MUMBAI: Leo Burnett has unveiled, a new interactive ad unit for Facebook at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Facebook’s Global Marketing Solutions’ VP Carolyn Everson revealed the new ad unit at Facebook’s ‘Social by Design’ seminar and explained the way brands and people can connect on Facebook using this unit.

The new Comment ad unit lets brands spark conversations among friends by posting a video, photo, link or status and allowing people to respond. Through Facebook’s platform, these conversations can engage brand’s fans and potential fans at scale.

Leo Burnett USA’s chief innovation officer Mark Renhaw said, "The collaboration between Facebook and Leo Burnett is particularly exciting. Through the creation of this ad unit we‘re helping Facebook and brands tap into people‘s desire and behavior to participate beyond brands‘ Facebook Pages. The Comment ad is a great example of word-of-mouth-marketing at scale. It‘s an organic way to get brands into the conversations that hundreds of millions of Facebook users are having every day."

The comment ad unit starts off as a post in the form of a video, photo, link or status to the brand’s Facebook page and also appears as an ad unit. After which, Facebook users can start commenting or replying using the ad unit. The conversations can be surfaced as Sponsored Stories, which will engage around the conversations between brands and consumers.

Facebook’s global agency relations VP Blake Chandlee said, "We applaud Leo Burnett for providing brands with a new and unique way to spark conversations among people. With the most creative minds in the industry, agencies can and should be leading a new way of marketing that is personalised, social and engaging. We look forward to working with others to see future innovations that come from the agency community."