It’s time for another instalment of our ‘In the Loop’ blog series! A collection of some of our favourite recent marketing news stories, just for you. Grab a cuppa and let us fill you in.
Return of the Mac
As lockdown continues to ease, McDonalds restaurants have reopened across the UK. To celebrate, McDonalds served up a fitting new campaign to welcome back their customers.
Oh, go on then…Welcome Back.. ? https://t.co/0x4q5Qe233 pic.twitter.com/YNPU7hN0ax
— McDonald's UK (@McDonaldsUK) July 17, 2020
After fans took to Twitter at the beginning of lockdown to suggest that using ‘Return of the Mac’ in their advertising was the only way to come back, McDonalds delivered.
Their welcome back ad was created by Leo Burnett London. Alongside the iconic song (which we think is an absolute tune), they’ve made a feature of their customers’ excitement about the reopening.
The wider campaign also consists of OOH adverts, social media marketing and radio ads.
We love this campaign. It’s a great mix of creativity, good vibes and customer engagement from a huge global brand.
#ThereIsHelp
This month Twitter partnered with Women’s Aid to create their new #ThereIsHelp tool, designed to support survivors of abuse.
Now, when Twitter’s search function is used for words and phrases associated with domestic abuse, a prompt will direct it to digital services provided by Women’s Aid.
It’s such a simple idea but something that will hopefully help provide help and support to those that need it.
Voice recordings on LinkedIn
You can now add a 10 second voice recording next to your name on LinkedIn to tell people how to pronounce your name. Of course, you could also use it to give a snippet of information, or maybe a (very) short elevator pitch!
At the moment, the feature is only available through the iOS and Android apps and not LinkedIn desktop.
What would you say in your 10 second recording?
Another innovative campaign from Burger King
Burger King is known for the creativity of its marketing and this month the fast food chain was back with another bold campaign using Twitch – a live streaming service.
Specifically, they took advantage of Twitch’s donation feature to put ads on popular streamers’ broadcasts for as little as $1!
In case you’ve got no idea what we’re talking about… when you make a donation to a Twitch streamer you can add a personalised message to be read out on the live stream. Burger King used this to tell viewers what the money they donated (usually $1 – $5) could get them at a Burger King restaurant. Very cheap as far as ads (and fast food!) go.
Streamers reacted to this ‘hijacking’ of their broadcasts (some more positively than others!), which only drew more attention to the message.
Burger King actually used similar marketing tactics back in 2017. The campaign was designed to activate Google Home devices to talk about the Whopper burger so their ad didn’t have to.
The New York Times called it “the latest example of marketers entering the living room.”
The Google Home device’s definition of the Whopper was taken from Wikipedia – and of course, anyone can change the content on Wikipedia! So people had some fun, changing the ingredients to all kinds of weird things, including a “medium sized child” … ?
This drew lots of attention to the BK brand and their product. So innovative, but so annoying!
We’re big fans of Burger King’s original marketing tactics. There’s more about their social media marketing in this blog if you fancy taking a look at more cool stuff they’ve done!
Instagram confirmed it’s testing a full-screen stories display
In our May edition, we mentioned that Instagram was testing a double Story layout with some users.
These same users are now seeing a prompt below their double Story banner to ‘see all Stories’. When selected, a full page of Stories is visible in a grid layout.
It’s another step towards Stories being the main way of sharing content with your audience. It’ll be interesting to see how this change informs Instagram marketing when it’s more widely released.
Do you post more on your Story or your feed?
New fundraisers on Instagram
Instagram is making it easier for you to raise money for charity through the app. This month it started trials of personal fundraisers in the US, UK and Ireland on Android, with future plans to roll it out on iOS.
Personal fundraisers work much like the existing fundraising features. Instagram will validate the fundraiser as an eligible cause before it goes live, it will last for 30 days (and can be extended once for another 30 days). Users will be able to contribute towards personal causes through donation stickers.
After Instagram and Facebook announced that fundraisers for Covid-19 achieved more than $100 million across the two platforms since January, as well as a significant amount for racial justice in the last few months, we certainly think there’s demand for this type of feature!
Facebook is testing pages without a ‘like’ button
Is this the end of Facebook page likes? Maybe… Facebook is currently testing a new design for pages that come without the option to ‘like’ them.
It’s being tested on a few public figures first, as well as a small percentage of business pages.
Facebook said that the change would be accompanied by other design features that will make pages cleaner and more user friendly.
According to Facebook, pages are particularly important at the moment as more communities have moved online during the pandemic.
Twitter was hacked
On 17th July, cybercriminals managed to hack into Twitter’s internal systems and infiltrate several verified Twitter accounts with large followings. The accounts impacted included Apple, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Barak Obama, Wiz Khalifa and Floyd Mayweather.
All of these accounts, as well as various others, were used to Tweet the same message as part of a Bitcoin scam.
Those affected lost control of their accounts and it’s thought that the hackers were able to do this by accessing administration privileges, which meant they didn’t need passwords for individual accounts.
The BBC reported that the attack was the biggest privacy violation Twitter has ever had and the FBI is investigating.
Other reports have suggested that it’s “highly likely” the hackers had access to private messages, raising concerns of extortion, not to mention the obvious data security concerns for all Twitter users.
Will you be trusting Twitter with your personal details again?
Junk food ads ban
You might have heard that in the last few days, the government has rolled out a ban on junk food adverts.
Unsurprisingly, junk food manufacturers aren’t too keen on the idea, but we’re excited to see the creativity and innovation that’s bound to emerge out of this situation.
Get creative with your own marketing
We’re always up for a chat about how you can get the most out of your marketing. Send us a quick email to hello@vidacreative.co.uk or give us a call on 0191 691 129.