The Scoop: 4.19.22

An explosion of headlines from our usual back-seat platforms are stealing the show of late, including Twitter and its new interactive ad updates, Twitter trends (we are traveling again🧳), and Elon Musk being Elon Musk! 😵 Our 5th place ⭐, Snap, showed up with the Snapchat Generation report telling us users are sharing more personal content on its platform and showing us how users are embracing AR. And to complete the cycle, news outlets are investing in Snapchat, with its new “Dynamic Stories.” 🎪

Oh, Snap! Digital Platforms Bring Awareness to Accessibility (But We Still Have a Way to Go)

Snapchat released a new ASL Alphabet Lens that is essentially a more advanced and educational version of the three AR lenses that the platform debuted in September during the International Week of the Deaf to raise awareness and use of sign language. But even the largest of companies are still leaps and bounds away from full accessibility. Twitter didn’t have a dedicated accessibility team until 2020, and only recently announced that it is testing new accessibility features to make alt text descriptions significantly more useful and prominent for everyone on the platform. Accessibility should already be a given right for everyone, but if brands are looking to implement changes, it’s OK to start with small steps. Some examples: creating a task force for accessibility and inviting users with disabilities to participate in that task force, leveraging some of these features within planned content, and partnering with influencers and ensuring they are using features such as closed captions and the ASL Alphabet Lens in their content to further raise awareness.

Sources: Social Media Today, Social Media Today, The Verge, Today Show

Making Content Thumb-Stopping…Or Just Stopping the Scroll

Social media platforms continue to face an overabundance of content as more creators join TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. To address this and make content “thumb-stopping” (i.e., increasing the consumer action of stopping to watch, interact or engage with the piece of media), platforms such as TikTok are scrapping Instagram and Snapchat content to train its personalization algorithms. Many are taking a step further to tie e-commerce into how consumers act on content, driving for convenience. As marketers, our key to success will be in understanding what makes the target audience stop and act rather than scroll past.

Sources: Make Use Of, Business Insider

As the Personal News Cycle Turns…News Consumption Continues to Shift

The fact that people are receiving news differently than in the past is no revelation, but it seems that the shift is moving faster than ever. With information literally at users' fingertips, adults under 30 are most likely to use social media to get their news. In fact, a survey found that almost as many Americans are getting news about Ukraine from social media as from TV (58% vs. 65%). And it’s not just the way people receive news that’s changing – it’s also the strategic ways it is delivered. TheSkimm extended its nearly 10-year-old daily newsletter to the weekend, publishing a new edition every Saturday. This trend is picking up among publishers who see an opportunity to reach readers for a few minutes between brunch or playdates, and when inboxes typically aren’t as crowded with new email.

Sources: Digiday, Forbes, YouGov America

UGC Stands for…User-Generated COMMERCIALS?

What do Taco Bell, Old Navy and Goldfish have in common? All three brands recently took to social media to recruit fans to help them source content for their TV spots and video content. Social media has increased the ability of fans and followers to interact with their favorite brands, and many companies are embracing it. Taco Bell, through a series of Tweets, unveiled the “Fries Challenge,” a Twitter poll-based idea generator for the brand to stoke excitement over the return of Nacho Fries. Old Navy and Goldfish also solicited ideas from fans – to craft the spring TV spot “Written by the Internet” and to ask them to spoof their iconic jingle, respectively. This approach of asking audiences to put their own spin on an existing idea is common on TikTok, through its Duets feature. As Old Navy CMO Jamie Gersch put it, “To be the most democratic and accessible brand, we must listen to our customers and give them what they want. Even when it comes to how we are marketing to them.”

Sources: AdWeek, AdWeek, Gap, Inc.

And In Other News…

Tuesday Newsday: After teasing Search Insights last November, YouTube is finally rolling out the feature to all creators.

Streaming TV is using baby boomers and MLB to get live events right for millennials.

Contributing Writers and Editors: Nick Cardillo, Carissa Dagleish, Ricki Kahn, Lauren Fernández Meihls, Jennie Szink and Bre Thomlison

Real Chemistry’s The Scoop is brought to you by an editorial collective, featuring industry updates and insights from subject matter experts across social media, digital and influencer activation teams.

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