183. Selling the First Facebook Ads, With Matt Britton

The podcast begins with an exploration of the challenging early days of Facebook and discussions on the difficulty of interviewing early Facebook employees due to legal and confidentiality issues. Matt Britton shares his initial interactions with Facebook, emphasizing how he approached them through his network and his memories of the platform's early stages, including its limited college-only access and initial advertising efforts.

Matt Britton discusses his background in communications from Boston University, his early entrepreneurial ventures targeting college markets, and the rapid growth and subsequent struggles of his company, magma group, which focused on advertising for local businesses and later venture-funded dot-com companies. He describes the turbulence of the dot-com bust, his experience with venture capital, and how he had to pivot and sell his business to survive.

Britton explains the evolution of youth marketing from focusing on baby boomers to targeting Gen X, Millennials, and now Gen Z, highlighting how youth voice and digital platforms like MTV, YouTube, and social media have reshaped advertising. He details his company's first interactions with Facebook, including trying to sell ads and use Facebook's platform for brand promotion, discovering the early ad products like flyers, and experimenting with Facebook apps for brand engagement.

Matt recounts how he engaged with Facebook when it was still limited to college students with.edu email addresses, and how he realized Facebook's potential for larger-scale marketing. He describes initiating contact through domain registry lookup, attending early meetings with Facebook founders, and experimenting with Facebook advertising—initially for brands like Victoria's Secret and Duncan Donuts—using simple banner ads and apps to promote brand awareness among college students.

Britton reflects on how he foresaw Facebook's dominant trajectory, recognizing its network effects early on and contrasting it with MySpace. While he admits he didn’t predict the scale of Facebook’s success, he appreciated the platform's potential from a marketer's perspective. He discusses how his agency tried to adapt to the shifting landscape of digital and social media marketing during Facebook’s rapid expansion.

Britton talks about his current endeavors, particularly his work developing Susie, a marketing intelligence platform that evolved from his earlier youth marketing efforts and agencies. The platform now focuses on gathering insights about Gen Z consumers. He emphasizes that the methods and knowledge gained from his early work remain relevant today, illustrating a continuous thread of youth-oriented marketing and digital adaptation.