With the recent announcement that Snapchat is diving into more original news programming in partnership with NBC, we’re seeing more and more investment dollars being put into custom content. Don’t expect that to slow down anytime soon. [Source: Social Media Today]
Facebook’s Instant Articles format may not be the revenue rainmaker that publishers had hoped for, but the company is readying another method for media companies to make money. [Source: Marketing Land]
A little over a year ago, Google teased using natural language to get data from Google Analytics just by asking. That “asking a question” functionality has now arrived in Google Analytics and Google Analytics 360 globally. [Source: Search Engine Land]
As web search evolves into more predictive, intelligent models, Google’s working to evolve their app to meet the rising demands of the modern consumer. [Source: Social Media Today]
Amazon has introduced Amazon Spark, a very Instagram-like social shopping feed. Not all of the images and posts are tied to products but most are — and can be purchased on Amazon. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
LinkedIn’s introducing a range of new data tools which will provide more transparency on performance, and more data for improved targeting on the platform. [Source: Social Media Today]
One of the knocks against advertising on Snapchat is that it’s hard to make ads for Snapchat. The mobile app’s insistence on vertical video compels advertisers to create campaigns from scratch rather than reusing ads that ran elsewhere. Now Snapchat is addressing that obstacle. [Source: Marketing Land]
Facebook announced a pending change to their Graph API which would remove the ability for Pages to edit link previews attached to posts – that change comes into effect this week, but the backlash has lead to Facebook providing a stay of execution, of sorts, on the feature for some Pages, with a new option that will enable publishers to maintain the capacity to edit previews. [Source: Social Media Today]
Google is currently testing a new design and user interface for the Google Search Console. The new user interface takes a design look from the revised mobile-friendly testing tool that launched less than a year ago. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Keeping up their pace of adding new features and tools, Snapchat’s launching two new updates this week, one of which could fundamentally change the Snap process. [Source: Social Media Today]
Expert Opinion:
1. How can brands use immersive marketing to provide unique customer experience and maintain brand credibility?
Storytelling has always been an important factor for any campaigns and ads to engage with the audience, and convey the brand message effectively. However, the 2D story approach is winding down, and a three dimensional, fully immersive approach is gaining pace these days.
Immersive technology combines virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) to create a unique experience for the customers which is relatable, impactful, memorable and fun. VR has played a major role in changing the way marketers can play with the campaigns and provide an impactful immersive experience to the audience. As per Statista Inc., the virtual reality console market is estimated to reach 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.
Immersive marketing can help marketers to:
– provide a seamless experience to customers and improve brand credibility
– provide unique content to the individual customers’ basis their preferences
– tackle language barriers through immersive visual solutions
– provide detailed and precise customer analytics
Immersive marketing is changing the marketing world at a fast pace. Reports by Statista Inc. suggest that, by 2018, the number of active VR users is estimated to reach 171 million. Considering the changing customer behaviour & expectations and the way audience is adopting newer technologies, it is high time that the marketers get themselves accustomed to the immersive marketing techniques and use them to achieve optimal customer engagement and brand reputation.
– Vishwajeet Parashar, Group Marketing Head, Bajaj Capital Ltd.
