and I’m sure works closely with them, but we should be giving tons of credit to the teams that painstakingly ideate and bring these campaigns to life.
Apple announced their AI features and also made their software insanely ugly. As predicted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company made their foray into the world of AI later than the rest of the industry, but took the time to address privacy concerns, and find ways for AI to fit within the context of our lives and be actually useful. While AI image generation is not really my thing, the features that sort email and text messages do seem useful. But I do have some major qualms with Apple’s new version of iOS. They’ve expanded the customizability options, allowing users to tint app icons and move icons anywhere. And some of the concoctions beta users are brewing up are truly twisted—
This just feels so ugly to me… and I hate to be that guy that’s like ‘Steve Jobs would be rolling in his grave’ but… Apple has been known to put users on rails and tightly control their user experience for years, and it feels like they are a bit of an identity crisis with these new updates. Apple was once a bastion of incredibly software and product design, and these AI updates and new customizability features really reduce their premium feel.
Vice is apparently back… on Beehiiv. According to
Vice Media will be creating a newsletter hosted exclusively on Tyler Denk’s Substack competitor, Beehiiv. This comes after the once darling media company has filed for bankruptcy protection, laid off its staff, and searches for a new way to find relevance among changing reader demographics. Vice really used to be the pinnacle of cool, but I am very curious how they will program their content to fidn relevance.Merch isn’t dead, its just getting more ironic. After a widely read Samuel Hine GQ article proclaiming the death of merch, The Cut followed up with their own take. Basically, merch isn’t dead, it just needs to be a meme. Whether it be Loewe’s ‘I Told Ya’ Challengers merch, or Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Jesus was a Carpenter’ tee, merch is getting more ironic and sillier. Its becoming a new way to signal the niche internet subcultures we belong to, and we are going to see more artists and brands launch merch with references only their fans will understand, as opposed to just a tee with the album name on it.
Okay hope you enjoyed today’s letter. Jump in the comments and let’s discuss.
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
Great shout on the Creative Director roles. I feel like no one except industry people actually realize there's a whole village behind a celebrity and their brand sometimes.
The new IOS features are giving 2016 jailbreaking in the worst way possible. They were right to keep a uniform design for so long!! Also the fact that it’s called Apple Intelligence was just so predictable but still made me chuckle at their superiority complex.