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- McDonald’s Achieves ‘Exceptional’ Branding Score With Eyebrow Raising Ad
- Instagram Chief Says Photos Will Get More Focus On The App In 2023
- Top Twitter Influencers Say Platform Is Getting Worse Under Musk
- B2B Social Media Marks Huge Growth With Tik Tok Leading The Pack
- Spotify’s Layoffs Are The Latest In Big Tech’s Cutbacks
MCDONALD’S ACHIEVES ‘EXCEPTIONAL’ BRANDING SCORE WITH EYEBROW RAISING AD
McDonald’s latest campaign achieves an “exceptional” brand recognition score of 98, according to data from effectiveness firm System1, despite being the fast food chain’s first ad not to showcase either its restaurants or food.
Created by Leo Burnett UK, ‘Fancy a McDonald’s?’ follows a group of office workers using a knowing, raised eyebrow signal to communicate an invitation to get McDonald’s food without saying a word.
While the brand’s name isn’t shown until the ad’s closing moments, its iconic assets are peppered subtly throughout, from the red and yellow outfit of the film’s opening character to a hand drawn McDonald’s logo on a yellow Post-it note. The raised eyebrows themselves are also a nod to the brand’s Golden Arches logo, with viewers invited to join in by raising their own ‘arches’.
INSTAGRAM CHIEF SAYS PHOTOS WILL GET MORE FOCUS ON THE APP IN 2023
Good news for Instagram purists – Instagram chief Adam Mosseri says that the platform has gone too hard on pushing videos, and will look to make photos more of a focus once again in 2023.
Mosseri made the remark as part of his weekly Q and A series, conducted in his IG Stories.
As per Mosseri:
“I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far, and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos. We’ve since balanced, so things like how often someone likes photos versus videos, and how often someone comments on photos versus videos, are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced.”
Mosseri further notes that photos will remain a key focus for the app, and that maintaining the right balance in this respect will be key.
TOP TWITTER INFLUENCERS SAY PLATFORM IS GETTING WORSE UNDER MUSK
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, some of its most active and popular users say they’ve witnessed turmoil as a result of changes introduced by the new CEO.
Six Twitter users with follower counts from over 100,000 to several millions said they had experienced new kinds of technical glitches since Musk laid off about half of the company’s staff. Other issues they identified after Musk’s controversial moves include a perceived uptick in anti-transgender speech and sporadic loss of followers.
For users with a lot of followers, Twitter has been a place to network with professionals in their chosen fields, build successful businesses and share breaking news. Under Musk, many of them have been frustrated.
B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKS HUGE GROWTH WITH TIK TOK LEADING THE PACK
Meltwater has published a report revealing that the importance of social media is increasing among organisations as a result of the global economic uncertainty.
With brand awareness as a priority, more than half of the survey respondents (52%) stated that economic uncertainty has made social media a more important channel for their organisation.
While Facebook remains the most used social media platform for organisations, in terms of growth, the use of TikTok is rapidly increasing (30% vs. 16% last year). Additionally, 47% of respondents stated that they are planning to use TikTok in 2023. This statistic jumped to 56% when looking specifically at respondents in the United Kingdom & Ireland (UKI).
Samantha Monk, director of global enterprise solutions at Meltwater, said: “With current uncertainty in the economic climate, many brands are embracing innovation to get more from their marketing budgets. A thoughtful social media strategy allows marketers to gain and retain customer attention in a way this highly efficient, cost-effective, and measurable. We’re not surprised to see that respondents are looking to increase their brand awareness using these tools
SPOTIFY’S LAYOFFS ARE THE LATEST IN BIG TECH’S CUTBACKS
It’s been a rough few months for people who work in tech. After a massive hiring spree during the beginning of the pandemic, tech companies have needed to slow — or even reverse — hiring. Snapchat, OnlyFans, Lyft, Microsoft, Twitter, Substack, Netflix and more tech companies began laying off workers in 2022. Now just a few weeks into 2023, those layoffs don’t seem to be slowing down.
Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder and CEO, will lay off 6 percent of its workforce globally, he announced in a company-wide memo on Monday, Jan. 23.
“I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us,” Ek said in the memo. “In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. And for this reason, today, we are reducing our employee base by about 6% across the company. I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today.”
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