New FT ad campaign eschews Facebook

A new Financial Times advertising campaign is not spending any money to place ads on Facebook in the United States, writes Max Willens of Digiday.

Willens writes, “The new campaign, called ‘Don’t decide until you subscribe,’ is spending more on digital out-of-home advertising, LinkedIn and Twitter and audio advertising and podcasts. Unlike a lot of the eye-catching stunts that the brand has deployed in the past, this campaign targets people who already have some familiarity with the publication and are likely to subscribe. It’s aiming at a number of personality types it developed through user research, which include types such as ‘professional readers,’ who are people who need the FT for professional reasons, ‘objective deep dives,’ or ‘opinionated newshounds.’

“The Financial Times was among publishers that in May said it cut off ad spending on Facebook in response to the platform’s decision to include publishers’ promoted posts in an archive of political and issue-related ads. Seven publisher associations opposed the policy, saying it threatened to blur the line between journalism and political advocacy. Twitter has a similar policy that it exempted publishers from, giving it an opportunity to win publisher promotion dollars that might have otherwise gone to Facebook. The Facebook policy initially applied to ads in the U.S. (The FT is still advertising on Facebook outside the U.S.)”

Read more here.