Facebook Shops and Libra

What a week for Facebook. I think these times have been good for the company.

I find it fascinating how some of Mark Zuckerberg’s game pieces are coming together. A couple of days ago I wrote about the launch of Facebook avatars and how they will tie to Oculus and a virtual world.

A couple days ago Facebook launched Shops.

It will turn the platform and all its ecosystem an e-commerce platform.

I believe that this will be the way that Libra becomes what it pretends to become, a truly global currency.

I like this idealist notion of commerce and trade. I’m an idealist.

All we want for Christmas is an Oculus Quest

Some time at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I thought that Facebook should give away their Oculus Quest to anyone who wanted one. I mean, this is like the perfect storm to massively introduce VR as a new way to interact with each other.

A couple of days ago Facebook launched their answer to the video hangout explosion caused by the pandemic. And today, on my morning visit to the platform, I noticed that lots of my “friends” were showing off their new avatars. This seemed strange, why introduce something that seems already kind of old within the tech trends?

Then it clicked.

Facebook is preparing us to start migrating part of our life to the virtual world.

I want to believe

I want to believe that our industry will become more empathic or human. For example, yesterday, seeing the #GraduateTogether event, made me realize that TV as a medium has already changed. It now allows new forms of visual narrative, it is now expected to be consumed pretty much anywhere, user participation is expected, and it is also self-made.

I also welcome the other more sarcastic side of things. The voice that has seen a lot and been through a lot, allowing it to smell the bull shit.

I guess that reading Bob Hoffman does that it keeps me real. Not fall into some sort of over idealistic ad man messiah preaching the end of advertising.

But, I still want to believe, think that someday we will have more natural mellow ways to connect a brand or product with a person.

“just be nice”

I always wondered why people in advertising where such assholes. Why ego was one of the main enemies of being nice and collaboration.

But not all are ad people are made from the same mold. Thank God there is another variant to the whole advertising diva school of behavior and thought. People that share, the converse, and that truly seem to care about the future of the industry.

Some of those people are Rosie and Faris. So, just google them. Read the book. Subscribe to their newsletter. And, be like them: just be nice!

we are a network (tribal global network)

It has been 30 some days since I’ve left my house to go anywhere.

Today, the world had this generation’s Live Aid. This one called: One World Together. As everything now, it all happened on the Internet.

Most of the shots were taken using an iPhone. Each artist or celebrity transmitting from where ever they are passing the COVID pandemic. I really enjoyed hopping from home to home. It felt like I was part of one big tribe connecting or vibing together.

While watching this new media experience, connected to another screen, I bumped into a small Instagram post. Small but so powerful! Made by the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris.

It made me think of hoping that that one of the positive outcomes of these extraordinary circumstances is that the electronic tribal connection we found stays with us from now on.

Sell Experiences

I heard Shantanu Narayen say;

“People buy experiences. Not products.”

What are the experiences? Convenience? UI and UX? Usability? Do these really translate into emotions?

A story?

I ask because I believe that emotions are the consequences of having an experience.

All this really connects with Sir Martin Sorrell buying Media Monks. He understood this notion well. People want to buy experiences.

Even if they are tiny and almost unperceivable.