A likely trend

Here’s an advertising innovation I spotted this week in Africa.

MyJoyOnline is a website in Ghana that has grown from the popular radio station Joy FM and is now a successful content destination in its own right. Indeed, Alexa rates it as Ghana’s fifth biggest website, after Google, Google, Facebook and Yahoo.

As you’d expect, some advertisers have taken out banner ads on the site. However others have opted to use the space they buy for their Facebook social media plugins instead.

See these examples of ‘like’ buttons from Unilever products Omo and Lifebuoy.

Of course this means you’ll see which of your friends already ‘like’ the product advertised and it puts you just one click away from joining a community of likeminded people who, in this case, have very clean hands.

Social media expert Dr Claire Wardle is working with me here in Ghana. I learned from her that 33% of people trust banner ads but a whopping 70% trust their friends online recommendations, according to a UK study from the Oxford Research Agency.

Dr Wardle says the advertisers’ use of Facebook on MyJoyOnline is part of a trend:

“We’re used to seeing news brands using social plugins but now consumer brands too are taking advantage of the high level of trust that comes from friends’ recommendations.”

Would you let your advertisers do this on your radio station site?