Facebook hires former Levi’s, Apple exec to head marketing

Facebook has hired Rebecca Van Dyck as head of global marketing, likely with the hope she can change the social networking giant’s branding. “We can confirm that Rebecca is joining the marketing team and we are thrilled she’s decided to join us,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Facebook hasn’t done much marketing of itself at all, so Van Dyck will likelybe taking on quite a bit of work. Given that Facebook  is going public soon, she’ll need to boost Facebook’s image so that the company can draw more users, developers, as well as advertisers. In just eight years, Facebook has become one of the most well-known brands in the world, but its consumer satisfaction is very low.

Good thing Van Dyck has quite the employment history to help her with her new responsibilities. Prior to Facebook, she spent just 10 months at Levi’s working as the company’s Global CMO, where she oversaw the company’s global “Go Forth” campaign. Before that, Van Dyck worked alongside Steve Jobs at Apple during the release of the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and the iPad.

“The iPhone was something created from the outside in, by how it felt to the consumer and the user experience going through it,” Van Dyke told AdAge when explaining her approach and what it was like working with Jobs. “It was first and foremost about the user experience. And that’s how I approach marketing, that theme of focusing on what’s important to the customer.”

Van Dyck was the senior director of worldwide advertising at Apple for four years and then as senior director of worldwide marketing communications and advertising at Apple for three years. Apple hired her away from advertising agency , where for 12 years she worked as the Global Account Director in charge of Nike.