Facebook gets creative with Masquerade acquisition
Sick and tired of your ugly mug? Nobody liking your selfies? Well, fear no more as last week Facebook added Masquerade, otherwise known as MSQRD, to its ever-growing social empire. The app allows you to overlay animated filters over your face with a range of effects from Barack Obama to Leonardo DiCaprio. Here’s Mark Zuckerberg to explain how it’s done.
Taking a break from coding to welcome the MSQRD team to Facebook!
This comes as no surprise, as Facebook had previously (unsuccessfully) attempted to acquire Snapchat and Masquerade’s filter tools have been compared to those on the ephemeral platform. While neither party has disclosed the price of the deal, an educated guess would be a whoooooole lotta dollar.
Twitter courts game makers with Unity/Fabric integration
Twitter has teamed up with one of the world’s most popular game development engines, Unity, so that game makers can take advantage of Twitter’s Fabric mobile development platform. By embedding games with Fabric, developers will get help with such important things as real-time user reports, revenue generation and attracting and retaining users, especially from social media, as you’d expect. Twitter is even giving game developers their own Web destination — ‘Fabric for Games’ – this is where we’re likely to see more gaming friendly tools roll out in the future.
Instagram kills newly launched ‘Being’ app
The entire premise of the ‘Being’ app was to see something through a celebrity’s eyes by having access to their newsfeed. The rush of having an insight into what its like to be an a-lister was, unashamedly, pretty cool. However, eight days after launching, Instagram blocked API access, leaving developers and stalkers alike stumped. If anything, Being’s early exit should be a word of warning to developers hoping to skirt around Instagram’s updated API rules. RIP Being, we had fun whilst it lasted.
Facebook updates Atlas with tracking tools and video ads
Facebook has made a number of updates to its ad server Atlas to help marketers track the effectiveness of their campaigns. Firstly, ‘Offline Actions’ allows those using Atlas to upload their own point-of-sale data and view it alongside their ad campaigns to check whether their investment is making a difference. The platform is also helping marketers better understand their customers’ paths to conversion across screens – i.e. whether ads on desktop or smartphones/tablets drove a digital sale. While they were busy doing updates, the folks at Facebook also tweaked Atlas’s video capabilities to allow video ads by the end of March, making it easier for brands to tell their stories across devices within Atlas.
Snapchat expected to generate big bucks in 2016
We’re all familiar with setting ourselves high targets, so that when we surpass expectations we feel like we are absolutely nailing life. Things like losing that excess Christmas weight by March (ahem) or you know, generating $50 million revenue one year then $350 million the next… It’s no surprise that Snapchat is bringing in the big bucks with various offerings including sponsored lenses and ads alongside its Live Stories and for a company with a $16 million valuation, Snapchat’s revenue is at an early, yet promising, stage. But, investors are betting that with the increasing popularity with the younger generation it will continue to rake in the cash. Seriously Snapchat, if you do want to share the wealth, my rent is due next week.
Oculus puts Facebook into Gear VR
Social is what will take VR mainstream, and now Oculus is helping this with a load of new social features and Facebook integration for the Samsung Gear VR. If you’re lucky enough to have a Gear VR headset, soon you’ll be able connect your Facebook account to “Like” and share 360-degree videos from inside it.
There are already Facebook 360-degree clips in the Gear VR’s video app, but soon Oculus Video will start letting users sign into Facebook and get a personalised feed based on pages and people they follow. In the “coming weeks,” they’ll also be able to add reactions to the videos or share them while inside VR. Apart from the addition of 360-degree Facebook videos, this is the first big tie-in between Oculus’ Gear VR platform and Facebook since Oculus’ purchase in 2014. Soon, we will be able to enjoy our lives without the hindrance of leaving our homes – can’t wait.
Facebook bids to live-stream NFL games
As we reported in last week’s mashup, Facebook currently has a bit of a thing for live video content, given users are now spending three times longer watching live video in comparison to an archived stream. So it comes as little surprise to find that the social media giant is looking to make a pretty significant investment into live streaming, as it bids to show the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” games on the platform. With competition from the likes of Amazon and Verizon it’s by no means a done deal, but we do often find that what Facebook wants, Facebook gets. Fingers crossed we’ll see some big NFL hits coming to our timelines in the not-too-distant future…
British Vogue partners with WhatsApp to test breaking fashion news
Brands are forever looking for new, innovative ways to reach their audiences. One sure fire way to ensure your message is delivered is to deliver a message… literally. Since New York Fashion Week in February, Vogue has been sending the latest runway looks and need-to-know fashion tips directly to customers’ phones. To get involved, users simply text “Fashion” to Vogue, and hey presto they are now subscribed to their alerts – it’s that easy. So far, so good with sign-up numbers and user engagement being described as ‘impressive’. With this medium being a new strategy approach, Vogue is respectful with their publishing frequency with only THE most breaking fashion news headlines reaching users phones.
Movie marketers use Instagram as a promotional platform
No longer is Instagram solely a place to share your #totes #wholesome and #lean #brunch. Entertainment marketers are now looking towards it as a serious platform to promote upcoming releases. To raise awareness around the launch of feature comedy ‘The Perfect Match’ from Codeblack Films, six popular influencers starred in an Instagram series in the style of the classic 80s game show, ‘The Newlywed Game’, and so far it has garnered over 37.5 million earned impressions. For films such as ‘The Perfect Match’, which don’t benefit from large marketing budgets, the socially driven approach is proving to be important. With the Instagram show costing less than $10,000 to produce, Codeblack believes it has already earned several times this in marketing value.
