So-Called Social: Week of February 25

Your weekly dose of social news.

WE MADE IT TO FRIDAY! This week especially, it feels like a big accomplishment. Lots to report this week in the socialverse. Some friendly (?) competition between Pinterest and Insta, a whole lotta Think Tank content, some seriously emotional ads, and more. See below.

Social nets update stuff

Pinterest is (privately) going public. The visual search engine confidentially submitted paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering later this year. Pinterest currently boasts 250 million monthly active users, and has raised nearly $1.5 billion in funding. The company joins the likes of Lyft, Uber, and Slack, who are all expected to go public in the coming months.

Do I smell competition? With Pinterest filing to go public, it seems Instagram is chiming in to make their Collections feature public. The Collections feature, launched two years ago, lets users save and organize their favorite in-feed posts. Sounds a lot like… pinning?

Go tell all your Android friends (you know the ones) that their Snapchat is getting an upgrade. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel revealed news that a rebuild of the Android app will be rolled out to all users by the end of the year. This revamp has been discussed since early 2017 and is apparently much needed. It’s predicted to impact Snap’s international growth in key markets like India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Facebook is taking video advertising to the next level. Again. A new program called Facebook Showcase provides the ability to run ads on a specific content category, and to sponsor individual shows *cough, FB Watch*. This new capability is combined with In-Stream Reverse ads, which come with a curated list of publishers at a set price with verified audiences. Watch is also going big on shows, with a new comedy in the works starring Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick. Ooo.

Adobe does stuff

This week, the Document Cloud social team facilitated dozens of conversations with thought leaders at the NYT New Work Summit. The topic? Gen Z and the Future of the Digital Workplace. Sure, the power went out and the fire alarm went off at the conference, but the show went on and we got some great interviews. Check ‘em all out.

Other brands do stuff

Nike has unveiled the Fight for Your Dream campaign, featuring their next series of documentary-style athlete profiles on IGTV. The series tells the story of four amazing female athletes, including two champion boxers, a World Champion wrestler, and Taekwondo champion. Casual. Each film challenges misperceptions about the professional athletes, celebrating their individual story and personalities. Also, if you didn’t catch the “Dream Crazier” ad that premiered Sunday during the Oscars, watch. it.

Basically, things got #emotional this week. In their new brand campaign, Nordstrom brought some fashion advice to the table that was compassionate, culturally relevant, and artistic. The video ad, which also premiered Sunday night, tells us that “An Open Mind Is the Best Look.” The story follows various life-scenes of many people diverse in age, background, and ethnicity. A campaign of this sort, especially one less clothing-focused and more story-led, is new for the brand.

Interesting stuff

The relationship between social media and brand experience is more substantial than ever. Social can be used to tell numerous brand stories that are specific to the expectations each platform holds, which is pretty powerful. Event experiences are especially relevant here, as awareness can be mega-amplified in real-time. Speaking of, anyone else getting pumped for Summit?

YouTube is in the midst of a brand-safety crisis, due to their algorithm generating some inappropriate results targeted towards the wrong audiences. Interestingly enough, it seems media buyers are kind of like, “meh.” Some claim that platforms this large will never offer a “100% brand-safe” environment. The scandal has also resulted in a huge increase in demand for publishers selling video ads directly, as agencies are looking to avoid more safety risks.

What would happen if almost 80% of brands disappeared overnight? Apparently, nobody would care. A new study found that on the flipside, brands that are viewed as meaningful or engaged in social impact are outperforming the stock market by 134%, with 55% of people believing brands actually have a more important role than our governments to create a better future. The power of consumers is becoming increasingly powerful, and they much prefer to buy from brands that share their values.

As we all know, Facebook is a rapidly changing platform, which means best marketing practices can be difficult to keep up with. This study analyzes interaction for all content types on FB, revealing some interesting stats, including the fact that videos have the highest number of interactions, but are also the lowest distributed.

Fun stuff

This pic of Chrissy Teigen pushing John Legend out of her red carpet shoot = too good.

Remember when Kelly Rowland sent Nelly a text using Excel and got mad when he didn’t reply? Well, apparently she has no time for your memes about it.

Hank the cat brought home a special present from the neighbors. It’s the thought that counts, Hank.