Ever wonder how Facebook gets so much revenue from advertisers and keeps it free for the rest of us? You can thank a strong marketing department for that. Now, leadership of that department is changing hands.
In September 2013, Facebook’s current marketing VP Eric Antonow will be stepping down, to pursue interest in his passions for better education. His replacement will be Gary Briggs, who will be Facebook’s first CMO, Chief Marketing Operator. Briggs has the experience. Upon Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility in May 2012, Briggs served as the CMO during that transition. Before that, he was a marketing VP at Google, helping services like Google Chrome get out to the public. Before that, Briggs served as marketing VP for Ebay and Pepsi. Briggs said about Facebook, ?”For more than a billion people, it’s their connection to the friends and things they care about most. …I can’t wait to get started”.
It sounds like a good move. First off, I have a lot of respect for Antonow. Anyone who leaves a lucrative position to fight the crisis of education is all right with me. Plus, they went with experience. The only thing I worry about is Briggs’ age and how he’s going to work with a younger crowd, but I think because of his age and experience, people working for Facebook will listen to him. Some criticize this move because he was ‘a guy who worked for Pepsi’. But in the last few years, he’s also worked for Google. How optimistic are you about Gary Briggs coming to Facebook?