Oh Snap: Snapchat launches new gaming and AR features in bid to play catch-up

Snapchat has announced the launch of various new features focused around augmented reality (AR) and camera search.

The launch, at the company’s first Snap Partner Summit, sees greater integrations with Lenses and Scan. The social media network is updating Lens Studio, its desktop app which enables users to build and distribute Lenses on Snapchat, to include capabilities such as hand and body tracking. The company has also launched a series of lenses which aim to bring iconic...

8 April 2019 | Advertising Technology

Blink and you’ll miss it: How to get the most out of short-lived social content

It is no secret that social media marketing is an ever-moving target. Up until recently there was a firm belief that the longer content remained accessible the more impactful it would be. Now, as counterintuitive as it may sound, there is a swing towards short-lived content, which has to do with Instagram’s rise in popularity.

Instagram is increasingly being seen by brands as a dynamic platform from which to share their more informal side in an almost off-hand manner....

20 March 2019 | Best Practice

Mobile understanding and holistic experiences: What marketers can learn from MWC19

The great and the good of the telecoms industry descended on Barcelona at the end of February for this year’s MWC. The tech hype that surrounds this landmark event is hard to miss, but still, it was clear from the many delegates that we spoke to that marketers are primarily focused on addressing their current business challenges.

The frequency and regularity that new channels, platforms and devices are released (such as amazing folding handsets and increased capabilities...

19 March 2019 | Advertising

Mobile marketers seeing ‘significant’ gains in data initiatives and investments

If you’re a mobile marketer and not putting a laser focus on data-driven campaigns, then where have you been? According to new figures from marketing platform YouAppi, almost all mobile marketers have increased focus and investment on data over the past five years – with the vast majority seeing improvements as a result.

The study, which polled more than 500 global in-house and agency marketers, found an overwhelming 97% saw investments in data had been worthwhile, with...

19 February 2019 | Data-driven marketing

Moving from mobile-first and UGC: How the advertising industry is set to change in 2019

As the start of a new year dawns, it's time to reflect on 2018 and consider how the advertising industry will evolve in 2019.

Data’s been the word on everybody’s lips, with regulatory changes shining a light on how companies process, store and share information. Transparency and marketplace quality remain hugely important and a top priority for all advertising companies – and it’s been very rewarding to see the industry take some huge leaps forward in...

8 January 2019 | Content Marketing

A mythbusting look at proximity marketing: Integrations and campaign best practices

The opportunities through location and proximity based mobile advertising are well recognised now, and retailers wanting to increase sales by bringing more people into their store have a variety of options when it comes to footfall tracking capabilities.

These allow retailers and advertisers to estimate the number of visits to a store and measure the incremental impact of proximity focused campaigns on the number of visits to that store. Ideally, these measurements can be made in...

6 November 2018 | Advertising

Gone in six seconds: Getting the balance right between viewability and message in short form ads

The temptation to skip an advert when it is forced upon us is never terribly far away. When that option isn’t there, like the data capture gatekeeper making sure we can’t yet access the oasis of content ahead, it is almost as if a sense of foreboding has come over our very souls.

This admittedly might be a slight overreaction. Plus it could be worse – non-skippable ads are usually only six seconds in length, so it’s not a disaster. New research, however, has...

1 November 2018 | Advertising

US telco giant Sprint sells mobile ad arm to InMobi

US telecoms firm Sprint has sold Pinsight Media, its mobile and data advertising company, to Indian-headquartered martech group InMobi.

The all-stock deal, the terms of which weren’t confirmed, comes as the carrier awaits approval from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to merge with T-Mobile.

According to a statement by InMobi, Pinsight works by partnering with leading US telcos and using their data to help companies better target ads on smartphones to the right...

17 October 2018 | Data-driven marketing

The rise of the commuter-shopper: Driving digital commerce in surprising environments

Thanks to the hyper-connected, ‘always on’ world in which we now live, the opportunity for brands to drive commerce is literally everywhere. As with other areas of our lives, connected mobile devices have changed the way we think about buying things; when it comes to shopping, we’re no longer bound by ‘restrictions’ such as location and time of day.

Last week, Instagram announced that it will be making some updates to its shopping capabilities,...

27 September 2018 | Advertising

Just how realistic a goal is augmented reality marketing?

Marketers are always looking for new and innovative practices to attract new customers and business. And in the tech world, there are few concepts more innovative than virtual and augmented reality. This blog will detail the differences between virtual reality and augmented reality, and how the latter can be used in marketing. We’ll then look at whether augmented reality is yet mature enough to be used on a broad scale by B2B marketers.

The difference between virtual and...

14 September 2018 | E-Commerce