Game on! Here's some detail and analysis of Facebook's announcement from Forrester's Social Computing analyst: MySpace and Facebook launch new Advertising products, why Hyper Targeting, Social Ads and rise of the “Fan-Sumer” matter to brands.
We see this as a win for Facebook, this highly targeted system isn’t just about web advertising but about brand affinity and hooks into what’s really important, trusted endorsements from people in a network. This truly is the next generation of advertising.
Substance of rumors was correct. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The piece that wasn't clear previously is the social endorsement component, where consumers truly become brand ambassadors. This takes the kernel of an idea from all the ad voting schemes out there (adpinion, for example), and implements it in a seamless, frictionless way, leveraging "social cred" as a way to give the user perceived benefit.
More as I absorb the developments...
UPDATE:
- Facebook's press releases on Facebook Ads, Beacon, and their launch partners
- TechCrunch's live blog reports that it goes live tonight
