Wednesday Wrap-Up #400

Tuneup
weare.social

Dog content makes us all content

It’s a known* fact that pets perform better than humans on social, which 100% makes us the (unofficial) experts in all National Dog Day activity. We asked our canine-loving colleagues to round up the best campaigns that celebrate this highly significant annual event, and our stand-out fave was #PraiseDog by BarkBox.

The subscription service enlisted the help of New York City’s Gay Men’s Chorus to help dog lovers express gratitude towards their beloved doggos. Those wishing to celebrate an exceptional canine were invited to tweet @BarkBox with a photo of the dog in question, their name, and a few reasons as to why they deserve some much-needed love. BarkBox then responded with a customised tune fit for a royal pup.

*I don’t really need proof but this cat dancing to Mr Sandman is pretty conclusive

Channel 4 schools us in audience-first thinking

This video featuring real complaints sent to broadcaster Channel 4 caught the eye of our Editorial Director Suz Tucker. Here’s her run-down on what makes it a worthy editorial approach:

1.  You can see this content was inspired by a real audience insight, but there’s a clear and authentic role for the Channel 4 brand. It brings to life themes of inclusivity and diversity that a more progressive audience cares about, and leverages familiar personalities and characters to deliver on the message.

2. The piece has a clear point of view that reflects the brand personality of humour and championing diversity. It’s self-referential, inclusive, anti-Brexit and bold.

3.  It is original and ownable for the broadcaster. These are real comments taken directly from their own social pages and it uses familiar talent affiliated with the network.

4. Scores high in ‘Give A Sh*t’ factor. It’s genuinely entertaining – and also polarising. Forging either a deeper connection to the brand or repelling the wrong audience.

Snap strengthens Lens Studio with new AR tools

Snap has boosted its Lens Studio with new features designed to appeal to a wider range of creators, from newbies to pros. They include Landmarker template support for 14 new real-world locations, six new facial templates, and an interactive tour for first-time app users. The move is designed to help Snap get an even stronger foothold in the AR creative and marketing spaces by making it easier for brands and agencies to experiment with Snap’s AR.

Let’s give a round of applause for another round of Facebook updates

Lots of changes big and small at Facebook and Instagram this month. These include:

Special effects for Instagram
Facebook has finally opened up its AR effects tool, Spark AR, which allows users to create and upload their own AR filters to Instagram. To support the wave of new filters likely to emerge over the coming weeks and months, Instagram will add a ‘Browse Effects’ option to the end of its effects tray. This will help users discover and try new AR filters, as well as an ‘Effect Gallery’ tab on artists’ profiles, letting creators display their work.

A new Instagram messaging app
Facebook is developing a new messaging app called Threads that is meant to promote constant, intimate sharing between users and their inner circle. Threads, which is designed as a companion app to Instagram, invites users to automatically share their location, speed, and battery life, along with more typical text, photo, and video messages using Instagram’s creative tools. The app, which is designed for sharing with your “close friends” list on Instagram, is now being tested internally at Facebook.

Instagram lets users report posts containing false information
Instagram will now allow users to report posts which contain false information to its team of fact-checkers, that could eventually lead to the post being be hidden from Instagram’s Explore and hashtag pages. Unlike its parent company, Facebook, Instagram hasn’t announced any plans to downgrade or remove posts labelled as containing false information from its News Feed.

A Group boost
Facebook is bringing more clarity to Groups’ privacy settings by getting rid of ‘secret’ and ‘closed’ options. Now, admins will only have two options – either ‘public’ or ‘private’ – as well as the ability to make private Groups either visible or hidden. By default, Groups that were secret will now become private and hidden, and those that were closed will now be private and visible. Public Groups will remain public and visible. Also, new group badges – the little images and notes that appear alongside group member names – are being rolled out. Descriptors such as ‘visual storyteller’ and ‘rising star’ will highlight the more prolific and engaged Page fans and encourage engagement within their community.

Improved advertising options for movie studios

Facebook has added two new advertising options, movie reminder ads and movie showtime ads, to help get more bums on seats at local cinemas. Not yet available in Australia (US and UK only for now), the new movie reminder ads allow users to tap an ‘interested’ button and receive notifications when those films are released. The notifications will bring users to a movie page, where they will be able to research showtimes and purchase tickets.

Twitter plans to remove third-party data from its ad-buying system

Twitter has announced plans to remove outside data sources from its ad-buying system. From early next year, the company will end its integration with outside data suppliers and require advertisers to buy data on their own. The social network has reserved the right to approve the data sources that marketers choose.

Post written by Krystyna Frassetto with additional reporting by Lauren Underwood (and guest appearance from Krystyna’s dog Valentina)