Facebook is rolling out a major ad campaign across Australia in an attempt to reassure users that the platform can be trusted and will do better.

The national 'Here Together' ad campaign, created in-house, addresses issues of online safety, privacy, and the brand's integrity.

Launching in Australia today across out of home, digital, TV and cinema, the eight-week ad campaign is intended to restore trust in Facebook. It aims to inform users about its efforts to combat fake accounts, data misuse, and fake news – all of which the social media platform declare are “not our friends”.

This creative will also feature six-second animations.

We've listened to what Australians expect

The promotional crusade follows its recent data calamity with Cambridge Analytica, a rise in fake news and calls for the platform to be more transparent and open.

Managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Will Easton, says: "We've listened to what Australians expect from us, and they expect action."

"It is our responsibility to make sure Facebook is a place where everyone can stay closer to the people they care about, and to make sure it's a positive force in the world."

Speaking to AdNews, Facebook ANZ Head of Marketing, Alexandra Sloane explained how the in-house creative team in the US developed the original asset, and locally it carried out research and engaged with its content agency, Now We Collide, to create the end result.

"We understood what Australia and our community needed from us in terms of an update on ways we're going to improve the experience of our platform," Sloane says.

"Through a mixture of Australian user-generated content, as well as live-action video, we localised the Australian community that we represent. Also, the script and voice-over are addressing particular research insights we uncovered."

Spots remind viewers why they engage with Facebook

The video spots remind viewers why most engage with Facebook in the first place – as a portal to connect with family and friends.
“Then something happened,” the ad voiceover says. “We had to deal with spam, clickbait, fake news and data misuse.”

Facebook Head of Communications Australia and New Zealand, Antonia Sanda, tells AdNews that local research, both qualitative and quantitative, was at the heart of the Facebook ad campaign.

“It’s very much focused on meeting the needs of the Australian community, absolutely,” Sanda says.

Sloane says a lot of the insight Facebook got from Australian consumers was that they wanted to hear about the actual updates to the platform.

As a result, it has also launched a new landing page to accompany the campaign, as a resource that pulls in all the updates in one place. Sloane says this gives users "a sense of how we're changing – how we're doing better and taking a broader sense of responsibility."

Ad campaign media placement is key

From there, the media agency Mindshare came on board, with CEO Katie Rigg-Smith explaining why they chose certain marketing channels.

"The out-of-home campaign is focused on eye-level, longer dwell time formats across street furniture and transit centres to deliver more detailed information on how Facebook is changing," she says.

"While cinema will be used to celebrate the 60-second video creative in a highly engaging environment."

Sloane adds that the whole campaign is really about starting a more meaningful and open relationship with Australians.

"We have to start by being more open and transparent with our community, and acknowledging and listening first of all, and then addressing the things that are important to our community head-on," she says.

"And so we hope that we've not just acknowledged the broader responsibility that we have, but that we're also demonstrating action that we're taking."

Written by Keir Maher, CEO at Now We Collide, an independent creative agency based in Sydney, Australia. We use insights, strategy and clever, creative thinking to produce contagious advertising campaigns and content for today's connected brands and consumers.