The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Snapchat has rolled out new tools for marketers, called Snap to Store, allowing brands to see how well geofilter ads are performing among users. They've been testing it with a handful of brands since last year, including Paramount Pictures and 7-Eleven. The firm is now looking to expand Snap to Store to a wider range of brands from the retail, fast food, movie and automobile sectors.
Marketing
Watch latest Samsung ads emphasizing Galaxy S8’s bezel-less Infinity Display and design
Ahead of the upcoming April 21 Galaxy S8 launch in the United States, Canada and Europe, Samsung has already covered Times Square with advertising for its new flagship phones. Today, the South Korean conglomerate published a pair of official Galaxy S8 television commercials on its YouTube channel.
Titled "The New Normal" and “Breaking Out”, the videos showcase the key features of the handsets, like their curved AMOLED screen, branded as Infinity Display, and a stunning industrial design with a nearly full-screen face and no chin at the bottom.
Watch new iPad Pro ads highlighting portability, all-day battery and educational features
Yesterday, Apple expanded its collection of iPad Pro ads based on real tweets from real people with a trio of new videos running fifteen seconds long each. The commercials highlight the device's light weight, portability, all-day battery life and the many advantages it brings to students in school. Using the “Real problems... answered” tagline, the clips can be streamed from Apple's official YouTube channel.
Apple’s new “Live Bright” ad highlights best Apple Watch Series 2 features
Apple on Friday published a new commercial for Apple Watch Series 2 via its YouTube channel. Titled “Live Bright” and running one minute and fourteen seconds long, the video takes viewers on a quick tour of some of the best new features of Apple's second-generation wearable device, including built-in GPS, water resistance to 50 meters, a dual-core S2 chip “and a display that’s two times brighter than before”.
Apple wants to zero in on ‘Pro’ segment, but what about the large majority?
In a statement warmly welcomed by us internet folk, Tim Cook recently proclaimed "you will see us do more in the pro area." In our circles, this is unquestionably good news, as we all foster an insatiable appetite for new innovations, be that on a hardware or software level. More pro is great, however I invariably had to spare a thought for the average, not-so techy Apple customer.
I’m talking about the type of customer that after owning their iPhone 6S for more than a year, still has little concept of what 3D Touch does. Or how about the one that loves their new MacBook, but will gaze at you with a stunned expression when you introduce them to Force Touch on their trackpad. This is by no means meant to sound snarky or patronizing, because as a matter of fact, I don’t blame them for not knowing - I blame Apple for failing to take everyone along for the ride due to poor communication.
Shifting up the ‘Pro’ a notch in the future sounds great, that said how do you straddle the line between pleasing us tech-warriors and not entirely overwhelming a large majority of users, a majority already only privity to roughly half of the juicy features on their devices? Apple needs to find some cogent answers to this issue, and rather than creating a two-tier system in their hardware sold (labelling only some products 'Pro'), I contend that software could be the key.
New iPad Pro ads highlight note-taking and other productivity features
Apple just rolled out a pair of new iPad Pro commercials via its YouTube channel, running sixteen seconds each and titled “Need Less Stuff” and “Take Better Notes”. The former positions iPad Pro as a clutter-free alternative to clunky desktop PCs.
The latter makes the bold claim that iPad Pro and Apple Pencil “revolutionized the way people take notes,” adding that users can even record voice notes. Watch the new videos, then jump into the comment section to tell us how you liked them.
Watch Apple’s new video showcasing what iOS 10’s Home app is capable of
Apple has updated its webpage dedicated to HomeKit with refreshed design and a new 45-second video showcasing what the tock Home app on iOS 10 is capable of. While not yet available on Apple's official YouTube channel, we have embedded it in this article so give it a quick watch and let us know how you liked it in the comments.
New iPad Pro ad focuses on Apple Pencil
Reminiscent of Apple's legendary "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC” commercials, the latest iPad Pro ad campaign based on real tweets from real people continues with a new 16-second video posted to the company's YouTube channel Tuesday.
Titled “No More Printing,” the video is based on a 2013 tweet which reads: “When you're printing personal things at work and you have to run to the printer to get your stuff before anyone else does.”
The commercial shows off iPad Pro's ability to sign digital documents right on the device with Apple Pencil. “You wouldn’t have to print anymore, if your computer was an iPad Pro,” Apple wrote in the video's description.
TSMC kicking off commercial shipments of 10-nanometer chips next month
Semiconductor foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is kicking off commercial shipments of chips built on its new ten-nanometer process technology, ahead of iPhone 8, sources told Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes. TSMC is building iPhone 7's A10 Fusion chip and is said to have landed an exclusive contract to manufacture processors for 2017 iPhone and iPad models.
Apple shifting towards regionally-focused digital and social media campaigns
According to a recent report from AdWeek, Apple has instructed TBWA\Media Arts Lab to sharpen focus on digital and regional advertising campaigns.
Apple is said to have been streamlining its global marketing efforts and restructuring relationship with its longtime global advertising partner.
The Cupertino company now wants the legendary agency to focus more on creating tailor-made campaigns for regional markets and less on translating its big brand campaigns for global markets. As a result of the change, TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s Los Angeles headquarters and other offices around the world had to layoff an unknown number of translation and transcreation staff.
YouTube will stop showing 30-second unskippable preroll ads beginning in 2018
Google will stop showing users those annoyingly unskippable 30-second preroll ads on YouTube clips. According to an official statement from the search giant given to Campaign, the change is coming in 2018 to give advertisers and agencies time to adjust their plans.
In aiming to provide a better advertising experience for online users, Google has clearly come to the inevitable realization that consumers loathe unskippable ads on YouTube.