Facebook users pump down the volume So it turns out the next big thing for online video might not be VR after all. The most popular video format on Facebook? Video without sound. Digiday has reported as much as 85 per cent of Facebook video views happen with the sound off. And interestingly, they’ve found KPIs like brand lift and intent to purchase were not affected by whether the viewer had the sound switched on or off. Charlie Chaplin rerun, anyone?
Video ads on Facebook now visible… off Facebook
Advertisers using video on Facebook can now choose to increase audience reach by 10 per cent, thanks to the introduction of video ads which will appear on third party websites. Facebook’s introduction of pre, mid and post-roll video content on the Facebook Audience Network, means third party sites including Mail Online and USA Today will display video ads using Facebook’s data to target consumers.
Is Vine falling out of favour? Silent films, in, short films, out: Short form video service Vine is struggling to retain users and influencers, with thousands abandoning the channel in favour of longer form platforms. In fact, 52% of users with more than 15,000 followers have left the platform since January. Influencer Esa Fung, who had 50,000 Vine followers by 2013 said he was planning to focus on Facebook and YouTube even though it meant more work. He said: ‘Facebook and YouTube have much larger scale than Vine, so you can reach more people and make the most money there.’
Adidas Originals comes to Snapchat Adidas has given kicks and snaps a whole new meaning. Originals, Adidas’ lifestyle brand, launched its Snapchat channel last Friday and has been using it to tease items from its top-secret collaborations. Its Snapchat story saw musician Pharrell Williams flashing the first glimpse of his purple “HU” NMD kicks, and 4,000 users have already screenshotted the image. While other sportswear brands are using celebrities, such as Puma and Kylie Jenner, their content has mostly been ‘behind-the-scenes fodder‘. Adidas has gone one step further by handing the reins over to the influencers themselves.
Paramount is launching a Ninja Turtle chatbot on Kik 80’s kids might want to take a seat, because the TMNT are ditching their nunchucks for smartphones. To promote the upcoming film, Out of the Shadows, Paramount pictures is launching a full-blown TMNT Kik campaign. The messaging app begins by launching a conversation with Michelangelo about pizza (what else?) then takes the user to fellow bandana-wearing ninja, Donatello. Along the way, the conversation gets tossed back and forth among all four turtles, and users get GIFs and links to the trailer for the new movie. The bot has been created alongside professional content creators so expect ‘cowabungas’, ‘dudes’ and ‘righteousness’.
Wells Fargo doles out tech gifts for grads As a grad, your only wish is that you get a job which covers rent, travel, food and if you’re lucky a couple of quid for a pint. Well, San Francisco-based bank, Wells Fargo, decided to ease grads into the next phase of their life by building a Twitter-powered conveyor belt to give out tech prizes. Its live Twitter contest saw a conveyor belt powered by tweets, with each tweet received pushing a car along (picture a tech-savvy Game of Life). When the car reached a milestone, the user who sent the tweet won a prize. As part of the #GetCollegeReady campaign, anyone over the age of 17 could enter, because after all ‘we’re all technically grads anyway’.
Snapchat gets slammed for its ‘whitewashing’ lens Snapchat is being roasted once again for using a skin tone face lens. Its new lens, dubbed the ‘pretty filter’ by users, creates a ‘whitewash’ affect, making the skin lighter, eyes bigger and jaw thinner. The launch comes just one month after Snapchat introduced the Bob Marley lens, which attracted harsh criticism. Many users have reacted to the new lens negatively, with one user saying that they’re ‘very disturbed by the fact that your ‘beautification’ filters make my skin lighter, and my nose and jaw smaller. Just saying.’
