Zuckerberg holds AdAsia audience spellbound

The three-day AdAsia Lahore 2019 concluded here on Thursday, featuring some extraordinary international advertising industry figures including Randi Zuckerberg from Zuckerberg Media, Tom Goodwin from Zenith Media, Julian Boulding from thenetworkone, Edward Pank from Warc, Angela N G from the Association of Advertising Agents of Macau and Kim Nackhoi from Korea Federation of Advertising Association.

Randi called Pakistan as one of the most familiar countries in the world. She appreciated the production of soccer balls in Pakistan, saying her husband had told her that you are going to a country which knows the real definition of the word 'football'. She said she was happy to be in a country which appreciates her love for cricket. She also appreciated Malala Yusufzai and called her 'incredible woman' in the world and finally she paid her tributes to Benazir Bhutto for being the first Muslim world woman prime minister. She said she is a mother of three kids like Benazir Bhutto. "It is an honour to be in a country that believes in women empowerment."

She said she had a dream of becoming an opera singer but her parents were doctors by profession and they forced her to study something more serious subject. Being a graduate from the Harvard University, she said her brother Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the facebook, hired her being a marketing and advertising professional. "He told me that he was going to start a little project called the facebook and I really need someone who understands marketing," she said. "Let me translate it. What he really meant was that he wanted someone to work for free."

Randy said she had thought at the very initial stage of joining Mark at the facebook project that she would give him advice for one week and come back to her own life and own career. "However, my original plan ended up 10 years later I was still working at facebook with my brother in California."

She said there was a tiny little office in California right above the Chinese restaurant but there were tens and thousands of employees and offices all over the world and a publicly-traded company. She said she kept marketing facebook for 15 years and her first year the marketing budget was one box of T-shirts.

She said she had started a rock band on facebook, which could not prove a success story. The other one was facebook live with Randi Zuckerberg. "My first video was watched by only two people; my mom and dad. I thought the idea of 'facebook live' is dead." However, she added, something out of the blue happened and she got a call from a pop star with a request to be on her live show at facebook. "In January 2011, we had the first-ever facebook live broadcast and millions of peoples were tuned in." She said she had also invited the group of engineers working on the idea of twitter. It was followed by another call from the White House suggesting that President Barrack Obama wanted to use facebook live, she added enthusiastically.

She also spoke at length about merits and demerits of social media and advised her audience to minimize excessively use of electronic gadgets. She said she has initiated a project 'Zuckerberg Institute' recently for leadership coaching. She also sang for the audience at the end of her presentation.