Several media outlets are reporting that Canadian Jordan Banks will lead Facebook’s new Global Strategy Team.
It’s stems from the massive social media company’s desire to gain bigger pieces of large corporations’ marketing and advertising budgets. Banks, the former managing director at eBay Canada and cofounder at Thunder Road Capital, will oversee a department who’s mission will be to convince the world’s largest brands to use Facebook’s capabilities.
“Jordan has effectively led our Canadian operations since 2010, guiding his team to a demonstrated history of success in providing tailored business solutions to key Canadian marketers and brands,” said Facebook’s Carolyn Everson. “In this new position, Jordan will lead the global team responsible for identifying and developing strategies and initiatives focused on transforming businesses in our key industry categories across the world.”
In a recent survey by Ad Age and RBC Capital Markets, 74% of marketers now say their budgets include spend on Facebook ads.
“We want a direct connection between our efforts and a business either selling more stuff, increasing brand awareness, driving more foot traffic or whatever else their objective may be,” Banks told the Globe and Mail.
Facebook has about 1.1 billion users and 18 million brands trying to reach those users through corporate Facebook pages. It also has a million clients using its service to deliver ads to Facebook users. According to Bloomberg, the company will earn $1.2-billion in profit (U.S.) this year, but it could actually be worth as high as $116 billion, ranking it among the likes of Walt Disney co.
Apparently Banks and his team, to be based in Toronto (Canadians are among the heaviest users of the social network), will target corporations from several industries, including the financial, automotive, consumer products, technology and telecommunications, e-commerce, gaming and travel sectors.
“We want a direct connection between our efforts and a business either selling more stuff, increasing brand awareness, driving more foot traffic or whatever else their objective may be,” Banks told the Globe and Mail.“Our global domain expert in the financial services space will understand the dynamics of acquiring and retaining credit-card users and suggest ways Facebook can drive those sales. If we don’t have a product that exists right now, they can influence the product and development teams to build something to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. The company had 5,299 employees as of June 2013 with 699 million daily active users on average and 1.15 billion monthly active users.