About a year ago, when it became clear that taking Facebook Inc public was a matter of when not if, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg went out and poached Caroline Everson, then global advertising head at Microsoft Corp.
Landing an executive with Everson's pedigree was a coup - prior to Microsoft, she was a top advertising executive at Viacom Inc's MTV Networks and at Walt Disney Co. The hire also sent a clear message to Madison Avenue from the world's largest online social network: We want to work with you.
Until Everson's arrival as vice president of global marketing, Facebook's relationship with the advertising community was at best politely dismissive, at worst outright antagonistic.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he views Facebook more as a way to connect people than a business, and he has been adamant about limiting the impact of ads on user experiences. Indeed, his reluctance to flood the social network with ads is widely viewed as one reason why Facebook endured while an earlier rival, MySpace, expired.
"Mark has an evangelical approach to advertising," said Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Plc, the world's largest advertising agency. "He sees Facebook as a vehicle to open up communication, not to monetize.... Source/Origin >> Read More
