Bebo banks on product placement for its revival

Bebo is relaunching product placement-themed content on its site as a part of a major revival push.

The website?s new owners want to revive the social media site and make it competitive against Facebook and other social media networks.

The site was sold to Criterion Capital Partners (CCP) after a strategic review of AOL, the former owners.

Adam Levin, the new head of Bebo, told Marketing Week that he wants to revive the social media site in the United States (US). The site will aim engagement with the 14-24 year old demographic, said Levin.

Levin says that the social media site will feature a new video homepage, where product placement-based content will be screened. CCP will also add new product placement campaigns to complement the homepage.

Levin explained: ?We definitely want to see more original productions come back to Bebo and create an array of premium content which will allow brands to take part and engage with these core demographics. The opportunities here have worked brilliantly in the past, and we want to experiment with this once more and gauge as much interest as possible.?

The social media site is now beta testing new advertising units, which will allow the site to engage with users in better ways.

?We need to bring new life into the site with rich new advertising options, like homepage takeovers, and better access for users,? claimed Levin. ?We will be marketing to try and bring people back to Bebo, but what?s been great is since we took over, initiatives such as ?Free Love Day? have seen users requesting to reactivate memberships.?

Source: Mad.co.uk