This Week in Social and Digital (Week of September 18)
This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Instagram Revisits Approach to Auto-Play Videos with Sound
Instagram and Facebook have made clear their plans to get users out of the habit of expecting videos to autoplay without sound over the course of 2017, and now, we’re starting to see just what that might look like. Up until this point, no video played automatically with sound by default, outside of Stories. Users needed to actively engage with each video in their feeds to activate sound. That’s where things change.
Thanks to a new update, once a user opts to engage with a video and turn the sound on, any other videos in that user's feed will automatically play with sound during that session. Even though audio will play automatically, it can be turned off by tapping a speaker icon in the bottom-left of each video.
Facebook and Instagram have been dealing with the sound-off by default critique for some time as rival Snapchat plays ads with the sound on because that’s how users engage with the platform. That’s not the case with Facebook and Instagram, which often is focused on silently scrolling through a feed. This appears to be a re-training of sorts for Instagram’s users.
Creatives everywhere are applauding as this represents a big opportunity to engage users not only visually, but audibly as well. Sound off by default 100% of the time has been a creative challenge for social videos, but many advertisers have embraced the restraint as an opportunity to optimize their creative, do things that capture user attention visually and generally, just approach creative in smarter, more deliberate ways. The other side of that coin has also meant a lot of executions in social that simply don’t work for the medium.
Instagram’s approach here makes a lot of sense from a user perspective. It allows users to opt-in to sound, which creates more opportunities for videos with sound to capture their attention. But this also creates yet another creative challenge.
Up until this point, the rules were clear. Assume things will be played without sound. Now, things aren’t so cut and dry, which means creative will need to address both the user who watches with sound and the user who watches without.
Pandora Rewards Users for Viewing Ads
Advertising is a value exchange. It always has been. Advertisers convey information, hopefully in an engaging, relevant way, and consumers award that advertiser with their attention.
Pandora’s taking that one step further with a new product called Video Plus. Video Plus rewards users with song replays and song skipping capabilities all for the low, low price of viewing an ad. Video Plus is launching with a campaign from T-Mobile. To take part users must opt in, and already, 42% of Pandora’s user base is on board. Advertisers only pay if viewers watch an ad for at least 15 seconds.
Mobile opens up a slew of opportunities for advertisers to rethink their value exchange with users. This is because advertisers have the ability through partnerships like this through Pandora or with in-game currency on mobile games and so on to reward users for their attention. So much emphasis has been placed on getting users to opt out of ads, such as skip buttons, that we’re starting to see the tides turn and give users reasons to opt in.
Facebook Gives Ad Targeting More Human Oversight
Facebook’s been in the midst of a PR disaster almost since the November election, but things heated up again this week when it was discovered target audiences can be set up on Facebook targeting anti-semitists and other hateful terms. Google and Twitter were found to have similar targeting issues.
Since the news has been released, Facebook announced new policies for ads created on the platform. Now, Facebook will be implementing more human-powered monitoring. Facebook will also be updating topics and categories that advertisers can target.
The targeting capabilities in digital are incredible, but it’s a double-edged sword. Because one can target niche audiences, there was bound to be advertisers and publishers who would abuse the system. This also shows the limitations of automation and shows that human oversight still has a very real and very important place.
Facebook Allows Targeting for Store Visits
Advertisers on Facebook have a new targeting capability. They can now target ads to people who have visited either their stores or the stores of their competitors. Beyond that, advertisers can target lookalike audiences that share characteristics to their current store visitors but have not yet visited, which could be valuable for customer acquisition tactics like sales.
Other digital platforms, including Google, allow advertisers to see how their ads drive in-store traffic, but this capability from Facebook allows advertisers to encourage previous store visitors to come back and audiences who look like they could become customers to visit. Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, created an ad campaign to target summer customers to come to the store in the winter.
Location-based targeting is getting more powerful and more competitive. Snapchat recently acquired Placed to improve its geo-targeting offerings, and this is an area in which Google’s been active for some time. This is certainly a valuable tool for restaurants, retailers and event holders, but it could even be effective for CPG brands, for example, to target customers of stores that carry their products.
News Quick Hits
- Airbnb is getting into the restaurant reservation business. Users can now book tables at around 650 restaurants around the country, bringing Airbnb in competition with services like OpenTable.
- Pin Collective is now available to more brands thanks to some updates that make it self-serve. Pin Collective started as an offering for brands to tap Pinterest content creators. Now, brands can submit content briefs, review applications from creators who want to take part and have work go live in 10 to 14 days. Pin Collective is available to brands using Promoted Pins.
- Spotify launched a self-serve ad platform called Spotify Ad Studio, which will generate audio ads that advertisers can then use to reach Spotify users. The service works by having an advertiser upload a script and select background music. The technology then generates a voiceover. Advertisers can also upload their own recordings. Once recorded, targeting and budget perimeters can be set.
- Twitter launched a Popular Articles feature under the Explore tab on iOS and Android apps. The feature highlights articles that are being tweeted by accounts a user is following. The move underscores Twitter’s position as a news source.
- Users of Instagram Live can now add stickers and effects to their live broadcasts. This means virtual sunglasses and other filters will be making their way onto more live broadcasts.