Advertising Immediate Future

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Both TikTok and Pinterest have experienced huge gains during the last few months. Engagement on Pinterest is up 75%, and TikTok users grew by 34% in April. If you’re not sure how to get started with either platform, here are a few ideas. Pointers for Pinterest With 367…

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the big players in social media are finding new ways to monetise their platforms. The shift towards full eCommerce platforms has been particularly apparent in recent weeks, with the introduction of new storefront features. So, what’s new? And more importantly, what…

When it comes to conversion, the goal you might be setting doesn’t have to be a purchase – you might wish to measure conversion on increasing followers, engagement on your posts or sign-ups to an email list. Whichever conversion you’re measuring, we’ve got some top tips on what you need…

As we’re all suffering lockdown fatigue, the social platforms are pushing on with new features to beat the isolation. A look at Q1 earnings, explains why there is a dash to create even more compelling reasons to stay on social. After all, there are more people spending more…

We take creativity seriously at Immediate Future. Not only because we’re a team comprised of artistic people, but also because it’s needed to make social work. In an industry where audiences are flooded with an endless stream of promotional messaging, your campaigns need to stand out. Creativity is no longer…

While the streets are quiet and the shops are shut, the bars and cinemas are closed – and so are the theatres. But in the theatre, when they are “dark” (there’s no live production), there’s a tradition to leave a “ghost light” centre stage. Partly for the safety of anyone…

In such unprecedented and uncertain times, social media platforms have become the go-to for keeping up to date with the latest news regarding Covid-19. Earlier this week we reported that social media activity had risen 25% over the last two week period – and this percentage is set to…

Say, you want to advertise your kickstarted, redwood-embossed suitcase made from a titanium-weave shell that’s reinforced with Kevlar, because why would it not be? It’s the next step in suitcase technology, with a built-in sound system and paper shredder. To top it off, it looks pretty swanky. You’re aiming for…

Last week, while we were discussing Instagram ethics, the internet broke the story of the social experiment of all SOCIAL experiments. A youtuber revealed that a series of Instagram posts chronicling her seemingly luxurious holiday to Bali, was intentionally staged and planted to test her followers,…

If you’re deep into it with Facebook ads but something just isn’t adding up, here are a couple of things to consider looking at: Ad Relevance Diagnostics You can see these scores in the standard “Performance” reporting view in Facebook Ads Manager when you’re viewing your ads. For…

Twitter is growing – are you missing out? Their Q4 performance report states that they have added 21% more monetizable daily active users to the platform – this takes them to 152million. What does monetizable mean? It’s a user count of how many accounts Twitter can…

This weekend I had a genuinely delectable dining experience. The food was Persian, modern, and perfectly-portioned for a pair. The menu was small; with the heavy presence of pistachio and rose, as I anticipated. But what I couldn’t have anticipated was the polished approach to a Scandinavian-Mediterranean hybrid of pale…

It’s official, Byte has launched! What’s Byte? Well, remember Vine, the video-sharing app which specialised in a 6-second looping format? The one that Twitter bought and then shut down to cut costs because hosting video is costly? Thereby counting themselves out a tonne of cash which TikTok is now…

At IF we love all things social. So, we’re always interested in staying up to date with the latest happenings and bringing them to you in our weekly Social Snapshot! Read on to find out what’s been happening in the past week……

Would you create a White Paper giving it only cursory effort? Would you slap any old image and message on a Billboard? Would you grab any piece of copy and image and throw up on your website? If shooting a TV Ad, would you corral the troops into an…

Included in Facebook’s latest Graph and Marketing API update, the social media platform has announced that in 2020 they will limit the number of ads a page can run at one time. Your initial reaction might be that this update could limit capabilities for your business. However, according to…

Well, the nights are drawing in and it’s getting colder and darker. But it’s never a dull day in the world of social media! We are always warmed up by the new developments and news stories that appear in our feeds which we bring to you in this easy, informative…

Another week has passed and my, what a week it has been! We love staying up to date with the latest happenings in social, and we’re sure you do too. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best articles from the past week we just have to shout about… Instagram…

So you may (or may not) have heard about TikTok, and part of that depends on your age or the age of the people in your life! TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. It allows users to express themselves in a…

Episode 2 *spoiler alert* don’t read unless you’ve watched! Since its move to Channel 4, Bake Off has offered advertisers the opportunity to be part of this cake obsessed community for 8 weeks of autumn. After the initial move to a commercial station (which came with some negativity), advertises embraced…

Over the past few weeks we have seen multiple announcements from Twitter; filtering direct messages, swipeable lists, and 6-second video ad bidding. Now, the platform has announced its testing a new, larger image carousel format for advertisers and it seems they’re really trying to up their paid game. After…

We love staying up to date with everything social and this past week did not disappoint! We’ve compiled a bunch of articles together that we just want to shout about, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy them as much as we did… Facebook is testing a new listing of post reactions…

Another week has passed, and what a week it has been! We’ve rounded up the best articles and updates from the fast-moving world of social media to get you up to speed in no time. Twitter launches 6-second video ad bidding, providing new options for video marketers. https://po.st/8MSXcA…

Summer is traditionally the time many of us slow down – heck, we all slowed down in the very recent heatwave – as many of us go on our holidays or enjoy time at home. And while many things go quiet over the summer, does social media? Well no, there…

Another news-filled week has passed, so here we are… bringing you a roundup of the best articles we just want to shout about. Stay with us and we’ll get you up to speed with the latest happenings in social in no time! Snapchat launches major new ad campaign around the…

With all the rumours that surround privacy on social media platforms and the common suspicions we have about being spied on through our popular handheld devices, Facebook is clearly trying to take a step in the direction of transparency. We all get spooked after having a conversation in our non-screen…

Every company, be it B2B or B2C, will always be searching for new ways to spruce up their social media strategy; whether there’s a new format or a fun, innovative creative concept to try – we all want to break the social boring. But, are you experimenting with your paid…

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the fast-moving world of social media, but this is where we step in. Keep on scrolling for the latest updates and tips from the industry! Facebook brings back reach estimates for Custom Audiences. https://po.st/svu5UB Marketeers rejoice! Facebook has brought back…

Another week has passed, and my, what a week it has been! We’ve rounded up the best articles and updates, just for you. So, carry on reading, and we’ll get you up to speed with the latest happenings in social in no time. Sorry, ads are coming to TikTok.

The very strong chance exists that you enjoy a BBQ! After all BBQ & at-home eating & entertaining is now the UK’s No1 summer home leisure activity, with three out of four households now owning some type of BBQ grill. So you probably aren’t missing out in hosting, attending and…

Social media is often criticised for the damage it can do our mental well-being, especially with regards to depression and feelings of inadequacy in teenagers and adults alike increasing. But what about the positive impact that social can bring to our lives, where we truly feel that social is a…

Another week has passed, and my, what a week it has been! We’ve rounded up the best articles and updates, just for you. So, carry on reading, and we’ll get you up to speed with the latest happenings in social in no time. New report shows Facebook engagement in gradual decline,…

Do you know enough about tracking users engaging with your social media activity? Without a tracking pixel implemented on a website, you cannot retarget users who land on your site, create website user lookalike audiences or exclude users who have already visited/converted within a campaign – it means that your…

Rumour has it that due to the financial pickle Snap has found itself in, the company is toying with the idea of making public Snaps last much longer before disappearing, or *shock horror* even become permanent. Posts shared to the “Our Story” feed…

Fanfare, please! LinkedIn has finally introduced interest targeting options to their paid campaign manager – three cheers! So all those hashtags you’ve been faithfully adding to organic content and wondering “what exactly is this doing for me?”… wonder no longer, they are indicators for users’…

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Coming from us? We must be bonkers. But, hear us out! To do good, meaningful and impactful social media, you need to be serious about it. Here are 8 reasons why you might want to reconsider your use of social media. If…

With so many users active on social media over the holidays, there was a huge panic over a rather substantial, unexpected change to Instagram. Here’s what actually happened and what it means. Instagram had intended to update the beta version of the user interface for a small number of people.

Many of us now turn to online shopping to avoid the queues, the tired feet, the unhappy children you find on a traipse up and down the high street – especially at this time of year. One of the other things we love to avoid is that annoyingly helpful retail…

Facebook has been positioning itself for a TV and movie offering for a while now. It wasn’t long ago that the social network was rumoured to have shown a lot of interest in winning rights to show Premier League football exclusively…

It’s been a good year for social media. Marketers are steadily shifting more of their budgets into social media marketing. In the second quarter of 2018, global advertising spend on Instagram was up 177% year-on-year and, subsequently, influencer marketing continues to grow. But, because social media influencers are…

Since announcing partnerships with publishers out recently, and in the past testing a more Netflix-esque offering, Snapchat brings us news of Snap Originals. Tapping into the lucrative reality show market which frequently gathers herds of young people who often morph into influencers, the new effort will be…

A recent Facebook study using eye-tracking and device-tracking has found that TV viewers are also looking at their smartphones 31% of the time, most often at a social app. More than half of participants’ mobile time was devoted to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. There…

It’s been 4 years since Facebook bought the messaging app WhatsApp for a whopping $22 billion, and so far the app has remained ad-free. However, that is about to change in 2019, as WhatsApp plans to roll out targeted ads to its more than a billion users. A…

In the week that we released our latest Serious Social focusing on travel, one of the biggest sites in this sector, TripAdvisor has revealed they will be developing a social feed within their proposition. There are 56 million conversations around travel in social……

Sure, sure… high street economy is a bit on the low side with big franchises announcing closures of big flagship stores, but not everything is lost. The economy, though, is not sinking worldwide. Markets are just shifting towards the easier (at least for the consumer) e-commerce. The online…

Remarketing can be a powerful tool to engage and retain your audience, but are you thinking enough about it? Often it’s the best performing campaign line within our social strategies, gaining clicks from users who have already engaged with your brand in some way – whether this…

Facebook has decided to rename its Canvas ad format and along with the name change come a few new features. If for some rare and unexplained reason you haven’t heard of Facebook Canvas, here’s a recap: “Facebook Instant Experiences, formally known as Canvas, load instantly, they’re mobile-optimised and designed to…

Approximately 2 billion people use social media. Figures are expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks gain more traction. With customers using social media 24/7, and on such a variety of platforms, what was best practise last week might not work today. Keeping up…

Facebook never really had an issue with advertisers. While mainstream media highlighted how some have opted to pull spend, by and large, Facebook remains the juggernaut it is because of the truck loads of money pumped into the business by marketers. Additionally, Facebook never really had an issue with members.

You’ll wanna jump back onto Twitter when you hear this. Twitter has dramatically changed its ad proposition in the last 18 months and it’s been a great success. For their platform, for our agency, and it can be a success for you too! In this week’s Serious Social…

Do you want to build brand loyalty and stand out from the crowd in a busy marketplace? Well, you need to first answer the question “why?”. “Why does your brand exist?” And no, you’re not allowed to say profit! So, go on, have a little think… Do you exist because…

You don’t have to be a social media expert to know that Facebook is transitioning into a much more video orientated platform, and ever since the launch of Facebook’s on demand video service, Watch, last summer, brands and advertisers have been waiting with bated breath to see if it had…

The all-consuming Leviathan which is Facebook has seen an opportunity for continued growth. You may have already seen the out of home advertising, where Facebook shows its alignment with micro businesses, your local barber, a small florist and the like. Now, to complement that messaging, Facebook has…

One week until Black Friday, and businesses all want to run a wow factor Social campaign to entice customers. The question is: Are you equipped with your strongest Black Friday strategies yet? If you think about it, just like you, almost every other business wants to make the most of…

At IF, it’s been slowly and now concretely drummed into us: Christmas is coming. If your clients aren’t ready yet, then you need to be. Internally, it means designing our Christmas card, sorting the festivities and most importantly, making sure we are effortlessly ready to deliver everything before 2017 magically…

If you still haven’t considered including Instagram as part of your Paid Ad spend, I’m hoping by the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll change your mind. From its launch in October 2010, Instagram has become one of the most popular Social media channels with 800 million active users.

Last year Facebook disabled the use of ad blocking software. This meant that the big question was whether Facebook was still a viable social network, bringing people closer together or a multi-million-dollar advertising platform. The answer may be a muddy mixture of both. Rather than being able to login and…

Facebook steps up its game with another feature for video marketers. Advertisers can now buy video ads that will only be served when people are viewing a video. This should increase the chances of viewers watching your content! Shortly after Facebook revealed its video service, Watch, the company didn’t waste…

In our ‘blink-and-you’ve-missed-it’ digital world, social media is leading the way in which most of us receive information. Instagram’s influence continues to grow. The platform topped 700 million monthly active users earlier this year and Instagram Stories reached 250 million daily active users just over a month ago. As we’ve been…

The online consumption of Sports Online sports viewing has been growing significantly and as consumer attention gets scattered across multiple platforms and devices, it is interesting to understand what major marketing players are doing to follow suit. Trends A positive problem? Opportunities arise for advertisers as a need for engaging…

It’s time we talked about the mediocrity of social media. Brands that are filling the noisy, noisy, world of social with average content for the sake of being social. It’s been an issue that has been creeping up on us for some time, but it is reaching silly proportions now.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the ad blocking war that is being fought between advertisers and consumers. Every time advertisers find a way to get behind ad blocking enemy lines, ad blocking companies tinker around with a little bit of code and instantly launch a counter attack.

Facebook did it, now Snapchat have made the financially lucrative choice to make their ads platform more accessible to small and medium enterprises. As the paid media specialist at immediate future, I have been waiting to sink my teeth into this new proposition since I wrote my first blog about…

Reporting back to senior management with low conversion rates can become the bane of one’s life. And then to top it off, you are probably working extremely hard to persuade for more budget towards your social campaigns. It’s 2017, and you shouldn’t have to battle to prove the success rates…

Express yourselves! Say more with Twitter’s latest tweak We can all agree that saying everything we need to within the character limit on Twitter can become quite tedious and at times extremely frustrating! Yet somehow, being the super-species we are, we have adapted and now excelled at this. In 2006,…

Pinterest is now letting brands promote apps on their walls via the platform’s self-serve platform and API partners. The update means iOS users can now download apps to their mobiles within Pinterest, without being redirected to the app store. Although it is fairly new, the feature has already been beta…

It’s safe to say that the use of visual content is going to stick and there is a wealth of data that can be used to support the benefits of this type of content. On average, visuals perform 4.4 x better than text-based content and as social media marketers, we…

How many times have you swayed away from social content, thinking, “What pile of absolute fluff?” That’s right- you are todays customer- a well-informed, savvy and socially aware individual who has access to vast sources of data which hold the truths & certainly the untruths of a brand. This could…

In 2016 both Facebook and Twitter made a concerted effort to simplify their ad platforms, making it easier for individuals and small business owners to advertise their business. Compared to a few years ago, setting up campaigns is now relatively easy, and there are plenty of detailed how-to guides to…

“Don’t blog about Snapchat” was the recurring mantra / running joke in the IF office over the course of 2016. It was easier said than done because, of the Big 5 social channels, Snapchat dominated the news last year and likewise, the IF blog.

From the swampy depths of the primordial app soup, what was previously a deceptively simple single-cell organism has mutated into an entirely new beast and is now slouching toward social to be born. That’s right folks, PRISMA is going social. The hugely popular app, which uses neural network technology to turn…

Social advertising is an effective way of driving traffic to your website but if your website is not mobile friendly then your brand could be losing out.According to research from Adobe, the UK is the largest driver of website traffic through social engagement and with nearly 80 percent of social…

On the 29th June 2016, Facebook announced it was going to tweak its News Feed (Edgerank) algorithm to prioritise content from family and friends over brands and publishers. “The goal of News Feed is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them. Today, we’re announcing an update…

We presented at the B2B Summit recently, talking about paid social media. Interestingly, the question on everyone’s lips was; how much should social advertising cost? What are the benchmarks for investment and returns you can expect? Well, a Salesforce report (download) gives us some interesting paid social…

The moment social marketers have been waiting for has finally arrived. The 20% text rule on Facebook adverts has changed. I can hear the cheers from here. Don’t pop open the bubbly just yet – let’s look into the details first. So what has Facebook actually said?…

This week has seen Twitter get all Facebook-y (yes that is a word) whilst making some nice strides with their paid advertising engine. There are three significant changes that have all gone live this week; Universal code, new custom audiences and an ‘objective-based’ interface – making the platform simpler to…

So it’s happening. It was only a matter of time. Instagram is planning on using algorithms to organise content within timelines, as announced on their company blog this week. Following in the footsteps of their owners Facebook, who started to move away from a chronological display way…

These days there are more ad blockers than most people have had hot dinners. The most popular ad blocking companies now hold all the power, and have completely changed the landscape of digital advertising. In an aim to monetise their service, some ad blocking providers are essentially blackmailing companies into…

Of all of the consumer tech and social media news coming out of #CES2016 last week, I wasn’t expecting news of a new Twitter ad product to be one of the most talked about. But with its ‘brand enthusiast gallery’ (purely a working title, I hope),…

Back in Q1, 2014, Mark Zuckerburg announced Facebook’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, signalling his intention to bring virtual reality into mainstream digital life. Two years on and Facebook have finally begun taking pre-orders for Oculus Rift. That’s right you can now place…

New services like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Snapchat’s Discover allow publishers to host and monetise content on third-party social media platforms, without the need for users to click through to their site. Media publishers are currently uploading content on social media platforms in the hope users will click back to…

We were very proud to win Best Use of Social Advertising at the recent Social Media Buzz Awards recently. Fist pump. We did so on a modest budget, pipping big agencies (Ketchum, Starcom, Havas, Manning Gottlieb OMD) and big brands (Starbucks, KFC, Phillips, Unilever, Heineken) with our work for Southbank…

Apps have revolutionised speed-reading through displaying single words in rapid succession. These apps are based on a method known as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP. It’s nothing new and has been documented in cognitive psychology since the early 1970s, but with the rise of mobile and apps, its popularity has…

Which campaign worked best – and which was most cost-effective? An issue which must be deliberated when running ad campaigns to prove ROI. In an effort to provide answers to this key question and to entice marketers to spend more of their marketing budget on Twitter, the platform announced the…

Welcome to part two of our Q & A with two of the industry’s leading digital marketers: Alex Ayling, Head of BBC Worldwide Digital Studios and Nick Moxham, Head of Digital, Universal Music TV. In case you missed part one which focussed on Alex, you can view that here:…

August is gone with the wind. With it go Notting Hill Festival, Reading 2015, V Fest, National Burger Day and summer. Relive the glory days of balmy summer evenings, sizzling barbeques and 30+ degree weather (sort of) by having a read through our top five IF blogs for August.

Apple’s recent announcement that it was going to be embracing ad blocking software has sparked some serious social debate and birth of the hashtag #adpocalypse. The move by Apple has brought into spotlight the morals and ethics behind the media industry and am sure will bring about another shift because…

From Iceland to India, Twitter ads are open for business, and the global reach of its network of 100,000 active advertisers is about to get a whole lot larger! Although late in the game compared to other social networking giants, the event marks a substantial step forward…

YouTube has launched a new service designed specifically for gamers, YouTube Gaming, in a brazened attempt to compete with Twitch – a company that it lost out to Amazon in trying to buy last year – in the live streaming arena. While it may…

It’s no secret that Facebook has its eyes fixed firmly on the prize when it comes to being the internet’s biggest video platform. In April Facebook reported that it is getting 4 billion video views per day. Besides being extremely attractive for advertisers, numbers like that would…

Now, there’s a question! The issue of one of three giants buying Twitter has started gaining some serious traction over the last few weeks. Those giants are, of course, Apple, Facebook and Google. Although there is a viable case for Apple to buy the flagging social network, it seems that…

The oldest enemy of e-commerce has always been customer drop-off, losing potential customers during various points in your purchase funnel as they slip through the gaps in your carefully crafted user journey. It often left us feeling like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Roadrunner. In-app commerce could be the…

In the past, blocking ads on mobile has not been an easy task. As little as 15% of adults in Great Britain use ad-blocking software on their phone, according to a July 2015 study from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, conducted by YouGov. This is very small when compared to…

Facebook is as much an evolving ecosystem of data as ever before. We proactively share what we care about with people we care about at some of the most revealing levels of intimacy. It is no wonder that among such an environment of personal information, marketers can use this data…

With more than 100 million daily users, and 71% of those falling into the 18-34 age bracket, many brands chasing younger demographics are now looking towards Snapchat as a way to engage with and market to their customers. Other than fear of the unknown,…

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the minds stays up all night, telling itself stories.” – Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal American author and journalist, Ernest Hemingway once made a $10 bet with some writer friends that he…

The big social media giants, mainly Twitter and Facebook, have been making quite some noise lately announcing constant functionality and advert changes in the last few months. If you need a refresher you can find out more from our previous blogs: Facebook’s Product Ads target specific products to those…

The fact that Facebook can pinpoint your exact position, geographically targeting ads if you are within a pre-defined proximity from a location is creepy right? Creepy it may be, but very useful for advertisers when used correctly. Yet, geo-targeting isn’t the only option when it comes to ensuring your ads…

Most people, when they think of the 1960s, will probably recall the ‘swinging sixties’ or the relaxation of social taboos (clothing, music, drugs, sexuality, formalities and schooling). You may even bring to mind the conflict that raged in Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination or the Apollo 11 mission placing Neil Armstrong…