Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Bringing you your midweek roundup of the latest in digital and media.
Stay connected with recent updates from Google, TikTok, Twitter & many more!
Job listings reveal TikTok is planning to set up a global fulfilment centre in US, to provide warehousing & free returns to accelerate shopping features
A series of job listings posted on LinkedIn have revealed that TikTok is looking into developing a global fulfilment centre in Seattle, to help them on their US e-commerce expansion that we reported on last week. One job post for a ‘Business Solutions and Merchant Development Manager’ explained that “by providing warehousing, delivery, and customer service returns, our mission is to help sellers improve their operational capability and efficiency, provide buyers a satisfying shopping experience and ensure fast and sustainable growth of TikTok Shop.”
Our takeaway… This could be an exciting development of TikTok’s new e-commerce features and make it a more desirable option for businesses. Watch out Amazon - you might soon have competition!
In partnership with a range of retailers, Pinterest has launched it’s first-ever holiday gift guides - with curated boards of shoppable items
Pinterest’s new Gift Guide feature is designed to help shoppers find the perfect gifts for family and friends through a series of curated boards of shoppable items. In partnership with Very, M&S, John Lewis, Sweaty Betty and the Cotswold Company, the new feature will help users discover, browse and shop gifts this festive season - “making the shopping experience even easier for pinners”. Including specially designed gift guides for neighbours, colleagues, partners, teachers and friends.
Our takeaway… Often missing from businesses marketing strategies, Pinterest is a great e-commerce tool, with plenty of users using the platform for gift inspiration.
Netflix has partnered with British TV ratings agency, BARB, to reveal streaming figures & monthly reach of each show for the first time
Having been criticised for not publicly sharing its viewership metrics for all of its shows, the streaming service has decided to become more transparent with the help of British TV ratings agency BARB. The partnership will help measure Netflix’s daily streaming numbers, monthly reach and share of total identified viewing - determining which shows are proving popular and which are total flops, right in time for its new ad offering.
Our takeaway… This will be a useful tool in deciding which shows you want to place your ads next to, and which you don’t, because why waste your ad spend on an unsuccessful show?
TikTok’s new campaign objective ‘Focused view’ only charges advertisers for ads that have been watched for at least six seconds
Announced at TikTok World, the platform has a new ad objective that only charges advertisers based on attention and engagement. Only ads that have been watched for at least six seconds, or interacted with before the six second mark will be charged for - “this means that ads are shown to users who are truly paying attention and voluntarily engaging with the brand“ explains TikTok.
Our takeaway… We think this will be a really useful ad objective, making sure that you’re getting the most out of your ad spend, especially as speedy swiping is so habitual on TikTok.
Twitter has rolled out its Link Spotlight feature to all U.S professional accounts, allowing them to display an interactive button at the top of their profile pages
Having tested this feature for the past few months, Twitter has announced it has rolled out its Link Spotlight to all professional accounts in the US. The new feature enables businesses/brands to add a URL via a chosen call-to-action button at the top of their profiles. There is, unfortunately, a limited range of URLs available to link through to, including YouTube, Ticketmaster and food delivery services. Twitter explained this is due to ‘technical complexity’ and ‘safety concerns. The list of call-to-action button options include ‘Book an appointment’, ‘Listen now’ and ‘View menu’.
Our takeaway… We are hoping this feature is a success in the US so it is soon rolled out to all professional accounts in the UK too! Simple call-to-action buttons like this will be a great way of driving traffic to your chosen URL.
Snapchat is allowing users to try-on, share and shop halloween costumes through AR Lenses
Finding the perfect halloween costume just got a whole lot easier with Snapchat’s new Disguise AR lenses. Users can try-on, share with friends and buy costumes of their favourite characters including those from Disney, Squid Game, Stranger Things and many more. The app enables users to upload full body photos to see how the costumes would look on them, before buying the costume without having to leave the app.
Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) lets publishers & advertisers reconcile first-party data
Google has announced PAIR, its latest first-party data solution for Display & Video 360. Although the platform's demise of third-party cookies keeps being delayed (most recently to 2024) it is coming, making first-party data solutions like this more important - helping advertisers continue to target the right audiences following the changes. Google PAIR will privately reconcile first-party data for audiences who have visited advertisers & publishers sites.
Boots has announced its latest partnership with Uber Eats, trialling doorstep delivery of health and beauty products to its customers
In an unexpected partnership, Boots has announced it is teaming up with Uber Eats to offer customers within range access to doorstep delivery. The partnership is being trialled with a number of major stores and shopping centres across the UK, offering over 900 products available for delivery. So now you can get your new shampoo and conditioner on the same app as your takeaway pizza!
TikTok has launched Profile Kit, giving creators option to display up to 6 videos on other sites, aggregated in one place via Linktree
Profile Kit was one of the many platform updates announced at TikTok’s global summit, TikTok World. As part of the TikTok for Developers Program, Profile Kit allows users to integrate their TikTok accounts to display their content on third-party apps. The platform has partnered with Linktree, giving creators the ability to direct new audiences to their TikTok channels. According to TechCrunch, TikTok is already one of the most popular “Linked-to” platforms on Linktree, so making this relationship more formal and well-used is likely to help TikTok boost their audience even more.
Netflix has announced its new ad supported tier will launch November 3rd and cost only £4.99 per month - £2 cheaper than the current basic tier
After recently revealing that Netflix’s new ad supported tier would arrive on our screens sooner than we thought, we now have a date - November 3rd. This new ‘Basic with ads’ tier is priced at £4.99, £2 cheaper than the current basic plan which will make it an attractive new offering for price conscious consumers. Netflix estimates that 5-10% of titles will not be available on the new tier, though states they will work to reduce this over time. In addition, those with the new tier will no longer be able to download titles for offline viewing, and will only be able to stream on one screen at a time. Despite its costly ad space, Netflix apparently has hundreds of advertisers on board.
Google has renamed Google Data Studio, its analytics and data platform, to Looker Studio and announced a paid version with premium features
Google has changed the name of its popular analytics tool ‘Google Data Studio’ as a way of unifying the Google business intelligence products “under the Looker umbrella”. Google explains Looker Studio “will help you go beyond dashboards and infuse your workflows and applications with the intelligence needed to help make data-driven decisions”. Looker Studio Pro, a new paid version will have new enterprise management features, team collaboration capabilities and SLAs.
Twitter launches test of dedicated audio chats within Communities, combining features of Twitter Spaces and Twitter Communities to help engage smaller groups
Twitter has announced they are testing a new feature known as Community Spaces, which combines the existing Communities feature and the Spaces feature - giving select community admins the ability to host audio chats. Twitter explained this will “add an extra layer of personality and connectivity” and give admins the ability to “better lead their communities, engage their members, and participate in quality conversations with others who share the same interests.”
New travel features allow attraction and tour operators compare prices, book additional attractions and edit prices on Google business profiles
Google’s new travel features are designed to make it easier for people to use the platform to book travel tickets and experiences, as well as giving businesses the ability to connect with potential customers. The three new features include ticket booking links for attractions, things to do ads and the ability to edit prices on Google business profiles.
Our takeaway… If you’re in the travel and tourism industry make sure that you’re taking full advantage of these new features to help drive more traffic to your business.
Pinterest has announced an update to its Pinterest Trends tool to provide new insights to marketers as well as a new API for conversions
Pinterest has made several updates to its Pinterest Trends tool, providing marketers with more key information on the latest trends happening in the app - such as through trend shortcuts and an enhanced UI that prioritises important data reports and notes. Marketers will now have access to ‘Trends your audience loves’, ‘Trends by demographic’ and ‘Seasonal trends’ to help inform their campaign strategy. In addition, access to Pinterest Trends is expanding to 30 additional countries and 22 languages globally. Pinterest’s API for conversions enables advertisers to send the off-platform conversion data directly to Pinterest without requiring a Pinterest tag, helping to improve conversion visibility.
Twitter is developing a way for users to control who can mention them - limiting to only users they follow, or turning off mentions altogether
Mentions are a way for Twitter users to connect with each other, though as with any feature sometimes this can be used to facilitate bullying and harassment of individuals. It seems Twitter is developing ways to curb this harassment by giving users more control over the accounts that can mention them. One user spotted new Twitter settings that allowed them to limit mentions to people who they follow, or to turn them off altogether. This feature would of course be more useful for individual mentions rather than larger scale abuse, and it is not sure yet if it will be rolled out to the public.
