Facebook Messenger launches Instant Games In Facebook’s continued effort to become the one-stop-shop for procrastination, they’ve just launched Instant Games, which lets people play classic mobile games such as Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Words With Friends within the Facebook app. Once you’ve competed, you can challenge your friends to beat your top score directly through Messenger. You officially never have to leave Facebook EVER again. Game on!
Facebook is developing a curated news service to address fake news problem Since it can be hard to differentiate between high-quality content and fake articles on Facebook, they’re taking a crack at fact checking with Collections – a curated news section similar to Snapchat’s Discover section. Supposedly, this channel will only showcase content considered ‘quality’ by a select group of media partners who will be hand picking pieces themselves. What does this mean for Harambe memes? And more so, the future of unbiased, unfiltered news consumption? The world will have to wait and see…
Twitter now allows mobile users to create Moments Earlier this year, Twitter announced it was letting users create their own Moments by pulling photos and collections of tweets together in one place for one day (their take on Stories, since everybody’s got one…). In a bid to make the feature more popular, Twitter is now allowing users to do this via mobile. If this seems like a “well, duh” update, that’s because, well, it is. Mobile first, Twitter! Mobile first!
First 360 Snapchat lens launched by Underworld film brand The marketing team behind Underworld: Blood Warshas created a 3D interactive lens that transforms users into a 3D-like landscape with the help of VR and 360 technology. To raise awareness of the lens and get people snapping, it was supported by a “Snap to Unlock” campaign with embedded codes on various billboards and websites. Super cool or totally creepy? I’ll leave that up to you.
Air New Zealand celebrates the true, authentic Southern Hemisphere Christmas with their Summer Wonderland ad
‘Tis the season for Christmas ads! My personal favourite this year was the “Summer Wonderland” spot from Air New Zealand, which addresses the lack of seasonally-appropriate Christmas songs and celebrations for the Southern Hemisphere. Their cheeky twist on the classic Winter Wonderland song employs Ronan Keating to re-invent it and make it relevant to our NZ and Aussie audiences. It’s about time we stop singing about snowy lands and frosty snowmen.
* We’re happy and bright, Not a snowman in sight, Strolling through a Summer Wonderland*
