Umpf / Blog / Friday Social: Best Christmas Ad of 2018 Revealed, Instagram Updates for the Visually Impaired and Who are the Most Influential Twitter Users?

Friday Social: Best Christmas Ad of 2018 Revealed, Instagram Updates for the Visually Impaired and Who are the Most Influential Twitter Users?

  • Social Media

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf

Heathrow Tops the Christmas Ad Chart

The festive season is upon us, and when it comes to Christmas TV ads, it’s fair to say that 2018 hasn’t been the best – with new data from System1 claiming that this year’s selection are the worst since the rating system began!

Despite the below-par selection of ads, the research placed #HeathrowBears on top, as the only ad to receive a four-star rating for its emotional storyline, with a total score of 79.6.

John’s Lewis’ highly anticipated Elton John advert only just made it into the top 10, a massive dip compared to previous years.

Is it time for the big brands to change approach? An article by Marketing Week says that this year’s data proves that the tactic of storytelling and tapping into consumers’ emotional range seems to be losing its power. Back to the drawing board…

 

Instagram Releases Updates for Visually Impaired

This week, Instagram announced new features to make the app easier to use for those with visual impairments.

The new changes will allow screen readers to describe photos, either automatically using AI or by reading customer descriptions added by users in their Advanced Settings.

Users will be able to enter their own photo descriptions so that people using screen readers – software that describes what appears on the screen – can hear it read aloud as they browse their feed, Explore page or a profile.

If there’s no description on an image, then Instagram will automatically identify what’s in a photo using object recognition and read its automated description of a photo aloud when someone scrolls past.

Google Digital Skills Bus Arrives in London

This week Google launched its ‘Digital Garage’ bus around London, allowing people to hop on and learn a range of digital skills from the experts.

A host of digital skills were available to develop, such as digital marketing, social media strategy, CV building and staying safe online.

Visitors could also attend a one-to-one mentoring session to grow their online presence.

This isn’t a first for Google, previous ‘Digital Garage’ bus tours have taken place in Manchester and Scotland, and also has permanent spaces in Sheffield and Birmingham.

TikTok – What’s All the Fuss About?

If you’re a plucky teen or just like to keep on top of the world of social media, then you’ve no doubt heard of the video app; TikTok.

The short-form video app, much like Vine (R.I.P), is dominating the current social media market and seems to be the perfect vehicle for brand awareness campaigns focusing on consumer experience. Brands like Universal Pictures have already heavily featured the use of TikTok in some of their campaigns.

Much like the iconic success of Vine, experts are placing the key to TikTok’s popularity on the creative ability to get its audience laughing. The challenge now for the app is to start making some serious money, otherwise it could follow in the same ill-fate as many of its predecessors.

Most Influential Men and Women On Twitter 2018

And finally, this week, Brandwatch announced its most influential men and women of Twitter 2018.

One Direction’s Liam Payne topped the list for the guys, with the top ten also including the likes of Donald Trump, Barack Obama and Cristiano Ronaldo (the current King of Instagram).

Flying the flag for the women was Taylor Swift, despite her only tweeting 13 times this year. The top ten also included TV personality Ellen Degeneres, pop superstar Lady Gaga and the inevitable appearance of social media mogul, Kim Kardashian.