Check in each Friday afternoon for a roundup of the week’s most interesting digital campaigns and stories as selected by rotating members of Team Tunheim.
Apple Eliminates Customer Reviews and Ratings From Online Store
Apple mysteriously disabled ratings and reviews from its online store and removed all reviews that had already been posted. Some speculate, that the reviews were taken down so that users don’t read negative comments before making holiday shopping decisions. The App Store ad iTunes still have ratings and reviews in place.
“You can now make tours in Google Earth to show your friends your favorite travel spots”
Google Earth is the latest platform to add a “Stories” feature. In this case, a Story is a tour of any location that users can create and share with their friends. The update allows users to show their friends specifics of their adventures by setting landmarks, drawing lines from place to place and adding text, images and videos along the way. Stories can also be organized into a narrative and created in collaboration with friends.
“Snapchat’s new ad format lets advertisers extend 6-second non-skippable ads”
Snapchat has announced the launch of Extended Play Commercials, a new ad format that allows for up to three-minute-long videos. Users will have the option to skip through the ad after it has played for 6 seconds. Although this ads flexibility for advertisers, the jury is still out on whether Snapchat users have the attention span for these ads. .
Facebook details new safety measures to give brands control on its ad network
Facebook is rolling out new whitelisting and brand safety tools in response to advertisers concerns. The update allows brands to choose where their ads are served, which Facebook hopes will ease the reluctance of some family-friendly brands to advertise with them. Facebook also updated how it reports to advertisers after their campaigns have run.
