Social Marketing

Data from social media analytics and monitoring service Sprout Social revealed that many US internet users believe social media has given them more of a voice to expose unfair treatment from brands and be more critical of them in general.

The report provides detailed data and in-depth insights on mobile apps, which now drive the majority of digital media usage in the U.S.

Amisha Gandhi, head of influencer marketing at the software giant SAP, wanted to inject more value into the company’s Leonardo Live event centered on digital innovation and transformation. She invited five top influencers to participate in the two-day conference, which took place earlier this summer in Frankfurt, Germany, and attracted 1,500 attendees, including C-level and senior digital executives.  By Matthew Schwartz

Video didn’t kill the radio star. In fact, radio has recently seen record numbers across some coveted demographics, reaching 92% of Millennials each week. Nor did television kill the theater star, as the success of Hamilton attests. Even so, it seems that the birth of any new technology or media will stir predictions about the impending demise of its predecessor.

Consumer demand for streaming services has opened the door for new players. Snapchat has signed development deals in the past year with Walt Disney’s ESPN, Discovery, the NFL, A+E Networks, Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, and Vice Media. Twitter recently signed on to stream several sports leagues, which is on par with its strategy to carve out their share of the live streaming category. Facebook will stream 20 MLB games for free this season. And YouTube TV is now streaming live TV for cord-cutters around the globe. But it’s not just social networks looking to capitalize on the popularity of streaming. Comcast now allows its X1 customers to stream Netflix seamlessly from their service.

Social media is deeply embedded in our culture and has emerged as a leading indicator of overall media consumption.  Its burgeoning power can be vividly seen when assessing the consumption patterns, habits and trends of Gen-Z.   By Graeme Hutton

So a couple of weeks ago I sounded off about Facebook’s plans to enable sound automatically in its New Feed. I suspect my reaction is not that unusual and that advertisers still need to think about how their video is going to communicate without sound.  by Nigel Hollis

Investors have banged Twitter pretty hard of late. Criticized for flat user growth, the company’s stock has dropped as much as 13% during recent midday trading.  Despite this, users in Latin America have made the platform an integral part of their social media consumption habits.

As small business owners, we all dream of a place where we don’t have to guess what people want or like to do. In this place, we have a 360-view of their favorite places to eat, drink, and play. We are invited into conversations among friends about pressures and pain points, brand fails, and unicorns. In this place, millions of people capture life’s rawest and rarest moments in photos and live stream putting a face and story to issues our products are anxious to provide for, our services delighted to solve.  By Mario Carrera / ThinkNow

There’s a quote that gets thrown around and misattributed all the time that says, “Hope is not a strategy.”  In the digital media and advertising business the word “identity” gets thrown around even more, so to paraphrase this oft-used cliché, I’ll say: Identity is not a strategy.

Casual lifestyle brand Panama Jack – known for its signature suncare products, eyewear, apparel, home furnishings and branded resorts – has selected Miami-based MARCA as its digital and social agency of record.

HipLatina announced a partnership with Go RVing to engage HipLatina’s acculturated audience of upscale Latinas.

Show business has entered an unprecedented and exciting new era of engagement thanks to the ubiquity of social media and movie-loving Millennials. 

Broadcast news (52%) and Facebook (53%) continue to be top news sources for Americans, distantly followed by cable news (43%). Similar to previous waves, few trust news from social media sites and apps like Snapchat (11%), Twitter (14%) and Facebook (19%). Topping the list of sources most trusted, most Americans trust broadcast news (61%) and print newspapers (59%).

In the latest episode of “Behind the Numbers,” eMarketer’s Monica Peart and Debra Aho Williamson talk about social media users, and which format and player will dominate the space.

In the latest episode of “Behind the Numbers,” analyst Cathy Boyle and researcher Chris Keating discuss the market for mobile apps, and what it means for businesses.

A couple of weeks ago Mark Rabkin, VP, Core Ads at Facebook, posted ‘New Medium, New Rules: video in the mobile age’. It is a good summary of the challenges facing advertisers when it comes to engaging people in the mobile age and supports what Kantar Millward Brown has been saying for years: mobile is not a tiny TV.  by Nigel Hollis

Hundreds of thousands of hardcore soccer aficionados will converge on stadiums across the United States as the CONCACAF Gold Cup begins this month.  Toyota is joining the action as an official sponsor of the preeminent national team tournament of the North, Central America and Caribbean region.

Many people have a hard time walking away from their devices, even when they know they should.

Whether it’s using GIFs or the latest slang, brands do what they can to stay relevant on social media. But despite their best efforts, many people find these behaviors more annoying than cool.