Facebook Taps Executive From Time Warner

Time: 45 minutes
Wall Street Journal

MARCH 29, 2011

By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Facebook Inc. said it hired Mark D'Arcy, the president of Time Warner Inc.'s Global Media Group, as director of global creative solutions to help boost the appeal of the social networking service's ad offerings.

In the newly created role that he will begin in early May, Mr. D'Arcy will be responsible for leading a team charged with developing ideas for how advertisers can use Facebook in their marketing campaigns.

"There is a great need for the creative community ... to learn how to leverage the incredible power of Facebook to improve the way brands tell stories," said Mr. D'Arcy in an interview.

Some ad agencies say they are spending more on Facebook ads, but suggest the company limits itself with ads in small boxes that typically include a picture, video or line of text. Some marketers prefer flashy ads that take over a screen and offer interactive capabilities, which Facebook has avoided in favor of associating marketing with information about users' friends.

Mr. D'Arcy, who is 39 years old, said that Facebook's approach to advertising fits with a wider shift in marketing "from intrusion to engagement"—that is, from ads that get in the way of content to marketing that is interactive or even desired. "You have to be doing something that is contributing value to audiences," he said.

Options include exploring new ways for marketers to interact with the birthdays, photos and other data that users enter into Facebook, he said. Mr. D'Arcy said he would also work with people from the music, television and film business to develop ways to improve their experiences on Facebook. Earlier this month, Warner Bros. films began renting movies via Facebook.

Originally from New Zealand, Mr. D'Arcy will be based in New York City. He will report to Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook's director of global customer marketing. At Time Warner, Mr. D'Arcy led a group that created content for advertising partners.

In an email, Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said Mr. D'Arcy "understands that marketing can be more engaging and effective when it is social by design and he has the experience to help brands and agencies get there."

In a written statement, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes said that in Mr. D'Arcy's seven years with the company he "tirelessly shared his intense creative nature with fellow colleagues throughout the company and with clients across the industry."

Separately, a federal judge ruled that a court case against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will remain in federal court, denying the plaintiff's motion to move the case to New York state court.

In Buffalo, N.Y., U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara found that Mr. Zuckerberg lives in California. Mr. Zuckerberg's parents live in New York. He had listed their home as his residence before moving to California to work on the now famous social-networking site.

Paul Ceglia, of New York, is suing Mr. Zuckerberg, claiming an agreement that Mr. Zuckerberg allegedly signed as a freshman at Harvard in 2003 gave Mr. Ceglia a right to 84% of Facebook. Lawyers for Mr. Ceglia had claimed Mr. Zuckerberg lived a transient life out of a duffel bag.

A lawyer for Mr. Ceglia wasn't available for comment Monday.

Lawyers for Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg have called both the case, and Mr. Ceglia himself, a fraud. Mr. Ceglia's lawyers have said such a characterization is "nonsense," and that they have evidence that would hold up in court.
—David Benoit contributed to this article.


After reading this article I was surprised at how many different approaches there is marketing. The best advertisement, is of course when one doesn't realize that they are being marketed to. This is the objective, I feel,of Facebook's advertising. It seems that with the creation of this new position that Mark D-Arcy will fill, that Facebook will be seeing a lot of new advertising methods.