Written by Lee Ai Yun, Jeremy Lim and Ernie Sulastri.

Spotify Adds 8-Minute, 46-Second Silent Track to Playlists for #BlackOutTuesday

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Spotify announced that it will be participating in the Blackout Tuesday collective action by adding an 8 minute and 46-second moment of silence to playlist and podcasts on its platform to honor George Floyd. 

8 minutes and 46 seconds is the length of time a Minneapolis Police officer pinned George Floyd down by the neck with his knee, resulting in his death and sparking protests in US cities across the country.

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Blackout Tuesday (June 2, 2020) was dedicated to protesting police violence and racism. Along with Spotify, many record labels are participating in this movement and ViacomCBS has also organized a 8 minutes and 46 seconds blackout across its network and cable channels starting 5 PM ET on Monday, June 2. 

Spotify will also put their social media activities on hold and replace all its profile images with a blacked-out image, pledging to promote black artists and podcasters with specially curated playlists. The company will also match all financial donations made by employees to organizations that are fighting racism and injustice.

Facebook Adds Option to Send Marketing Emails via Business Pages

If you thought email was dead, think again. Social media giant, Facebook, is reportedly testing new email marketing tools with a small group of small to midsize businesses. And if the feature turns out to be viable and beneficial for businesses, Facebook may roll it out more broadly to a wider base.

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Facebook’s email marketing tools provide a free, faster, and easier method for small businesses to send promotional messages at scale as well as track results. It enables SMBs to build email contact lists efficiently: either individually, or by uploading in bulk from your own database. Businesses can then easily track email marketing campaigns via the Facebook platform.

This feature may not be that useful for SMBs that already have an email marketing solution in place, but for those who are new to the game, this feature is perfect to get the ball rolling.

Snap Launches Dynamic Ads to Draw More Advertisers

Snapchat has launched a new ‘Dynamic Ads’ option, enabling advertisers and marketers to create ads on the fly. Snapchat provides use-in-built templates, giving marketers a variety of hassle-free options to choose from, in a vertical view format.

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The launch of the Snapchat ‘Dynamic Ads’ came up during an influx of ads on Instagram and Facebook, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in competitive advertising budgets. Brands such as Adidas, Topshop, and Farfetch have reported healthy growth in ROAS (return on advertising spend) and the launch has clearly targeted the Snap audience comprising Gen Z and the millennials mostly. 

The COVID pandemic has certainly created an opportunity for businesses to look at their digital sales and embolden the brands to be more innovative and diversify their advertising spends.