Live on Bloomberg TV

00:00Well I'm very pleased to say we are now joined by Sheryl Sandberg CEO of Facebook Sheryl. Wonderful to have you with us . And it's about to be a jet set time for you. You're about to send yourself to Cannes of course and it's where the biggest brands the biggest advertising community can gather. What are you going to be talking about with brands. What is your facebook message at the moment to the businesses. Our biggest message is that the small screen is big. People have moved to Mobile and businesses are catching up. It's now the case that the average U.S. consumer and these numbers are duplicated all over the world is spending about four hours a day on TV and five and three quarters on digital. The majority of which is mobile and so it's a really exciting time to be a marketer because people are carrying around in their pockets this device that lets you reach them all of the time. And brands products services they've always been part of our daily life from the toothpaste we brush our teeth with to the shampoo we use to the car services or the cars we drive all of this as part of our daily lives. But now marketers can reach us hopefully with messages we want to hear as part of our daily experience . That's pretty amazing. And the explosion of creativity to Cannes Advertising Festival is very much about the creative community. It's about how do we create messages that really resonate with people and that want them to be part of their daily lives. And this is almost playing into a discussion that Mark Zuckerberg himself started this year of community building that's offline and online. But how a brand is going to be able to play into that well communities are so important and we're very focused on Facebook from Mark and all of us on how we build communities that provide support for people offline and online. Brands are a huge part of that Air B and B is doing a great job. They have this great offline experience where people can rent house from hosts but then they've created lots of Facebook groups that create online experiences. So even when you're not on that trip or not on that vacation you can be connected to the people who are being who are part of it. And we see community groups doing amazing things to one of my favorite stories is a group on Facebook called Girls love travel and it's just a group of strangers who came together around travel experiences to give each other's advice but now they're doing so much more than that . To women in the group were driving in the Canadian countryside when they hit a moose a moose. So why did they do. They posted into the group and someone else from the group showed up to take them over to her house for dinner. Really incredible experiences that people are having and brands have an opportunity to be part of it. And what about all the various products that fall. I mean you talk about how the NBA is making a good run of it at the moment using Facebook groups sport about messenger. What about what's up. What about Instagram the portfolio that you have how are these products being adopted and the growth you're saying people are using all of these different platforms in Facebook and Instagram. We have the two largest mobile ad platforms in the world and we're seeing people really use that to build their businesses. There's a young woman in Brazil named Joanna. She started a company called Aloha nano. And their idea was to sell fashion accessories. So using Facebook and Instagram they were able to. She did all of her advertising herself on her phone and she was able to target those ads to people interested in fashion accessories and 79 percent of the business she had came from Instagram. That's the small and local example. We also see the largest ad agency is the largest clients in the world figuring out how to reach people and create creative that work for Facebook for Instagram. And we're starting to learn a little bit more about how businesses can interact on messenger as well. And what about video this has of course been where the real explosion has been and what Facebook has really driven forward you're experimenting with new ways in which adverts can come within videos that run on Facebook. How is that being adopted and and how much are you starting to see that ad to bottom line Marketers have always loved video because it's such a great way to tell a compelling story. And I think what this community is increasingly understanding and we need to do better is that you have to create the video for the platform. So the first TV ads were people reading their radio ads behind mikes. Now people could see. But when TV evolved video ads were made for TV and it certainly wasn't someone sitting behind a mike. Similarly a lot of the first video ads in a social space were 30 second TV spots just moved over to the social platform. And those can work well but what works better is ad fertilizing that is created for mobile. That means that it grabs attention. We talk about it as some stopping creative. Gatorade did this incredibly effectively recently. They created ads to showcase the different flavors and colors of Gatorade. They got to the branding within three seconds. They worked with sound on and sound off and they increased their sales in households by 5 percent which for marketers is a huge move but they did it by creating ads that we're were native for social and therefore is it an eye roll when you think of brands putting their money to work. I'm looking at data that says what 70 billion dollars is commonly spent on TV. How much of that will go purely to the digital space now. I don't think it's either or. Marketers should reach people on TV. They should reach people on mobile. They should reach people in the digital space . They should reach people everywhere they go. But how do they reach people and all those different platforms needs to evolve . And Facebook and Instagram. We think we offer a really unique value proposition for marketers and people because you can have the creativity of a video. The creativity of sound and light and pictures but you can also do very specific targeting. You can target your current customers differently than new customers . People who are in the market for a car. People who look like people in the market for a car. So you can make sure the right message gets to the right person. What are you expecting in terms of optimism from these sorts of businesses. Because are you seeing that the economy is going full pelt and the businesses and the brands are willing to spend the cash with Facebook at the moment. Or is there a slight nervousness out there. Well what we're seeing is more adoption of the mobile platforms there are 70 million small businesses that are using Facebook on a monthly basis. That's our free product and five million advertisers and on Instagram we have 8 million Instagram business profiles of which a million people are advertisers . And from the very smallest company to the largest company they're investing in mobile because that's where people are spending their time. And so do you feel optimistic about what these undercurrents show you about the U.S. economy about the global economy in general or are we seeing jobs being created or are we seeing brands spending money and therefore willing to it . Can you give us a gauge as an executive at a top of a business as to what you see out there. Our goal is to make sure businesses spend spend money and get a return. So it matters for marketers is when they spend on marketing it brings the cash register both online and off. And that's something we're really working on. We also see small businesses playing a very important role in the global economy. The majority of job creation around the world is actually small businesses and even the most off line small business can use the power of technology . When I was last in Europe I went to Berlin. I got to visit a company called Holtz connection they're a furniture manufacturer in Berlin they're manufacturing wooden furniture. So that is a very traditional business. The sun came into the family business and didn't change anything about manufacturing but started marketing on Facebook and through mobile and they grew their business and now they've opened five more locations including outside of Germany creating jobs and growing their business. And so technology can power innovation both in the core of a business but also can support any business out there . And so when people worry about perhaps tech eroding jobs out there are you seeing the other point of view. Technology is changing the economy. Technology is certainly replacing jobs and technology can also be used to grow jobs. And it's our responsibility to help small businesses and large businesses all around the world use technology to grow their businesses so that they can grow jobs. And interestingly when a current time when we're seeing perhaps a drive towards growth and job growth we're also seeing valuations for example of technology companies go through volatile times. Does that ever affect you. Does it affect the way in which you look at the world. My job every day is to work on growing Facebook helping more people use Facebook and Instagram and Messenger and WhatsApp more people get value from the products and services and more businesses. And I feel like as a business leader if I focus on our business that's where my focus needs to stay. And you talk there about responsibility of technology within the economy and on small businesses. Talk to us also about the responsibility they're going to talk about with brands at the moment the brands safety element of all of this. How how are we seeing in the news at the moment the very sad and an emotive subject such as fake news hate speech terror related content all of this is complex. All of this is so emotive I realize but how can you spend head and target a way of looking through this with Facebook at the moment not only for individuals but also for brands. There's no place for any of this content on Facebook. No Place for Hate no place for violence no place for terrorism. And we take that responsibility very seriously. We just announced last week we've been working on this for a long time we're going to continue to work on it but we announce some really important next steps we're taking. We're using A.I. as a technology to help us find any content that may be inappropriate and get it off even faster. We're making a big human resource investment . We already have researchers and law enforcement experts and terrorism experts who work at Facebook. But we're growing that as well as our human review capacity. We have about forty five people around the world to review content to remove inappropriate content. And we're growing up by 3000 so that's a very significant investment. We're also working with nonprofits governments other companies around the world to make sure that we all work together to make sure that this content is not on our platforms for brands we offer a lot of tools for brands to know where their ads can show to make sure that they know that Facebook is a safe community for them. You say that you are working with not for profits with governments. How how do you perhaps in Europe for example been talking with governments have you had to about this as yet are you worried about the the talk about encryption and and some of the fines that that's been raised. We're in constant conversation with governments on issues of security and issues that affect all of us working together. We've worked with governments to talk about initiatives we called the CCI so online content initiatives where governments can not just make sure terrorism is prevented but can actually do counterterrorism work try to get positive messages out there that stop people from from doing things that obviously hurt so many people. We also work with law enforcement officials all over the world to make sure that if there's if there's anything we can do to support their work we're able to do it in this area. That was something fascinating that you launched in Berlin. It was the online civil courage initiative an innovative use of using counter narrative. This is so complex as I mentioned and therefore how do you think you can understand if you are improving. What's the end goal or target is it. Danes showed that the measurements come down and the numbers coming down what would you count as success there. I ask. Well success from a company point of view is to make sure there is no inappropriate content of any kind. Hate Violence terrorism any of this on our platform but we take our responsibility even more broadly than that. We want to contribute. So for example over the past several years tech companies have started working together sharing information very freely when anyone identified someone they think is going to put inappropriate content on a platform so we can all remove them quickly hoping to stop the spread of someone going from one platform to another. We know that we have a broad responsibility here to do everything we can in the face of some of these threats to help protect people and we take that very seriously and have brands. So far even though of course we're in early days and brands responded positively not only on the terrorism element but also the fake news. They feel that this is changing. Yes brands know that Facebook is a safe place for them to be. We've worked very hard to make sure that inappropriate content is not on Facebook and that brands have a safe way and a contextually safe way to communicate on Facebook . I think what's also fascinating you talk very passionately about this element. You also have been someone who talks constantly passionately about diversity and this is something that we're seeing now. Ron's also become potentially involved in what are your messages to brands as to how to keep on drawing diversity and ensure we have a balanced view not only within companies but also in advertising. Brands have such an important role to play here because people see so many marketing messages. The estimates are that people can see hundreds of marketing messages a day. That means that if we market products and services. So in a supportive of gender equality way supporting female leadership supporting men as caregivers we can really make strides towards gender gender equality in the world later tonight. They can lie in foundation will announce the glass line. And that's something we worked with them my foundation lean in to establish a few years ago and it's award given every year at Cannes to the ads of the year which are best for gender equality. Last year PSG won for an ad called Share the load which showed a man watching his daughter doing all the housework in her home. Realizing he never helped his wife her mother and leaving her house and going home to his wife of many decades and offering to do laundry likely for the first time . Unilever did a great ad about a rock band that's transgender to counter some of those messages in India. And so that means that these companies are working on the right gender messaging. We then did a study with Madonna badgers ad ad agency of well when brands are for gender equality are for the right messages on gender. What happens to them and what we found is that people are 8 to 10 percent more positive on those brands. So I think the message is very simple and very compelling. We need to counter the negative stereotypes and brands have a big opportunity to do good for the world but also do good for themselves and diversity. Closer to home then talk to us about diversity in Silicon Valley if I'm a female looking and getting a job in technology at the moment. I look at one big brand I look at Uber for example and maybe I'm being put off. What advice as a CEO might you give to. But what advice would you give to those people wanting to get into technology right now as a female . Well obviously the reports of what's happening at Uber are super troubling and I'm glad that they are taking action to address them and all of us need to do more. We definitely need more women and underrepresented minorities in the tech field. We also need them in leadership in every industry in the world. We have these same issues in technology. We have a special both concern and opportunity which is that women are not studying computer science. In 1985 women were 35 percent of computer science degrees and now we're down to 17 or 18 percent. But we know that girls are outperforming boys in school in most countries in the world including yours including mine all the way from elementary school through university. And so we need to persuade our daughters and people of underrepresented minorities that tech is for them so that we can make sure our industry over the long run can represent the diversity of the people we serve. I also want to ask you one key element of also why you've been pushing and that is in times of tragedy. And I think that this is an element that when we've seen it for example with Travis Kalanick himself his own tragic personal circumstances what about tragedy and resilience in the business place. How are you helping see what you've had to go through yourself. How businesses can change for the better in this respect. I think we can do better supporting our employees . And it's so critically important to do that. Facebook had very good bereavement policies long before I lost my husband but we extended them even further. We now offer 20 days which in the U.S. context is a lot. We need other companies around the world and public policies to make sure we're taking care of people . We also need to remember that we spent. If you work full time you spend more time at work than at home. If you don't count the sleeping hours and that means that we have to provide support to each other. I think too often when someone's going through something hard if there's cancer or someone goes to prison or someone loses a job or someone dies we say nothing to our colleagues because we think that'll make it go away. It doesn't make it go away but the kinder gentler company that offers the right policies but that also says to employees person to person you may or may not want to talk right now but I am here for you. That would make for a better place to work in a better world. And I'm arguing that everyone should do it. And I think people are seeing how much loyalty they can get from their employees when they treat them as human beings but also that it's the right thing to do for all kinds of human reasons that matter so much to who we are .

No schedule data available.

Facebook's Sandberg on Creating Jobs and Diversity

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg discusses the company's pitch to brands, how small businesses use Facebook services and diversity issues in tech with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)

More From Bloomberg Technology
All episodes and clips