From Netflix recommendations to the rise of voice assistants, AI is increasingly finding its way into our daily lives. Just yesterday, Nike announced that they are buying an AI startup to predict what consumers want. You can’t deny AI is everywhere.

How do we accept, understand and trust AI in our day to day lives? Look no further than our very own Retail Revolution research study, which this week was featured in Business Insider series How AI Is Changing Everything. 

The Tik Tok takeover continues! By partnering with Giphy, fans of both can now import stickers and create memes.

Are third party schedulers a thing of the past? Instagram rolls out their very own post creator studio.

Alexa, close your ears… Amazon are now giving users the option to opt out of human review of their voice recordings.

Social media marketers rejoice as Snapchat’s new tool makes it easier to create vertical video assets.

Pin, pin, pin. Shop, shop, shop! The number of retail products on Pinterest was up by 50% in Q2 of 2019.

This report of high-subscriber YouTube channels finds that children’s content received more views than other videos!

The 4 giants unite in their goal to simplify data migration between platforms, as Apple joins Google, Facebook and Twitter in The Data Transfer Project.

Introducing WhatsApp Pay! Messenger services plans to make sending money between their 400 million active users as easy as sending a voice note.

From Netflix recommendations to the rise of voice assistants, AI is increasingly finding its way into our daily lives. Just yesterday, Nike announced that they are buying an AI startup to predict what consumers want. You can’t deny AI is everywhere.

How do we accept, understand and trust AI in our day to day lives? Look no further than our very own Retail Revolution research study, which this week was featured in Business Insider series How AI Is Changing Everything. 

The Tik Tok takeover continues! By partnering with Giphy, fans of both can now import stickers and create memes.

Are third party schedulers a thing of the past? Instagram rolls out their very own post creator studio.

Alexa, close your ears… Amazon are now giving users the option to opt out of human review of their voice recordings.

Social media marketers rejoice as Snapchat’s new tool makes it easier to create vertical video assets.

Pin, pin, pin. Shop, shop, shop! The number of retail products on Pinterest was up by 50% in Q2 of 2019.

This report of high-subscriber YouTube channels finds that children’s content received more views than other videos!

The 4 giants unite in their goal to simplify data migration between platforms, as Apple joins Google, Facebook and Twitter in The Data Transfer Project.

Introducing WhatsApp Pay! Messenger services plans to make sending money between their 400 million active users as easy as sending a voice note.

As we mentioned last week, Instagram are alleviating the pressures that ‘likes’ place on users by hiding public like counts. Now it has been reported that young users are finding a way around it by switching to business accounts in order to access more audience data. The saga continues…

Howzat! The oldest rivalry in cricket between England and Australia starts today. Will streaming and social media help lead the Ashes to a similar commercial success as this summer’s Cricket World Cup?

Dazed is the latest publisher to experiment with TikTok to connect people with their content and tap into new audiences.

Next up on Facebook and Instagram’s social policy roll-out is their plan to tighten rules on alcohol and tobacco advertising.

Mejores decisiones, más rápido…Duolingo partners with Twitch to help users learn languages better and faster.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone wants to block ads. Ad blocking growth is slowing down, but not going away…

It is revealed that 2 million 12-15 year-old Instagram users currently have personal data publicly listed on the platform.

Everyone wants to be an Influencer… Check out the key takeaways from the 10th annual VidCon.

Twitter is trending! User surge means the network saw a profit of $37m in the second quarter.

Amazon extends Prime Sale day by 48 hours exceeding Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined.

As we mentioned last week, Instagram are alleviating the pressures that ‘likes’ place on users by hiding public like counts. Now it has been reported that young users are finding a way around it by switching to business accounts in order to access more audience data. The saga continues…

Howzat! The oldest rivalry in cricket between England and Australia starts today. Will streaming and social media help lead the Ashes to a similar commercial success as this summer’s Cricket World Cup?

Dazed is the latest publisher to experiment with TikTok to connect people with their content and tap into new audiences.

Next up on Facebook and Instagram’s social policy roll-out is their plan to tighten rules on alcohol and tobacco advertising.

Mejores decisiones, más rápido…Duolingo partners with Twitch to help users learn languages better and faster.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone wants to block ads. Ad blocking growth is slowing down, but not going away…

It is revealed that 2 million 12-15 year-old Instagram users currently have personal data publicly listed on the platform.

Everyone wants to be an Influencer… Check out the key takeaways from the 10th annual VidCon.

Twitter is trending! User surge means the network saw a profit of $37m in the second quarter.

Amazon extends Prime Sale day by 48 hours exceeding Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined.

According to Cisco, video will make up 80% of consumer online traffic by the end of 2019.

But how long are they watching for?

Over the last 2 years we have seen video embed itself as the social format of choice, with the rise of Stories, .gifs and new channels such as IGTV and TikTok cementing the moving image’s place in the social content sphere.

We’ve been told as marketers that attention spans are waning and the race to the shortest video content possible is the race to run. Whilst this may hold true in certain circumstances (such as the most effective YouTube bumpers staying at 6 seconds or fewer), we think this is the year set to see the return of longer-form video pieces capturing attention spans and bringing worthwhile ROI.

Why?

A number of reasons – the nature of marketing content is shifting (for instance, more and more sponsored Influencer content is being consumed, which naturally takes longer to engage with), and as production values improve/quality becomes cheaper, captivating video content can last longer for the same budget. It’s proven that if you can capture attention spans for longer, the sales uplift of those who engage is greater. Basically, it’s worth the investment in your production to ensure your audience invest their time.

In fact, 64% of consumers said video content from Facebook has influenced a recent purchase decision. That’s almost on a par with real-life friend recommendations.

So, what’s the key to ensuring audiences engage with your video content? As distribution sophisticates at pace, through pre-planning to understanding the audience, use case and context with which they will engage with your content is paramount. Video is here to stay, but in a million different forms, and understanding how to effectively service many consumer needs with one content production will ensure you stay on the front foot.

According to Cisco, video will make up 80% of consumer online traffic by the end of 2019.

But how long are they watching for?

Over the last 2 years we have seen video embed itself as the social format of choice, with the rise of Stories, .gifs and new channels such as IGTV and TikTok cementing the moving image’s place in the social content sphere.

We’ve been told as marketers that attention spans are waning and the race to the shortest video content possible is the race to run. Whilst this may hold true in certain circumstances (such as the most effective YouTube bumpers staying at 6 seconds or fewer), we think this is the year set to see the return of longer-form video pieces capturing attention spans and bringing worthwhile ROI.

Why?

A number of reasons – the nature of marketing content is shifting (for instance, more and more sponsored Influencer content is being consumed, which naturally takes longer to engage with), and as production values improve/quality becomes cheaper, captivating video content can last longer for the same budget. It’s proven that if you can capture attention spans for longer, the sales uplift of those who engage is greater. Basically, it’s worth the investment in your production to ensure your audience invest their time.

In fact, 64% of consumers said video content from Facebook has influenced a recent purchase decision. That’s almost on a par with real-life friend recommendations.

So, what’s the key to ensuring audiences engage with your video content? As distribution sophisticates at pace, through pre-planning to understanding the audience, use case and context with which they will engage with your content is paramount. Video is here to stay, but in a million different forms, and understanding how to effectively service many consumer needs with one content production will ensure you stay on the front foot.