Tuesday Tune-Up #254

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michele.danno
Instagram Stories see success, but…

Last month, Instagram launched a new feature called Instagram Stories (if you don’t know, seriously where were you?!), which seemed only slightly similar to a familiar competitor – Snapchat.

According to a YouGov US poll taken from 23rd-26th August, 45% of 18-34 year olds voted Snapchat when asked whether they prefer using Snapchat Stories or Instagram Stories. Meanwhile, 21% of respondents ruled Instagram, and 34% (un)surprisingly suggested they had no preference between platforms. Gotta love indecisive millennials!

InSn CHART

Although users are still showing a strong allegiance to Snapchat Stories, the data from YouGov does reveal that the new Instagram feature has been well received. With 53% of millennials active on Instagram stating they look at Stories at least once a week and 27% saying they post content on the feature at least as much, it’s certainly setting the scene for a sweet competition with Snapchat. Will the Ghost beat the Gram? We’ll have to wait and see!

Snapchat ad sales expected to skyrocket to $935 billion next year 
Users aren’t the only ones snapping away. According to new figures from eMarketer, Snapchat’s impact on the ad market is increasing. In 2015, Snapchat’s ad revenue rang in at $59.2 million, and it’s predicted to collect an additional $367 million by the end of 2016. Next year, it’s expected to continue to increase by a staggering 155%, or $935.5 million big ones.

SnapchatAdRevenuesWW_eMarketer

Stay tuned for 2018, when the Ghost is expected to hit one billion.

Facebook’s CPMs up 65% in Q2, while CPMs for Twitter are down
Highlights from Salesforce Advertising Index Q2 report reflect that Facebook’s global costs per thousand impressions (CPM) soared 65% (up to $6.33) in Q2 compared with the second quarter of 2015. For Instagram, global CPMs of $6.30 were up 42% compared with the first quarter of 2016. For LinkedIn, global CPMs rose 13% (up to $29.43) as compared to the second quarter of 2015. Bad news for Twitter, however, whose global CPMs were down 18% (to $4.29) compared to a year ago.

Is Twitter’s Direct Message feature actually a messaging app?
Twitter won’t go down without an attempt at redemption. When given the option of fight or flight, the Bird has proven it will take a fight. As such, they’ve recently resorted to another popular platform style, messaging apps, to increase popularity of their ambiguous app. They recently rolled out updates to make their Direct Messaging feature operate more like a mobile messaging app, and the updates include a number of new features such as read receipts, typing indicators and web link previews. Personally, I think read receipts are the sole cause of 90% of millennial mind games, so thank goodness that feature has been carried over. Let the (in)direct messaging begin!

Starbucks launches a chat bot on Facebook Messenger 
Speaking of messaging, Starbucks has jumped on the Facebook Messenger bot bandwagon with the launch of their Real Pumpkin Spice character that lets users have pumpkin-flavoured fun in the form of GIFs, photos and questions for the foamy phenomenon. With a name about as #basic as its audience, ‘The Real PSL’ is certainly a sassy one. Feel free to give it a shot (or two) and have a little (or a latte!) fun with the cheeky character.

pumpkin-spice-latte

Durex conducts eggplant flavoured condom stunt
Since there’s currently no image in the official emoji alphabet that allows people to broach the subject of safe sex in text, naturally Durex had to…come in…and save the day (or, a lot of late nights). Cue the launch of an eggplant flavoured condom as part of their #CondomEmoji campaign. I can’t back this up, but I sexpect safe sex statistics to skyrocket.

 

Apple joins social just in time to spoil their launch

Is it just me, or was the launch of the iPhone 7 far less newsworthy than the launch of the thing that (supposedly) spoiled it – Apple’s first official Twitter account. The brand notorious for having almost no social presence at all took to Twitter last week in anticipation of the buzz-worthy iPhone 7 and ended up breaking the news (and making headlines) hours before Tim Cook took the stage to announce the phone. The tweets were pulled almost minutes after going live, but not before thousands of anxious Apple fans got their slick fingers on them. Was this all part of Apple’s geniusly devised plan, or was it actually an honest (and all-too-relatable) mistake made by the mere humans running their social channels? Comment or Tweet us with your thoughts!



This week’s Tune-Up courtesy of @michele_danno