Facebook Creative Shop Director Ready for Ole Miss New Media Data Day

Data truly is the centerpiece of knowledge and networks. That is why Ole Miss New Media is very excited to present Data Day tomorrow at the Overby Auditorium, starting at 9 a.m., operating with two identical sessions open and free to the public.

Speakers will include Sean Callahan, Senior Manager of Content Marketing at LinkedIn and Eric Schnabel, Director of the Facebook Creative Shop in North America. For more information, check out this link.

Mr. Schnabel from Facebook took the time to talk to us about what he is most excited about for tomorrow’s presentation. Originally from Chicago, Schnabel attended Marquette University for Journalism in Milwaukee, Wisconisin. He started off working for several small chain newspapers. His curiosity led him to working in PR and advertising agencies, eventually leading him to living in New York, Minneapolis, and even at one point, moving to London. As he was moving back from London, his friend told him of a job opportunity with Facebook. He has been working with Facebook Creative Shop presently for four years.

“I am very much looking forward to [the conference],” Schnabel said, “I was drawn to Ole Miss originally from the Alabama game last season and I had a great time. My wife’s family went to Ole Miss, and I always love to talk about and engage with young people that are creative about opportunities in front of them.”

When asked about his time with Facebook as of now, he spoke highly of the fundamental belief of being creative as the most valuable aspect of his job. “Clients will buy into little bits of property – they’re really looking for ideas, ways to position their brands to lots and lots of the right people,” Schnabel said, “We want to help them establish a relationship with people, working with clients to build out the brand through Facebook and Instagram in the best and most fitting way possible.”

Schnabel is particularly excited about Data Day and demonstrating to students and the Oxford community for the thing that gets him most excited – data. One of his former assignments that he is particularly excited to discuss is his work with one of the Superbowl Ads for Coca-Cola that was centered around the song “America the Beautiful.

“We worked to identify the different audiences of different descents and ethnicities – we wanted to tell the stories of different Americans and their own versions of what makes America beautiful,” Schabel said, “This was made possible through data and showed how advertising can be made to be much more relevant to its consumers.””

The last 50 years of advertising have shown the success of data as well as data segmentation. “If offers the ability to take brands and gear them towards [the consumer], which makes it more relevant to them,” Schnabel said, “It measures the brand as to how it relates to people.”

A lot of the branding exercises that the Facebook Creative Shop takes a part in starts with finding the things that people love and are interested in, and then coming up with creative ideas to further shape it.

“We engage with [the consumers] and figure out what they’re trying to do in a way we can help them,” Schnabel said, “We get to be involved with clients in a creative way, which has been the most fun part of my job in my past 20 years of being in the industry.”

When asked what has truly changed since his start in the industry, he replied, “Smartphones and the technology revolution in general has allowed people to consume content that they want, on their own terms. You’re not just competing with other shows [on television] now – you’re competing with everyone, everything that is interesting to people. It has created this expectation of consumers that what they are interested in will be served to them, which is what [Facebook] hopes to deliver on.”

In terms of lasting words to students and others wishing to become potentially involved in the industry, Schnabel said, “There has never been a better time to be someone who is curious about people and wants to build ideas that captures people’s imaginations and their attention. We have the tools now and are smarter about the stuff we make.”

Samantha Mitchell is a Hottytoddy.com staff writer and can be reached at smitche3@go.olemiss.edu.