Tuesday Tune-Up #374

News
michele.danno


US spending is up…and no, it’s not on the wall
While nothing tangible yet exists between Mexico and America, Facebook walls are still strong as ever in the US. And they’re better funded. This year, digital ad spend is set to exceed traditional ad spend for the first time, according to eMarketer. And if that wasn’t enough, by 2023, digital will surpass two-thirds of total media spending. The numbers are huge – enough to build a wall around all of America (but let’s not get any ideas @realdonaldtrump). Total digital ad spend is forecasted to grow 19% to a casual $129.34 billion this year, 54.2% of estimated total US ad spending (while traditional will drop to 45.8% in 2019 from 51.4% last year.) A big chunk of digital’s $$$ will come from mobile – $87.06 billion to be exact. eMarketer also showed that Amazon is landing some blows on the Facebook and Google duopoly. Its US ad business is set to grow to 8.8% this year, up from 6.8% in 2018, taking some market share away from the two major players.



Twitter tests out a new look 
“New number, who dis?” It’s out with the old and in with the new as Twitter undergoes a makeover intended “to make it easier to see more of what people are saying”. This update includes new designs to tweet replies and different colours that help highlight responses from people you follow, as well as the original poster. The platform is testing the proposed changes amongst its community, and anyone can apply to be part of it. Twitter is also experimenting with efforts to de-emphasise engagement numbers. The number of likes and retweets that a reply has received are now hidden until a user clicks on the reply, along with sharing options and other details about the tweet.

Is Instagram about to do a Snapchat on Pinterest?
The latest social media “discovery” platform to seek an Initial Public Offering is Pinterest, meaning the previously-deemed wedding planning platform is getting closer to its financial fairytale ending. It has crossed the Ts and dotted the lower-case js on the paperwork for its stock market debut. It’s expected that Pinterest will list its shares later in the year, with an IPO in late June. It’s seeking a valuation of at least $12bn, due to its user base of 250m monthly active users.

In usual fashion, Instagram could be looking to rain on its parade with the introduction of a very Pinterest-like feature – public Collections. No surprises there. However,  it’s very much a rumour based on code buried in Instagram for Android. But given the platform already has a private Collections feature, it hardly seems beyond the realm of possibility. Instagram told TechCrunch “we’re not testing this,” which, according to the publication, is its standard response to press enquiries about products that aren’t available to public users. With that response, $20 says we’ll see this pop-up sooner or later.

Public Collections

TikTok is lookin’ for #cashmoney 
TikTok is reported to be looking to make a bit of extra cash with new ad options. The fast-growing video-based app has told agency partners in the U.S. that it is working on a self-managed biddable advertising platform where media buyers will be able to bid against one another for the ad impressions they want. TikTok currently offers advertisers direct IO (insertion order) buys, but the new formats being pitched include in-feed video ads, brand takeover ads and branded lenses.

National Geographic nails Instagram
Last week, National Geographic became the first brand to top 100 million followers on Instagram ?. The publisher’s revenue from social advertising rose 80% y-o-y from 2017 to 2018, and while it didn’t reveal an exact numerical amount, it’s apparently “well over seven figures”. National Geographic attributes its continued success to its 130+ photographers and the level of authenticity it has been able to create by allowing them to publish directly to its channel. Just give us more beautiful photographs and David Attenborough and we’ll be happy.

Rescue dog in need of home + Instagram = SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
You asked for dogs, PetMe and Instagram deliver. Forget admiring other people’s dogs from afar on Instagram, why not adopt your own instead? Nice use of AI to help give a dog a home – PetRescue has created PetMe, an AI platform that analyses dog photos on Instagram and matches followers of popular dogs on social media with similar ones up for adoption. Dog lovers can also share dog pics using #PetMe and the platform’s bots will reply with suggestions of dogs matching the breed, temperament, size and more. PetMe has helped make 14,000 adoptions in the last six months. Brb, off to adopt #allofthedoggos



This post courtesy of @lauzlim