From Snapchat’s new Face Swap to Gmail’s awkward April Fools fail, I think it’s safe to say our heads are spinning from all the digital marketing news we saw in April! Why don’t we start off by discussing lotus823’s news?
lotus823 Wins Bulldog Reporter’s Bulldog Digital/Social PR Award
lotus823 is thrilled to announce our latest award win in Bulldog Reporter’s 2015 Bulldog Digital/Social PR Awards program! Our agency was award a Silver Bulldog Award in the “Best Use of Digital/Social for a Consumer Technology Campaign” category for our work with Audio-Technica. To read a quote from our Director of Digital Marketing & Operations, Christine Rochelle, in response to this great honor as well as learn details on Bulldog Reporter’s annual program, check out our recent blog post.
Hispanic Market Growth: Q&A with lotus823’s VP of Business Development, Brian Herlihy
When posed with the question today’s fastest growing consumer group, most people would assume it is the millennial market. Interestingly, they’re wrong! lotus823’s VP of Business Development, Brian Herlihy, sat down with us for a full Q&A to debunk some myths about the Hispanic marketing. In our full interview, Brian shares his experience working with Hispanic American consumers and why he thinks all companies shouldn’t overlook this tremendous opportunity to engage this budding audience.
What’s Trending Now: Anchor FM App
We know, we know! This time of year always brings new social networking apps that often fizzle out quickly. We think Anchor FM, however, will have a different story. Unlike most social communities, Anchor FM is ALL about audio. Dubbed “radio by the people,” Anchor is a two-way radio app that allows users to record and share up to two minutes of audio with anyone who follows their stream. Our very own Heather Hewit took a dive into Anchor’s growing community and shared her findings in our recent blog post: The What’s of Anchor.
Brands That Understand Hispanic Marketing…and Get It Right!
As you read in the above interview with Brian Herlihy, most brands miss the mark when it comes to Hispanic marketing strategies. In our latest blog post, we highlight some household names whose Hispanic Marketing happen to be right on point when it comes to encompassing not only the Spanish language into their marketing strategies, but the Hispanic culture.
Now, on to our favorite industry stories from April:
Facebook’s Plan for World Domination…or Something Close to It.
With Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger all in its pocket, Facebook is well on its way to Internet domination. In April, Facebook held its annual F8 Developers Conference, detailing their plans for a progressive future. Some interesting features announced at the event include a “Save to Facebook” button, which you can expect to see on most websites in the near future, as well as Facebook’s new Live video tab, which allows users to discover live streamers they may not already be connected to. One of Zuckerberg’s most startling reveals, however, was Facebook’s 10 year road map, which featured an augmented, virtual reality that Facebook intends to put in the hands of its 1.65 billion active users.
Facebook’s first step into this arena was their “high-quality, production-ready 3D-360” camera system, which they hope will allow artists and producers to more simply record broadcasts for VR platforms. Needless to say, Facebook is shaping up to be much more than a social networking platform. Where do you think Facebook is headed and can you see a day where Facebook is a major player in the tech space, side-by-side Apple, Samsung and Microsoft?
Snapchat, Twitter and More Are Still in the Race
With Facebook dominating a majority of the social networking space, it must be hard for other platforms to keep up, right? Wrong. Snapchat seems to be having no trouble retaining its billons of video views per month. In fact, Snapchat just announced last week that its users watch an average of 10 billion videos a day, up from 8 billion just two months ago. Snapchat’s rapid growth is intriguing and slowly encouraging marketers of all ages to join the platform to see what all the hype is about. If you’re new to Snapchat, CNET has some tips to compete with some of the most popular Snapchatters.
Twitter on the other hand is taking a more aggressive approach to stay relevant. In late April, Twitter’s app officially moved to the “News” category in Apple’s App Store to boost visibility. In addition, the platform rolled out numerous updates to the way users can publish and view content in April, including Alt-Text Image Descriptions and a new message button that allows users to share tweets privately.
In the wake of all this mobile success, April brought us one unlikely success story: Nintendo’s Miitomo. The company’s first smartphone app has developed into a legitimate social network within the younger demographic, passing over 10 million users after being live for only a few months! It’s certainly an interesting time to be in the digital marketing industry.
