The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sponsored content disclosures on the mind. A complete lack of disclosure led to an FTC settlement with Lord & Taylor in March after the brand enlisted bloggers to post images to Instagram promoting one of its dresses. As FTC senior attorney Robin Spector told AdExchanger at the time, “What we are […]
When General Mills launched Tiny Toast in June, its first new cereal brand in more than 15 years, the company also launched its first completely digital marketing campaign. Because General Mills was targeting millennials, it stayed away from traditional TV and instead placed short video clips across YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. In the two months […]
Facebook-owned Instagram debuted business profiles and account tools on Tuesday. While many personal accounts are used for business, Instagram formalized the system and added promotional capabilities like putting spend behind a post and basic targeting, measurement and reporting tools. While business accounts aren’t meant to be an enterprise-class solution, the vast majority of advertisers on Instagram […]
Instagram announced Tuesday that it’s opening up its advertising Partner Program to a new category of member: media buyers. The program today is comprised of a set of about 50 vendors certified for Instagram’s ad tech, content marketing and community management services. Bringing media buying services into the fold is the natural next move for Instagram […]
TV or digital? Birchbox is still making up its mind. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, but the online beauty retailer has decided to press pause on its TV advertising efforts while it tests out the effectiveness of a targeted social-first brand campaign. “We turned off TV in February to make sure that we […]
Facebook’s Dynamic Ads – a format the social network introduced last year – is available as of Tuesday on both Instagram and the Facebook Audience Network. (More on the Facebook blog.) Basically, Dynamic Ads lets advertisers promote products to their highest-value prospects as they navigate Facebook (and now Instagram) properties. Facebook claims that more than […]
New Balance sells sneakers and sports apparel, but the brand is not all about chasing the transaction. The Boston-based footwear manufacturer, which competes with names like Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, instead seeks to differentiate by pushing stories, not products. As such, it faces a unique challenge in combining content and commerce. “We hear these […]
Facebook on Thursday formally unveiled Canvas, its new full-screen mobile ad unit that offers creatives the real estate they’ve been craving in the news feed. But the richer mobile ads will not be constrained for long to what the company internally refers to as the “big blue app.” At a Facebook press event Thursday, execs […]
Advertisers are embracing Instagram, with its video and direct-response potential gaining particular interest, according to a new report from social advertising and content marketing firm Brand Networks. CPG, fashion and retail advertisers in particular have been quick to embrace Instagram, which proved to be a significant player over the 2015 holiday season. The study examined more […]
Publicis Groupe agency MRY has been working with social media management startup SocialRank to help its clients get smarter about their social audiences and identify niche segments using a tool dubbed Market Intel, which came out of beta on Monday. The company also launched on Monday a product called SocialRank for Teams, which allows agencies […]
Consumers don’t want to see repurposed 30-second TV spots in their social feeds, which is why a number of brands and their agencies are investing in content tailored for Instagram. In September, Instagram’s 400 million users began seeing more ads as the image-centric platform turned on 30-second video ads, as well as landscape ads, which […]
Marketers are known for demanding ROI and previous results before they embrace new strategies, but they’re going all-in on the assumption that mobile will be a far more prosperous channel this year than in previous holiday seasons. Industry analysts like eMarketer project a strong holiday for retailers, with mobile commerce expected to grow 32.2% over […]
Facebook continues to see hand-over-fist growth in its ad revenue and user base, according to Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings report, which pegged overall advertising revenue at $4.3 billion. That’s a 45% gain over Q3 2014, and 57% higher when currency fluctuations are factored in. Facebook’s user growth continues to accelerate. Since the platform’s first-ever billion-user day […]
Influencer marketing startups think it’s time to become a more strategic part of content marketing initiatives. Part of the problem is that influencer marketing doesn’t get its own budget line, said Pierre-Loïc Assayag, founder and CEO at the influencer management platform Traackr. It’s as likely to come under the jurisdiction of a PR firm as […]
In the two years since Facebook’s huge image-sharing platform sold its first ad, Instagram has focused on fixed-price advertising from big national brands. In keeping with the platform’s emphasis on aesthetics and high design, many early advertisers were lifestyle companies like Starbucks and Disney. With Instagram’s 300 million global users now accustomed to seeing ads, […]
Instagram has rounded up a posse of Facebook Marketing Partners since the closed beta launch of its ads API in early August. Mobile analytics company Appsflyer is the most recent addition to a list that includes AdRoll, Adaptly, Ampush, Brand Networks, 4C, Kenshoo, Laundry Service, Publicis-owned agency Mediavest, Nanigans, Olapic, Resolution Media, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, […]
For Hootsuite, it used to be all about text links on Twitter. Not so, anymore. The early Twitter client on Tuesday revealed native support for Instagram. So now, users can promote content on Instagram as well as across previously supported platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google pages. It also introduced recently link-to-buy functionality within […]
Charlene Li, CEO of Altimeter Group, will appear at AdExchanger’s Omni.Digital conference on Sept. 10, an event designed to educate marketers on advanced solutions for building seamless cross-channel brand experiences. For digital advertisers, emerging channels present new inroads to consumers, but new challenges accompany those budding opportunities. “Clients have limited time, they have limited budgets […]
Despite having close to a half million Instagram followers, upscale retailer Nordstrom knows that “likes” and “follows” are great for growing community and measuring engagement or affinity, but these actions don’t necessarily translate into hard business metrics. Retailers want to know if that showroom-grade snapshot on social actually sold a tube of lipstick. “What we’ve primarily […]
Before Brazil defeated Croatia at Arena de Sao Paulo to open the 2014 World Cup, the Coca-Cola Co. unfurled across the pitch the fruits of its biggest marketing campaign in its history: a giant mosaic called the “Happiness Flag.” But this campaign, which ended on the soccer field, began online. Activated across 175 countries, the Happiness Flag […]
Vendors are racing to offer advertising solutions for Instagram, which recently struck a multimillion-dollar ad deal with Omnicom. One such company is Culver City, Calif.-based startup theAmplify. The 11-employee firm pegs itself as an “Instagram marketing agency.” AdExchanger spoke with President Justin Rezvani. AdExchanger: What problem are you trying to solve? JUSTIN REZVANI: We want to […]
Are Twitter and Pinterest on their way out and is there room for other social networks? These were among the topics that advertising and marketing executives tackled on a panel discussion on day two of Ad Age’s Digital Conference. The panelists included Bob Lord, CEO of AOL Platforms; Scott Galloway of L2ThinkTank; Kelly Mooney, CEO […]
Traditional branding exercises often focus on questions that can seem a little silly. What color is your brand? What shape? Percolate founder Noah Brier says his company sprang in part from the realization that “What does your brand consume?” also needs to be part of that equation. The company, which has been compared to Buddy […]
Considering that it’s preparing for what may be the most hugely anticipated IPO in a decade, Facebook shook off its “quiet period” shackles and announced the acquisition of photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said from his Facebook profile: “This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve […]
