Facebook has been rapidly innovating with their ad platform and rolling out new ad formats. We have seen:
- Fan Page ad units
- Polling and rich video units
- Direct response / Sampling units

It looks as though a new ad unit has been rolled out: Gifting. The flow is simple:

1. A user sees the ad and is able to select a friend to give the ‘gift’ to (the gift is the notification and the unique icon):

2. As you give the gift, you are able to select friends (with the auto-fill tool) and add a personalized note:

3. Once you give the gift, it shows up with below the ad in the Google Chat-like format:

4. That gift is then posted directly to the recipient’s wall and a notification is sent:

For Saw VI, this is a follow up to their other Facebook Ad Campaigns (they previously ran a fan and Event RSVP campaign). This latest ‘gift’ campaign seems to be more focused on continuing the viral loop and reinforcing the movie’s branding. It is an interesting format – but I am not sure you would want to launch a Facebook campaign specifically with it… perhaps if, like the Rockstar direct response ads, it were tied to also becoming a fan (and it very well could be – I happen to already be a Saw VI fan!).

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