We Are Social’s Tuesday Tune-up #75
News
News
Welcome to this weeks round up of social media news from around the globe!
Mortein launch new Louie the Fly campaign
A social media campaign has been launched by Mortein on behalf of their brand ambassador Louie the Fly for him to become a waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Sydney. The campaign is leading with a message saying that a petition has been started following a request for Louie the Fly to become one of the waxworks in the museum. Apparently the museum said he wasn’t one of the most requested characters, so they couldn’t do it. The campaign is being run on the Louie the Fly Facebook page including the petition for users to sign.
68% Australian marketers planning to increase digital budgets in 2013
The State of Digital in Australia Report was recently released and one key area of interest was how companies are planning to spend marketing budget in 2013, and particularly when comparing offline versus online channels. The research reported that in 2013, 29% of overall marketing budgets will be spent on digital channels with 68% of companies planning to increase digital spend during the year. In terms of social media, the statistics were broken into off-site social media investment and on-site social media investment. Of the two, off-site social media is expected to grow by 3% and significantly video advertising is estimated to grow from 40% in 2012 to 51% in the coming year.
Pinterest seek $2.5 billion valuation
Hot on the coat tails of Twitter and their $9.9 billion, Pinterest is looking to raise new financing which would value the platform at between USD2 billion and USD2.5 billion. The network is yet to make a great deal of revenue, but does have strong connections to the retail market, so it will be interesting to see how its financial future unfolds.
Dumb Ways to Die campaign has positive results
The recent viral video campaign for Melbourne’s Metro Trains called “Dumb Ways to Die”, has reportedly provided a 20% drop in ‘dumb behaviour’ on train platforms in the Melbourne area. Launched in November 2012, the video quickly went viral (even being parodied) and currently has close to 40 million views on YouTube. The brand is now looking to continue of the expansion of the campaign with e-direct marketing, booklets, apps and games. We dare you to watch the video and not start singing along!
Instagram release web version of user real-time stream feed
Instagram last week (finally) launched the web version of the user stream feeds of photos in addition to iOS and Android mobile app versions. The look and feel is quite slick and clean at present, with thoughts leading towards the opportunities for Instagram to start offering advertising in the near future. At present users can view their own photos and that of users they follow in the real-time stream. It is not possible to upload photos to Instagram from the web version yet and Instagram has said that this is in part because the user experience is still more about sharing photos.
Coles using YouTube to discuss milk pricing
One of Australia’s biggest supermarket chains Coles has published a video on YouTube as a way to further explain their position on milk pricing. The video is also being shared across other social media channels Facebook and Twitter. Following last year’s social media storm about how cheap milk pricing effects Australian dairy farmers, the video has been developed to explain not only the Coles position and their pricing policies but also the greater Australian dairy industry and milk production.
Twitter’s Promoted Trends price goes up
Earlier this year the Twitter Promoted Trends daily price rose by 33% in the US from $150,000 to $200,000. The Trends section of the Twitter platform is regarded as being prime real estate by brands and closest advertising option to a digital display ad. Brands though are currently just getting their heads around the price hike and no doubt deciding whether the return will be positive enough against the spend.
Twitter buying Bluefin Labs
Twitter has confirmed that it is acquiring Bluefin Labs, a company which analyses online discussion about TV shows and companies. The purchase will be Twitter’s biggest to date and has been estimated as being USD100 million. The company describes itself as a TV analytics company and provides data to companies such as CBS television, for information on what is being said about them online. The acquisition will also add to the potential opportunities available to Twitter in terms of expanding their current advertising suite of products.
Twitter makes updates to Search and Discover
Twitter announced several updates to their Android and iOS apps, as well as their mobile website. From now on, all content in Discover will appear in a single stream and the same will be the case for Search. You can get an idea of the functions’ feel from the image below:
Moreover, Search will now display tweets from a longer time period. Previously, only tweets from up to around a week previous were displayed; this is now set to increase, allowing users to locate content beyond the most recent Tweets.
Vine raises age gate to 17+ after pornography criticism
Vine, Twitter’s video sharing app, has raised its age gate from thirteen to seventeen in the wake of it being used for the production and distribution of 6-second pornographic films. From now on, whenever users try to download or upgrade the app, they will be requested to confirm that they are at least seventeen.
“Share the Love” campaign continues
Farmers Union Iced Coffee has released the next phase of their “Share the Love” campaign with an offer targeting the ‘blue-collar bloke’. The brand is giving away 40,000 cartons of their iced coffee drink via a Facebook activation and vouchers, prompting users to ‘shout a mate from another state’.
LinkedIn celebrate 200 million members
In what has now become tradition, professional networking platform LinkedIn has celebrated the latest milestone of 200 million members with a group photo of their employees at the US headquarters. The company started their photo milestones back in 2004 when they reached 500,000 members. Since then each member milestone has been marked with a similar photo at their head offices.
Starbucks quick to push “Snow Day” real time ad buy
Whilst us Aussies are happily enjoying summer, over in east coast USA, a snowstorm which hit last Friday meant that cities such as New York and Boston almost shutdown during the blizzard. The blizzard forecast was received mid last week and the quick thinking Starbucks NYC marketing team pounced! They quickly put together a campaign targeting social media conversations on Twitter and Facebook, including snow-themed ads and an image of a hot cup of coffee. Ads ran both as Facebook Marketplace ads and Twitter Promoted Tweets. The brand utilised key blizzard Twitter hashtags including #Nemo (the name of the storm) and #blizzard. The real-time ad campaign is now seen as becoming highly effective for brands, and was used to great effect also last week during the Super Bowl.
Four Seasons Hotels Taps into NYFW and Instagram
As well as blizzards and real-time Starbucks campaigns, the New York Fashion Week is also currently taking place. Luxury hotel chain Four Seasons has launched a campaign targeting fashion week attendees to share their favourite footwear via an on-site shoe photo booth and to follow the campaign on both Instagram and Twitter. The Four Seasons Hotel NY is perfectly positioned about one mile from the Lincoln Centre where the majority of runway shows take place, and calls users to visit the hotel during the whole fashion week and have a photo of their footwear taken in the shoe photo booth. The pictures are then posted to the hotel’s Twitter and Instagram accounts using the #FSShoeCam hashtag.
Facebook testing new sidebar ad format
Facebook is currently testing a new format for their marketplace ads, and is running a small trial just in the USA for now. The new format is available just on the desktop version and the ads in the right hand column. The ad is wider than previous versions with a larger image, and similar to the mobile version of Facebook ads. It seems only a couple of select advertisers are involved in the trial and this new format may be how Facebook works towards improving the clickthrough rates of marketplace ads.
Facebook average CPC’s dropped in Q4 2012
It has been reported by third party ad company TBG Digital that in Q4 2012, the average cost per click paid for Facebook ads dropped significantly in the USA, up to 37% lower as more advertisers opted to use News feed ad formats. Advertisers are actively moving more towards ad formats such as Promoted Posts which are providing higher clickthrough rates. This data means that the average CPC paid in the USA is now lower than other countries such as the UK, Germany, France and Canada. In addition, this is why Facebook is running the trial mentioned in the above story as a way to draw advertising spend back towards marketplace adds.
Facebook users taking breaks
Pew Research Center has reported that Facebook users are taking breaks from the network, with 61% of 1,006 users surveyed answering as such. Such breaks, which last from a few days up to several weeks before returning to the network, are caused by a number of factors: 21% claimed they didn’t have enough time, 10% stated a lack of interest and 8% claimed they spent too much time on the site.
Top 100 brands show massive growth on Google’s social platforms
Over the last year, the top 100 global brands have shown a huge amount of growth on both Google+ and YouTube. 75% have established an active social presence on Google+, accounting for 20.9 million fans, which amounts to growth of 9400% in the course of the year. Of these 20.9 million, 16.3 million (78%) are following the top 10 brands, suggesting that this growth, while remarkable, is not spread evenly. As for YouTube, 87% of the top brands have their own channel, with a total of 3.15 billion views between them.
Facebook rumoured to be developing smartphone tracking app
Facebook is rumoured to be in the process of developing a smartphone tracking app, which would allow users to locate nearby friends, even when the app is not open. Due to be released in mid-March, the motives behind the app may be to allow greater targeting of advertising through the information gathered about users locations.
Facebook trials new ‘Lookalike Audiences’ feature
Facebook has begun testing a new feature called ‘Lookalike Audiences’, which will allow advertisers to target users who are similar to those in their ‘Custom Audiences’. When an advertiser creates a custom audience by adding a set of data, they will then be able to target ads to similar users, as assessed by Facebook’s algorithms. The system is currently available to US advertisers.
Facebook set to purchase Atlas
Facebook are set to announce a deal to purchase Microsoft’s ad-serving business by the end of the week, in a deal set to be below $100 million, based on previous $30 – $50 million bids. In doing so, the network looks to be attempting to build its own ad stack, meaning it could provide more data to advertisers about the effectiveness and return on investment of advertising within the social platform, and possibly target ads off site using Facebook user data. The move also displays another point of competition between Facebook and Google, in terms of capitalising on digital advertising as a whole.
Vimeo introduces age ratings
Video-sharing platform Vimeo has introduced three age ratings for its content: All Audiences, Mature or Not Yet Rated. When a user uploads a video, they will be asked to divulge whether it includes violence, nudity, swearing or illegal substances, upon which their content will be rated automatically. A badge will then appear next to the video when viewed by others. If those uploading videos are shown to be labeling them inaccurately, the video’s rating will be changed and may lead to sanctions if the action is considered persistent or intentional.
NASA to hold Google+ hangout from the International Space Station
Even the sky isn’t the limit for Google+, apparently. NASA have announced plans to host a Google+ hangout live from the International Space Station on the 22nd February. Two NASA astronauts and one from the Canadian Space Agency will answer questions about life on the ISS for an hour on the day, from 11am to midday US Eastern Time. You can submit a question in the form of a video via YouTube until 12th February, or ask questions live via Google+, Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #askAstro.
Louis Vuitton promote accessories via Twitter love poems
Lucky last and as it is Valentine’s Day this week, our final story is about a social media campaign being run by Louis Vuitton on Twitter as a way to promote both their men’s and women’s accessory ranges. The campaign has items in the LV accessory range conversing together on Twitter by way of love poems utilising hashtags such as #MiniMonAmour, #GallantLove and #LVLove. The tweets link users to the e-commerce enabled sections of their site for the products.
