Liking Facebook

New York and Menlo Park, Calif. — Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson tells Shopper Marketing in her exclusive interview that American Express, as much as any other company, "is bringing our business model and core assets to life." The latest evidence of that came in July with the launch of the American Express "Link, Like, Love" Facebook application, which delivers deals to cardmembers based on the "Likes" and interests of those cardmembers and their Facebook friends.Cardmembers who opt in to "Link, Like, Love" choose the deals they want and use their cards as usual. American Express then sends statement credits to their accounts. The platform uses American Express' Smart Offer API technology, so there are no physical coupons, and no smartphone bar codes to scan. American Express sends emails that confirm the deal choice, its activation and its completion. For merchants, there is no training of employees, and the technology enables American Express to provide detailed reporting on deal redemption and customer loyalty. Among the initial deals in July, American Express offered a $10 credit when spending $25 at Outback Steakhouse, and $10 when spending $75 at H&M."We spent a great deal of time speaking to merchants and observing cardmembers to understand what works best for both audiences," says Luke Gebb, American Express vice president of global marketing capabilities. "This is really about bringing value to cardmembers and merchants where they're already engaged and focused; bringing our Smart Offer APIs to Facebook was a natural evolution for American Express.""What American Express has said is, 'How can we take advantage of Facebook ad products to amplify and drive our messages but also do something really innovative that's going to engage our consumers?" says Eric Edge, Facebook manager of global communications. "Is social an afterthought, or is social at the very core of whatever the effort is? In this case, American Express puts social at the core of the effort."American Express says it will deliver Membership Rewards points offers, entertainment access, exclusive content and special events through the application at some point.Edge says the hope is that "Link, Like, Love" will inspire social media brand marketers. "If you're really tied in and listening to what's happening on Facebook, and what's happening with users and how they're engaging with the product, I think any brand can adapt their program and what they're doing to make sure that it's useful and meaningful to users. If it's social and people can share, that's where you're going to achieve word-of-mouth marketing at scale. At the very core, I think that's what will drive next steps." American Express also uses its Smart Offer APIs on the foursquare and LevelUp platforms.At the same time it debuted "Link, Like, Love," American Express launched "Go Social," a marketing tool that simplifies the process of offering couponless deals through social platforms like Facebook for American Express small business owners. The tool allows small businesses a four-step process for creating and executing couponless deals that can be pushed to digital markets like Facebook. It also provides the merchants with data on viewing and redemption of deals. American Express executives have said that "Go Social" is free initially but would prove itself so valuable that merchants will pay some performance-based fee in the future.In other activity, American Express, with more than 2.1 million fans on Facebook, in the past year has launched Small Business Saturday, a Facebook movement to support small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The campaign garnered 1.2 million "Likes" in three weeks. Also, American Express has permitted cardmembers to pay for Facebook ads using membership rewards points.Elsewhere, Facebook has partnered with Procter & Gamble to allow consumers to purchase P&G brands without leaving their Facebook fan page by clicking a "Shop Now" button. Fulfillment is only through P&G's e-store currently, but the company says qualified retailers could be options. Walmart.com is reportedly mulling this partnership; it would be the first time the retailing giant would sell goods entirely within Facebook.

Liking Facebook

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