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 Microsoft, Google, YouTube & many more!
Netflix has lowered its prices in over 100 regions, amid increased competition and scrutiny over password sharing rules
Netflix has been in hot water recently as it looks to crack down on password sharing as a way to boost revenue. Yet in a surprising turn of events the streaming platform has announced it is decreasing its subscription costs in more than 100 regions. It is estimated that this price drop will affect over 10 million people, with discounts for the basic tier ranging between 20% and 60%. It seems the increase of competition, as well as the looming threat of a recession is making more users reconsider their subscriptions.
Snapchat has added several new audio elements including recommended clips for Lenses and sound sync for video and photo montages
Snapchat is turning up the volume with a range of new audio features. Tapping into the popularity of TikTok sounds, Snapchat has announced new sound recommendations for Lenses, helping users find relevant sounds to compliment their snaps. Additionally, its new sound sync for camera roll feature will allow users to create montage videos that are automatically in rhythm to the best of the music. According to Snapchat, since launching sounds, over 2.7 billion videos have been created, amassing an impressive 183 billion views.
Our takeaway… Whilst moving image is likely still a more engaging medium, sound sync will help brands create better looking snaps from still images.
Microsoft is expanding its AI chat elements to Bing Mobile, Edge and Skype following positive feedback of its ‘new Bing’
Microsoft is capitalising on all the attention it has garnered since the release of its ‘new Bing’, with the launch of Bing Mobile, Edge and Skype with the same AI capabilities. The ‘new Bing’ mobile app offers a “fresh look and experience”, with the same ability to answer simple or complex questions within chat sessions as the desktop version. Microsoft is also adding AI-powered Bing for Skype, giving users another way to access these features. Many experts however have warned of the unknown implications of this type of technology, suggesting that expansions should be avoided until more is known about the possible consequences.
TikTok is partnering with Mercedes Benz to integrate TikTok content directly into the ‘superscreens’ of new E-class car
In its drive to bring the TikTok experience to new screens and audiences, TikTok has teamed up with Mercedes Benz to bring TikTok clips to the ‘superscreen’ of their new E-class car. Whilst TikTok has assured that image transmission will not be active when the vehicle is in motion, to prevent dangerous distractions, both drivers and passengers will be able to pass their time watching TikTok clips whilst parked. The screens in the vehicle run independently, meaning both the driver and passenger can log into their own accounts to watch their personalised For You feeds.
YouTube has launched a multi-language audio feature for dubbing videos, helping creators reach international audiences
YouTube has rolled out a new multi-language audio feature that enables creators to partner directly with third-party dubbing providers to create audio tracks in multiple languages. Well known YouTuber, MrBeast, was among one of the first to test out the feature, dubbing 11 of his most popular videos in 11 different languages to bring more international viewers to his channel. According to YouTube, over 2 million hours of dubbed videos were watched daily in January alone. This feature is slowly becoming available to creators, and currently only supports long-form content - with a YouTube Shorts version in the works.
LinkedIn has revamped its visual elements to help make user profiles more engaging, as well as adding new scheduling tool for newsletters and articles
After many, many years of looking relatively similar, LinkedIn has finally updated its visual elements to help users make their pages more aesthetically appealing. LinkedIn explains, “whether its images, videos, newsletters or documents, you get to choose the content type your activity section shows first. We hope that as a result your network will quickly find and engage with your content, leading to more professional connections and opportunities”. In addition, LinkedIn is also expanding its scheduling tool to include newsletters and articles, as well as posts.
Meta is testing the ability to promote products within Instagram group chats as a way to monetise messaging
Several users have reported seeing a new option on their Instagram accounts that encourages businesses to promote relevant products within direct messages. The new ‘Sell products’ prompt lets users ‘share a product in the chat to start collecting orders for it’, allowing them to edit the title, description, price and add images of their product listings. This test demonstrates Meta’s push of business messaging, as it ends its Instagram Shop. Meta claims that click-to-message ads are one of its fastest growing ad products as users and utilising the DM chat functions more and more.
New Spotify DJ will offer personalised music with AI-powered spoken commentary on user’s favourite tracks and artists
Spotify is launching a new DJ feature that supposedly offers a better curated music listening experience for its users. Alongside the personalised playlist, Spotify DJ will provide AI-powered spoken commentary about the tracks and artists users like, in what Spotify describes as a “stunningly realistic voice”. Powered by OpenAI, the new Spotify AI DJ will help Spotify continue to lead the market with its music personalisation technology. The AI is used to create “culturally relevant, accurate pieces of commentary at scale”, the accuracy of which will improve the more that it is used.
Google has released the February 2023 Product Reviews update, to include 10 additional languages
The latest release of Google’s Product Review brings in 10 new languages to the update, including Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and Polish. This is the sixth release of the product review update and will take around two weeks to roll out. Google explains, “The product reviews system aims to better high quality product reviews, which is content that provides insightful analysis and original research, written by experts or enthusiasts that know the product well”.
Benefit Cosmetics is granting customers early access to new collection exclusively via TikTok Shop
Despite its slow uptake, it appears TikTok Shop is finally beginning to pick up pace in the UK, as cosmetics brand, Benefit, partners with TikTok to host an exclusive pre-sale launch. With a waitlist of over 9.2k subscribers, Benefits highly anticipated Pore Care collection will be made available to the TikTok community before it launches with any other retailer, even including Benefits own website. TikTok’s senior director of ecommerce, Patrick Nommensen, commented “With views of #skintok reaching 9.5B views, the TikTok community loves to discover the latest skincare products, trade recommendations and learn about new trends”, making it the perfect place to launch the Benefit’s new range.
Code found in WhatsApp suggests that Meta is working on a private newsletter tool, as well as introducing Broadcast Channels to Messenger
According to a report from WaBetaInfo, Meta appears to be developing a newsletter tool that would enable businesses to broadcast information to users en masse. These newsletters will supposedly make it easier to receive useful updates from people and groups - and signs of ads or algorithmic recommendations have not yet been found in the coding. The development of this feature is believed to still be in the first beta stage, and will likely be released as part of an upcoming update. Alongside newsletters, analyst Matt Navara, is claiming that Meta is also working on introducing Broadcast channels to Messenger, having recently rolled them out on Instagram.
Microsoft has added 11 new Google import markets for Smart campaigns, and unveiled new lodging solutions
Microsoft has announced two new updates aimed at improving campaign performance and helping advertisers reach a wider audience. Firstly, Google import for Smart Campaigns is now available in 11 new markets, including the UK and the US, helping advertisers achieve increased visibility and potential conversions. Secondly, expanded lodging solutions will provide advertisers with the tools to manage and optimise their campaigns for hotels. These solutions include property promotion ads, hotel price ads, room bundles, and Bing maps amongst others.
4 New features coming to Google PMax will help advertisers optimise budget across channels in real-time, and quickly adapt to trends
Google is adding 4 new features to Performance Max to help advertisers refine their creative strategy and optimise their campaigns. These include:
- Campaign-level brand exclusions - giving advertisers more control over the search queries they want to avoid
- Page feeds - giving advertisers flexibility to help send traffic to a specific set of landing page URLs
- Video creation - will be made easier by incorporating more editing tools directly into the campaign setup workflow
- Additional reporting - the ability to view conversions, conversion value, and cost amongst other metrics
Google has not yet announced a date that these features will be rolled out.
Microsoft has begun inserting ads into its AI-powered ‘new Bing’ search engine in a variety of formats, including paid links and product images
Last week, we reported that Microsoft was demoing Bing chatbot to agencies to show the capabilities of integrating ads into the new search engine. Well this week several users have reported spotting ads within Microsoft’s AI-powered ‘new Bing’ - displayed as paid links, as well as product images. Microsoft claims that this technology will give it rich insight into user intent that will enable them to deliver smarter and more actionable opportunities for advertisers to engage with their customers. Watch this space.
TikTok is providing new insights into the best performing products on the platform, based on ad content
TikTok has added a new element to its Creative Centre that highlights the popularity of specific products on the app. These new insights are based on the amount of ads posted featuring the item, alongside impressions, view-through rate, comments and likes. Product listings can be filtered by region, category and timeframe - with a ‘details’ button providing more in-depth overviews including CTR, CPA and impressions.
