So-Called Social: Week of July 23 – Info UI

It’s Friday, fam, and I couldn’t be more excited. This week was a doozy for Facebook (that’s for sure), Snapchat is dabbling in programmatic, we’re going all-in on AR, and an epic Drake meme. All below, for your reading pleasure.

Social nets update stuff

First up, we have to address the elephant in the room… This was a rough week for Facebook. To be fair, it’s been a rough year, but on Thursday, Facebook stock suffered the largest one-day drop in history to the tune of $119 billion (aka a 19 percent drop in share value). Zuck saw his own fortune drop by $15.9 billion. Sounds like some analysts don’t think the company has anything to worry about, while others say this is just the beginning thanks to FB’s active users growing less quickly and Europe’s new privacy laws. Could this be the beginning of the end?

Speaking of… Facebook has agreed to take steps to end the ability of advertisers to exclude ethnic and other identity groups from seeing certain ads. This has been a long time coming, but most recently, investigators with the attorney general’s office were allegedly able to place 20 fake ads on the site excluding various ethnic groups from seeing postings for jobs, apartment rentals, insurance, lending, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Snapchat has developed a private marketplace for advertisers that could help publishers on the platform sell commercials directly to brands. Basically, it’s Snapchat’s version of premium programmatic advertising — melding the automated parts of digital ad buying with the control associated with more manual advertising services. Aka, bringing premium content into self-serve ads.

Adobe does stuff

We’re following up on Abhay’s mainstage appearance at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference introducing Adobe’s Project Aero (a new augmented reality authoring tool) with some seriously awesome content. We’ve developed a 4-part video series profiling three artists discussing how AR / immersive design allows them to push the bounds of creativity in new and exciting ways. Here’s the first video and blog post. Stay tuned for more!

Other brands do stuff

it’s working.

I’d like to be Baddie Winkle when I grow up. She’s not your typical Instagram influencer… she’s 90 years old, for one. But she has 3.7 million followers and a penchant for posing in colorful swimsuits. Basically, she’s my hero. And she’s now the face of a campaign for the mobile investing app, Stash. The push, which includes social, digital, and IRL elements (like murals!), encourages millennials to “retire like a Baddie.” Done.

Interesting stuff

Advertisers are continuing to shift ad dollars from Facebook to Instagram — resulting in a 177 percent growth for the FB-owned app. A new report from Merkle also compares News Feed, right rail, and Audience Network ads. Also important to note: Insta wasn’t the only platform to see triple-digit growth in ad spend. YouTube’s ad spend is up 189 percent YoY, driven by mobile.

Fun stuff