POV
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25.08.20
Ruby Kane
Senior Account Manager
Sophie Wilkinson
Senior Content Manager
In the wake of the Stop Hate For Profit (SHFP) campaign, which has seen over 1,100 businesses including Coca-Cola, Mars and Verizon pull ad spend from Facebook since July, media publisher attention is now turning to the efficacy of this boycott. Facebook has not directly taken action on the 10 points Stop Hate for Profit requested to be addressed, instead creating a seven-point plan of its own. And when civil rights advocates behind Stop Hate for Profit met Facebook, they stated it treated the meeting merely as a “public relations exercise.”
Head of strategy and planning Tim Lawrence notes, that “change isn’t only related to hate speech; organisations are reacting to the MeToo movement and BLM, seeing the increase in female and BAME representation at C-Suite level and the rise of chief diversity officers.” Facebook has followed this trend and there have been some key changes made within the company, such as the introduction of a senior civil rights oversight role and the creation of a team with a dedicated focus on algorithmic bias. But the fight is not over yet. SHFP’s report as to progress made so far makes it clear there is still a long way to go before they will rest. Whether this momentum is matched and maintained by advertisers is another question.
Recent updates from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions have revealed a fresh mix of products and features that will be available for advertisers on the platform in the second half of 2020. This includes expansions to LinkedIn Events, audience insight improvements, the introduction of Story Ads and A/B testing, all before the end of this year.
These features will be available for advertisers to test and improve campaign strategies and effectiveness.
The new products include a paid aspect for LinkedIn Events, which will enable customers to host, attract and engage the right professionals pre, during and post-events. LinkedIn is also introducing Story Ads which will follow in Q3 2020. This feature will allow users to extend their video ads to LinkedIn Stories, increasing reach and engagement. Finally, improved audience insights (sharing valuable information on interest and content preferences) and the introduction of A/B testing will provide greater targeting opportunities and the capability to test ad effectiveness.
The UK government is discussing the introduction of watershed-style restrictions on advertising of High Fat Salt Sugar (HFSS) foods, as part of Boris Johnson’s campaign against obesity and to help further mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The exact nature of the ban is yet to be confirmed, but is expected to limit TV and online marketing for HFSS products to post-9pm, minimising children’s exposure. This move has come under heavy criticism from the ad industry.
The ban is expected to impact more than just sweets and chocolate, potentially including products such as ketchup, gravy, smoothies, cereal, soup and crackers. Whilst no action is anticipated until 2022, the impact on ad agencies would be widespread, with over 60% of agencies including some form of HFSS advertising, as cited in recent IAB Webinar ‘Understanding the Government's HFSS ad ban’.
Although speculative at this point, there are hopes for a wider consultation period between the government and the advertising industry to reach a solution that will ultimately work for both sides.
Following the release of its second quarter 2020 results, the popular social media platform has announced a 39% increase YoY in active users as audiences turn to Pinterest for inspiration on three-ingredient recipes, how to keep quarantined children entertained, and working-from-home hacks throughout lockdown. This has put the platform ahead of Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat in terms of monthly users, and positions it as a strong growth player for the rest of the year into 2021.
Pinterest’s popularity presents a greater opportunity for advertisers to target audiences on the platform.
On Pinterest’s growing potential, our paid social strategist, Sandra Frankowska, says “Pinterest is growing at a huge rate, and the future-focused mindset of Pinners is what makes it stand out from other social media platforms. Pinterest’s unique targeting offering and record-high engagement on the platform this year, combined with rapid user growth amongst Gen Z, Millennials and male Pinners presents a perfect opportunity for new marketers to start advertising on Pinterest. We expect competition on the platform to increase in the coming months as new brands tap into this fast-evolving advertising space.”
iCrossing have recently put together a summary of the 2020 Q2 earnings reports from the major social networks - including Pinterest.
Google’s Search Console (GSC) service is used by webmasters to check the status of their sites, including aspects such as indexing and visibility, to track and improve performance. However, GSC only stores site performance data up to 16 months, making it difficult to track historical performance. iCrossing UK’s new solution will allow us to store and archive 10,000 queries and URLs on a monthly basis for up to five years for our clients.
By archiving GSC data in Google Sheets, we enable easier tracking of site performance improvement as a result of implementations. This, in turn, also allows easier utilisation of causal impact for SEO, which aims to understand incremental changes in performance following site updates.
Speak to your account manager or channel lead for more information or email results@icrossing.co.uk to learn more.
Struggle to attribute the success that programmatic brings to your business? Tune in to biddable media manager, Louis Schermuly on 9th September to learn how to correctly value programmatic media buying for your brand.
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