Grace Jones Helps Pitch Personalized Facebook Ads for Small Businesses

Iconic singer/actress/model Grace Jones, famous for defying norms and breaking barriers, voices a short film from Facebook touting the platform’s advertising tools that help small businesses forge closer relationships with customers.

The minute-long clip, developed with Droga5 and Riff Raff director David Wilson, features owners who rely on Facebook apps every day. The accent’s on vibrant entrepreneurship as we visit a Tallahassee goat-yoga farm, a San Diego cat-adoption cafe, and a Houston-based maker of handbags fusing African and Western motifs.

Jones narrates in her trademark robo-sexy style over an alluring dance beat:

Naturally, she assures us Facebook’s targeted ad programs are there to help, and the spot ends with the line, “Good ideas deserve to be found.”

“We thought about the tone of the creative and who best would represent ingenuity, evolution and the spirit of how an idea becomes reality,” Droga5 producer Jake Herman tells Muse. “Grace Jones was a no-brainer to serve as the ‘voice of ideas,’ as who else could preside over a festival of inclusivity with such poise, and make the term ‘personalized ads’ sound so dangerously alluring?”

Indeed, though she’s not identified and doesn’t appear in the spot, Jones’s smooth, confident tones deliver a special gravitas. Meanwhile, the syncopated cavalcade of colorful images peaks around the 18-second mark—we kid you not—with this evocative shot of goat yoga at dawn:

“We knew going in that it’s hard for people to understand the value of the ads they see on Facebook and Instagram every day,” says Droga5 creative director Thom Glover. “Our challenge was to tell a story about personalized advertising showing that value.”

Ultimately, the team chose to focus on niche interests, “then imagined the whole thing as a catwalk show for all the small businesses who advertise on the platforms, set to a ‘fashion song’ about discovering exciting things and each one being just right for somebody,” Glover says.

That concept, he contends, mirrors “what scrolling through Facebook and Instagram is like—’scroll, scroll, scroll… ooh, that looks interesting! I want that!'”

Some view the campaign as the latest shot in Facebook’s war with Apple, an opportunity for the former to preen as the latter plots iOS 14 consumer privacy changes that could cut into the social networking giant’s bottom line.

Fair enough. But it’s worth noting that Facebook has long staked its claim as a friend to small businesses. Last year, the company launched a $100 million grant program to help entrepreneurs. Now, in tandem with the campaign, the social networking giant has simplified its ad manager and introduced special options—such as direct menu uploads—for restaurants struggling in Covid times.

CREDITS

Client Facebook
Campaign Good Ideas Deserve to be Found
Title Good Ideas Deserve to be Found
Launch Date 2/25/2021

Agency Droga5 NY
Global Chief Creative Officer Neil Heymann
Co-Chief Creative Officer Tim Gordon
Co-Chief Creative Officer Felix Richter
Creative Director Thom Glover
Creative Director Kia Heinnen
Senior Copywriter Ben Brown
Senior Art Director Jackie Moran
Senior Copywriter Dave Canavan
Senior Art Director Patrick Horton
Executive Producer, Film Mike Hasinoff
Senior Producer, Film Isabella Lebovitz
Producer, Film Jake Herman
Producer, Film Steph Hill
Associate Producer, Film Bianca Ocampo
Music Supervisor Mike Ladman
Head of Interactive Production Tasha Cronin
Senior Producer, Interactive Ian Graetzer
Director of Business Affairs Dan Simonetti
Senior Businesses Affairs Manager Paul Van Dorpe
Celebrity Talent Relations Lead Whitney Vose
Talent Manager Sunny Valencia
Senior Traffic Manager Wendy Kaplan
Executive Design Director Rich Greco
Senior Designer Eli Hochberg
Head of Strategy Harry Román-Torres
Group Brand Strategy Director Dan Ng
Brand Strategy Director Diana González
Senior Brand Strategist Emily Pfitzinger
Brand Strategist Isaiah Brown
Group Communications Strategy Director Yan Wang
Communications Strategy Director Patrick Fahey
Senior Communications Strategist Chris Wiegand
Global Chief Knowledge Officer Andy Littlewood
Senior Data Strategist Daria Koren
Data Strategist Sean La’Brooy
Group Account Director Jessica Kingsbery
Account Director Marissa Guerra
Account Director Gabrielle Barbuto
Account Supervisor Hayley Howell
Account Manager Anna Ferrell
Group Project Manager Tessa Muchura
Senior Project Manager Theresa Ganchorre
Project Manager Christine DiStasio

Client Facebook
CMO Alex Schultz
VP, Global Head of Brand & Product Marketing Kate Rouch
Director, Global Company Marketing Andrew Stirk
VP, Global Business Marketing Mark D’Arcy
VP, Global Business & Customer Marketing Michelle Klein
VP, Creative and Experiential Andrew Keller
Head of Creative Thomas Markham
Head of Design Zach Stubenvoll
Creative Director Mariano Cassisi
Global Director, Brand Marketing Jasmine Summerset-Karcie
Brand Marketing Manager Gregory Paige
Brand Marketing Manager Hillary Saunders
Brand Marketing Manager Katie Secrest
Social Content & Marketing Lead Hussain Ismail
Social Media Manager Brittany Holt
Brand Strategist Priyanka Nigam
Marketing Insights Director Rick Malins
Marketing Research Manager Jenn Dahm
Marketing Researcher Lia Breunig
Communication Planning Manager Danielle Nichols
Communications Planner Kristen Winschuh
Executive Producer, Creative X Julian Katz
Paralegal Blaine May

FILM PRODUCTION

Production Company Riff Raff
Director David Wilson
DOP Benoit Soler
Executive Producer Matthew Fone
Producer Kate Brady

Editorial The Quarry
Editor Paul Watts
Assistant Editor Ben Cowan
Executive Producer Ellese Shell
Head of Production Tor Adams

Editorial Cut & Run
Editor Beau Dickson
Assistant Editor Colin Davis
Executive Producer Ellese Shell

Post Production MPC London
Telecine Peter Oppersdorff
Telecine Creative Director Jean-Clement Soret
Producer Ryan Hancocks
2D Lead David Felipe
2D Team Amy Smith, Marj Verheij, Zeki DoruOndun, Alessandro Granella, Ed Taylor
CG Lead Mike Little
GG Team Jack Enver, Flavia Minonne, Rob Richardson, Selcuk Ergen, Chris Huland-Scrase

Music Universal Music
Song ‘Black Belt’
Artist John Grant

Voice-over Artist Grace Jones
Management INTERLAND
Creative Director Ivor Guest

Sound Design & Mix GCRS
Primary Mixer Raj Sehgal
Secondary Mixer Tom Pugh
Executive Producer Molly Butcher

SOCIAL PRODUCTION

Production Company Blinkink
Director Chris Bristow
Illustrators/Animators Lauren O’Neil, Olly Montagu, Andreia Serrano, Michael Marczewski, Sophie Koko Gate, Everyone’s Favourite, Richard Noble, Brad Purnell, Alexander Hellebaut
Compositors John Malcolm Moore, Brad Purnell
Director or Photography Bruno Downey
Executive Producer Bart Yates
Executive Producer Josef Byrne
Producer Georgina Fillmore
Project Manager Eve Somerville
Production Assistant Molly Turner

Grade WASH
Colorist Henry Howard