Uncategorized Immediate Future

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It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Facebook. Understandably, many are disappointed by the delayed reaction and slow apology for the Cambridge Analytica data breach. With GDPR on the horizon, EU citizens have more rights than ever before with regards to who holds their data and why. Users…

UK-based e-retailers! You’ll step up your social when you hear this… Instagram are giving UK online retailers the chance to publish shoppable posts. Shoppable Instagram posts have been on the horizon for a while. The feature was available to American businesses last year, so it was…

It’s taken Instagram a long time to respond, but for the past year, users have been complaining about their feed and the way in which the app displays posts based on relevancy. Initially, Instagram used a chronological ranking system and users saw the latest posts when they opened the…

With the jump in Twitter’s share prices earlier this year, it seems that the social giant is going from strength to strength. Considering the playground of pundits and the cerebrally astute, how do brands cut through the rants and opinions and make the most of this…

Recent news from Twitter suggests there are plans in the pipeline that could see us all the proud owners of our very own blue ticks in the future. Twitter verification has been under scrutiny for a while now, with most users seeing it as a symbol of endorsement…

There are plenty of tactical ways to use social media for B2B marketing. The first question… which channels are you using? Well, we all know that B2B loves LinkedIn. But, how should you be using LinkedIn? There has been a huge focus on LinkedIn over the past year. The platform…

The latest news out of Google is that they’re opening up Maps so developers can create the next big mobile gaming phenomenon, in the mould of Pokémon Go. While initially this seems like great news solely for gaming, there’s no reason this shouldn’t get marketers excited too. The…

Remember June last year when YouTube announced a beta trial of YouTube studio, its new hub for Creators? It’s been a while, so you’d be forgiven for not remembering. The good news is, after 9 months of testing, the new hub will be rolled out…

Facebook ends Explore & tests new voice clip feature Facebook are constantly making design changes, adding new features and ranking updates with the aim of improving the experience for everyone. Whilst some take off and are received well by the public, others don’t, and it seems Explore…

Instagram has developed into far more than a photo-sharing app and it’s showing no signs of stopping. It’s recently been reported that we could be seeing video and voice calling added to the expanding list of features. Secret codes have been found hidden in the app’s APK (android…

With the launch of Facebook Spaces last year, Facebook aimed to democratise the world of social VR, and in October announced functionality that brought immersive 360 images (not just videos!) to the Facebook newsfeed. Until now however, posts have been limited to those created in Oculus Medium, and…

As frustrated as you may be about the changes in the app’s layout, Snapchat have announced that it is here to stay. Despite all the negativity, the redesign is claimed to have come from user feedback. For the business, the change is already giving the Discover section a…

For the past year, CJ, MD at immediate future, had been commenting on Snapchat earnings calls on BBC News (broadcast), national and trade press: saying that Snapchat is on a path to failure. As losses continue to pile up, and a spotlight is placed on recent changes at the…

Brits, listen up! Snapchat has a new feature, which will allow UK users to create their very own personalised Lenses directly from the app for the first time. Always wanted to give it a go? Now you can! According to Snap, over 70 million people use the popular…

Nike’s Jordan brand teamed up with Snapchat to pre-release the Air Jordan III “Tinker” trainers after this week’s NBA All-Star game. After the game, people who attended the Jumpman All-Star after-party in LA were able to scan an exclusive Snap code and buy the trainers directly through Snapchat.

It’s a question I’m regularly asked. I’m fortunate enough to be a BBC News room regular, commentating on Earning Calls for each Social Media channel. Irrespective of the prime brand being discussed, the topic of Facebook’s ability to sustain incremental profits always arises. Today, Facebook isn’t just the…

You heard it from the main man himself, so it should be no surprise when, less than a month later, there already seems to be a 6% decline in Facebook traffic to publishers. In the long run, this drop in referral traffic is intended to…

It hasn’t even been two years since Facebook proclaimed that by the beginning of the next decade the platform could be ‘all video’, but it already feels like this prediction is fast-becoming a reality. For some time now, YouTube has dominated the online video clip…

Facebook have officially rolled out their Lists feature globally today. The feature is aligned to the status update box, along with the options such as Photo/Sticker, Polls and so on. With the recent shift to make Facebook a platform to help users connect to their loved…

It’s no secret that Pinterest users curate boards to plan birthday parties, weddings, Christmas, Halloween and every other occasion. Choosing a holiday destination, buying seasonal clothes, party planning. This is exactly why consumer brands should be using Pinterest for seasonal advertising. Pinterest is a place for beautiful images…

Facebook’s latest report, released at the end of January, focuses on social usage and the impact this may have on the fashion shopping journey, and ultimately, what this might mean for marketers. The report, with feedback from 4,500 people, includes insight into why people open social media apps…

It’s been common knowledge for some time that Facebook wants to be a video programming hub and original content provider to rival Netflix or Hulu, for the sole purpose of increasing video ad space. …

You can now customise your Bitmoji in over a hundred different ways. Snapchat say they have responded to user requests and welcome even more feedback. Amongst changes to the overall design of the App, Snap has also discreetly introduced a way to mute notifications with a new “Do…

It may seem as though the initial moment passed without much fanfare in October 2015 when Twitter Moments rolled out. It was then released to influencers and creators in August 2016 then the wider public in Sep 16, but… didn’t really set the world alight.

We know that Instagram doesn’t stop when we all leave the office at 5:30pm, and at the weekend, when we’re all making the most of our two days off, it’s especially alive. Whilst there have been unofficial solutions like Schedugram, which we’ve made…

Influencer Marketing – From mega to micro Using a celebrity or sports personality to endorse your brand or product is no new concept. However, in 2017, we saw brands use social media to find new and effective ways to use endorsement and incorporate it into their overall…

Earlier this month, the WhatsApp Business app officially launched in markets such as Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S. A wider roll-out is planned later in the year. The addition will see business profiles and new messaging tools available for customers as part of…

Instagram is at it again! The latest update includes an integration with GIPHY, meaning only one thing – Stories are going to be a lot more animated! GIF stickers can now be added to all of your Story photos and videos, and the fact that they’re from GIPHY’s database…

Not a Snapchat user? Doesn’t mean you won’t be finding out more about it… On Tuesday, Twitter announced that you can now share certain stories outside of the app with a shareable link & open them on a webpage, mobile browser, or within Facebook & Twitter. At the…

We know the clock’s ticking for May 25th, and there’s still scepticism around the application and effects of GDPR for every business sector. One thing is clear though, there are definite concerns for marketers. This blog answers a lot of questions, but glaringly, without the…

Following Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to once again change the inner workings of the Facebook news feed, the real impact of the newsfeed algorithm change is becoming clearer. Initially, publishers and advertisers alike were thrown into a panic by assuming the change meant the end times had come and…

Here’s a story about a young lady who wanted to spend five nights in a luxury Dublin hotel. As she says herself, it was to be for “an early Valentine’s Day weekend”. Nothing too unusual there. Here’s the kicker, because of who she is, rising social media influencer…

The latest trend on social? In the US, it’s comparing yourself to 70,000 works of art and sharing your best match. Sounds fun, right? However, there’s a lot more cool stuff going on in the background than you think. Google has been experimenting with gamifying…

It’s been quiet at the water cooler recently, what with having to wait FOREVER for GoT to return. But, even if you’re not a business, the recent Facebook news means Zuckerberg’s plans have got everybody talking. January as a slow news month? Not anymore. Facebook’s…

Facebook is saturated with brands on the constant lookout for new ways to engage with their audiences. We’re all fighting for our voices to be heard. Getting people to engage with brands on social media is getting harder, and people’s opinions are becoming more and more valuable. Unless…

It appears Facebook bit off more than they could chew with their AI experiment, the powered virtual assistant, better known mysteriously as ‘M’. Released in August 2015, M is a text-based virtual assistant that involves using human employees to train an artificial intelligence system. After being offered to…

Following Mark Zuckerberg’s prediction that video will be the largest driver of business for Facebook over the next two to three years, it is easy to see, that the desire to become a ‘video-first’ platform is at the heart of their efforts.

Did you know it would take you 10 years to view all the photos shared on Snapchat in the last hour? In amongst all of the cat videos and selfies are a surprising amount of conversations about cinema. Snap Inc. recently teamed up with Greenberg and the MPAA to…

https://immediatefuture.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/TEST-IF-XMAS03.mp4 Everyone at immediate future has had a terrific year thanks to our bloomin’ amazing clients, agency friends and colleagues. We’ve learned lots along the way, won an award or four and laughed a huge amount (we know how to have fun!). We’ve tweeted, posted and insta’d our…

Staying on top of the latest in the fast-changing marketing industry is a challenge. There isn’t much time to stop and read or watch everything you want to. Podcasts offer a superb alternative to getting your social, digital or marketing fix whilst you carry on doing something else.

We’re all guilty of blindly interacting with engagement bait. Like! Vote! Share! React! To things that… actually aren’t that engaging, but yet we do it. Does this mean that our own content quality control filter is failing? I mean, am I realistically going to win an X Box…

They say money never sleeps and it appears neither do Instagram’s developers. The latest update is jam-packed with holiday spirit, so if you’re not into sending actual Christmas cards (you know, the ones that come in envelopes), Insta’s new creative tools might be just for you. Like…

Spoiler alert: if you’re not using Facebook Live then you should be – even if you’re a B2B brand who DOESN’T believe they work for you! We use them and we’re smashing it for Fujitsu. If it’s not working for you, then you’re not using it correctly, or…

Social platforms have become much more than a place to share words and pictures. You can stay in touch with your Aunt, play Scrabble with her and tag her in hilarious cat videos. Social has long replaced traditional forms of communication like writing, to keep in touch. In many…

Terminator? No joke. It’s been used as a lazy, negative cypher for AI for years, but it’s now actually developing at visible speed and catching up to 80’s premonitions. However, according to an article, Google’s DeepMind ‘has simple tests that may prevent AI apocalypse’. Phew.

Facebook Messenger’s had an interesting month. It literally failed to deliver twice in the last month as it inexplicably went down. There’s been some firm conversation around the kids’ app that’s worth keeping an eye on, and intriguingly, for an avid ‘bayer…

Christmas is done. It’s over. There is no more time for planning. Execution is (well it better be) in full flow. It’s time for marketers to turn their planning heads to the New Year. And I don’t mean the 1st January 2018. I mean 16th February. Chinese New…

Facebook is the world’s largest facial recognition database with 300 million photos uploaded every day. It is no wonder then that Facebook is looking at ways to improve customer service, measured through sentiment, by analysing the expressions on shoppers faces when they visit a brick-and-mortar…

Snap has been under a lot of pressure since it’s Q3 Earnings report and as we have reported recently change has been on the horizon for a while. In an attempt to invigorate their stagnating user growth beyond the 3% mark and boost their low revenue…

We welcomed a broadcasting behemoth to our office for this week’s Serious Social. Gavin Dawson, head of comms for international markets, came in from the BBC to look at what we do, and discuss the changing role of social for broadcasters. How do you create content and always-on plans…

Snapchat is undergoing an extensive app re-design, billed its ‘biggest redesign in years’, in a bid to keep their audience engaged, attract new users & regain their position in the social platform battle. This will see a redesigned user interface, making the social platform easier to use, and…

Following its shocking Q3 results (which I’m not going to talk about again, promise), Snap is still keen to prove its worth to brands with big budgets. This time, the company has commissioned app analytics tool, App Annie, to report on the amount of time Snapchat’s…

‘Tis the season we all start panicking about what will land under who’s Christmas tree. Whether it’s family, actual friends (which is a much smaller list than my Facebook friends), or a random colleague (if they happen to be your Secret Santa at work), buying the RIGHT Christmas present…

Is it the marketing holy grail when your business, platform, proposition, brand…grows to such planet-swallowing size that you make it into the common lexicon? Yep. Who doesn’t know what Netflix & Chill really means, but, we haven’t heard from their brand guardians or CEO to stop using it…

It’s been a week since Snap’s shocking (though somewhat expected) Q3 results, and yet we’re already hit with some exciting news! Snapchat has rolled its advertising self-service tools onto a single platform with Ad Manager 2.0. The new Ad Manager unifies several of Snapchat’s existing ad buying and…

We ❤ Instagram, but it seems like the days when we were able to see content that we’re actually interested in on our feed, are slowly slipping away… For a while now, it seems Instagram have been prioritising and promoting posts that generate a lot of engagement, and these very…

Following Snap’s Q3 Earnings report it’s become apparent that a big change needs to happen if Snapchat is to remain a credible player in the world of social media. According to the report Snapchat’s user growth is down to a meagre 2.9 percent. Revenue targets weren’t met to…

What are you talking about? Shopping. What are you talking about? Reality show influencers who break the rules. Serious Social gets serious around the clampdown on influencers not declaring brand endorsements, while the Instagram conversation centres on social commerce, and how it’s a match made in shopping heaven.

Let’s face it, at some point in our lives, we’ve all said something we’ve instantly regretted. In the days before social and messaging apps, the fallout might have been painful but the worst of it was usually over pretty quickly. In the mobile-first world we live in…

Last week, Marnie Simpson was rapped firmly on the knuckles by the ASA for breaking CAP code rules and promoting brands without making clear she was paid to do so. There was coverage across OK!Magazine, BBC, Sky News, Daily Mail and…

Just when we thought 2017 couldn’t get any worse for Snap, turns out Spectacles are a commercial flop. Snap’s first attempt at creating a hardware product failed to excite customers past their initial purchase. Despite the initial hype, the company has sold only 150,000 pairs to date, and less than…

Netflix has been on a bit of a tear, producing high-budget original content at a rate of knots that few production companies can keep up with. The video streaming services has become so good at it that even Disney pulling content from its platform is not enough to slow…

Social commerce is growing and shows no signs of stopping. eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce enable purchases through social platforms, which drastically changes the customer experience and customer journey in a multitude of ways. It’s simpler, quicker and easier than ever for us to discover products and…

We’ve settled in nicely to our new format, and we’ve got two new guests to impart social wisdom to the world. Our CEO, Katy Howell is talking to our MD, Colin Jacobs about tourist industry tweaks and 2018 holidays. Yes, it is only October. Catrina Burns shares her…

For a while now Facebook have been trying to address the fact that the individual users Newsfeed has, has become the most echoey echo chamber since Echo the dolphin started that fan site. As anyone is bound to notice users are served content from sources they follow, that…

Facebook and their updates are killing the social game at the moment; here are the details on Facebook’s latest push into the mobile commerce industry. Last year, PayPal’s initial partnership with Facebook messenger allowed customers to connect their accounts with Facebook and use PayPal to shop on messenger. This…

With the near constant innovation we see from Facebook’s ad offering, it’s easy to forget that other social media platforms release new products from time-to-time. This week there have been two announcements that have got us excited, and they’re both about video. LinkedIn First up LinkedIn is FINALLY…

Scrolling through our social feeds has become routine to us, but it’s also something we do to pass the time. Wake up, scroll. Boring commute, scroll. You might feel like you’ve missed out on something today if you haven’t checked the latest Tweets, scrolled through Instagram or checked your…

Keeping in line with keeping things fresh at IF, we’re giving 60 Second Social a shake-up. It’s now called Serious Social. Sometimes, there’s just too much news to fit into sixty seconds. The second tweak to our news format is that we’re going to be interviewing members of the…

We’ve been broadcasting a lot of great news recently from IF, which puts us in a shining spotlight as an agency: a move to a stunning new office, nominations for awards, new business, visits by inspirational guests, but there’s a date in the calendar this week that gives…

Alas! There’s a new app in town that lets you post photos to Instagram directly from your Mac or PC desktop. Meet Windowed! Created by Felix Sun, a photographer and computer engineer student, this open-source software is basically a stripped down mobile browser that tricks Instagram into thinking you’re…

Got a favourite emoji? Now you can listen to songs based on them, with a new music recommendation update on Facebook messenger. Sooo 2017! Facebook and Apple have joined forces to create an Apple Music bot that recommends specific songs or playlists based on one particular emoji. If…

Last week we welcomed Paul Hewitt, playwright & creative strategist, to our office. In this week’s 60 Second Social he tells us the importance of the link between playwriting, storytelling, and social. Our greatest takeaway was, considering what celebrity or family member your brand would be, and…

To celebrate the release of iOS 11’s all new emoji set we thought it was time for a refresher course on the use of emoji in social media, to prevent some of the more common crimes against emoji. With Apple announcing the release…

“Your eyes will go square!” – one of the many myths my parents preached in my youth. Eating crusts never made my hair go straight. Nor did eating carrots give me night vision (much to my disappointment!) Though they tried to talk us out of it, our eyes and…

In May, the RSPH named Instagram the worst social network for mental health in their #StatusOfMind Report, so it’s no surprise that the social network is trying to strengthen its support for users with mental health issues. Now, during live videos, you’ll be able to…

I mean finally! Recent announcements of Snap’s major losses have had everyone asking the same question: why can’t they lure advertisers? Well, they might have just flipped the coin. Snapchat’s Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan took to the Advertising Week New York stage on Thursday to announce what we’ve all…

On Tuesday Twitter joyfully announced the rollout of a shiny new 280 character limit in nearly all languages. (Sorry Japan, China & Korea). Although initially the wonders of double tweet space were only available to a select few (Sorry Ellen) the internet was quick to point out that…

Remarkably, the desire for vanity metrics is on the return. Why? Well, I’ve not got a tangible answer for you. Lazy marketers lacking robust experience? Increasing board pressure? Perhaps. Vanity metrics are the devil of Social Media. At immediate future, we’ve worked hard (for many years) educating clients,…

Developing countries don’t have the same access to Internet facilities as we have in the West. The high cost of data on mobile plans and poor infrastructures mean that it is harder for people living in developing countries to access social media networks. To remedy this, Facebook has…

If you’re an Instagram junkie you’re probably already clued up on Instagram comment pods, however, if you’re clueless, here’s everything you need to know… Although they’ve been around for a short while already, I only became aware of the ‘Instagram comment pod’ concept recently. Most likely because…

Are you being bombarded on Facebook with jealousy-inducing updates, all posted by that one friend we all have? Of course you don’t want to unfriend or permanently unfollow them because you do care, but if you see one more photo of them posing on…

Hi Nick. I know you’ve got more hats than Mr Benn but thanks for taking the time to answer some questions on you, social, creativity and whatever else we throw at you. For those not in the know, Nick Entwistle is a creative polymath. Still shy of…

Twitter is testing a secret tweetstorm feature making it easier for users to publish content faster on mobile. It currently takes serious skills to chain a conversation of tweets together in a cohesive tweetstorm, ultimately exposing the flaw in Twitter’s user experience. Publishers are unable to unleash their…

Every now and then, it feels like the world is falling apart. Terror attacks, natural disasters, etc. all too often make the headlines. Social media plays a big role in breaking the news. Twitter, of course, but not only… In 2014, Facebook launched Safety Check which lets you…

Since its inception in August 2016, Instagram Stories has been a runaway success. It now boasts over 250 million users a day. Launching ads was always part of the road map for…

According to eMarketers’ Time Spent with Media forecast, UK adults this year will spend 1 hour and 59 minutes a day browsing on their mobile devices. That’s one minute each day more than they spend browsing via their desktop or laptop computers. There’s a first! Emarketer expects the margin to widen,…

On Friday, we saw yet another rolling update from Facebook, this time encouraging users to interact with old friends and to try and discover new ones. This feature is more in-depth than the basic ‘friend suggestions’, it’s based on things you have in common, such as pages liked,…

School of life is never out for summer. No matter what job you do, there’s always room to learn more, especially if you’re a perma-switched on curiosity driven creative. Your employer could (and should) be looking to develop you in your role, either by team training or on…

We’re hiring! Katy Howell, our CEO talks about the qualities needed to be a social media professional. It’s a combination of skills that goes way beyond your online activities. Do you ask a lot of questions? Curious by nature? Courage to grab an opportunity, fail and learn? Switched…

Looking for the latest sports game, music show or world event? YouTube’s Live feature never looked so good with video broadcasters connecting with fans during the moments that count! With YouTube new updates, video creators now have the opportunity to select the ultra-low latency option when broadcasting. The…

Never one to go out of focus, FrontRow is the new wearable camera from WiFi product maker, Ubiquiti Networks. The gadget is made up of not one, but two cameras; one on the front and one on the back, so its guaranteed not to miss any of the action.

It’s not personal, it’s just business. Actually, it’s a balance of both. The whole point of LinkedIn is to be a social network for business, yet, in the fifteen years since its inception, detractors have been chipping away at everything from its design, to UX and lack…

When Facebook first announced Watch, there was scant enthusiasm for its offerings, and that didn’t change over the months as information about the first programmes available were released. Now the platform is being trialled to a select group of users in the US, we’ve been taking…

For those of us that do paid on social, this is a question that comes back very often: should we or should we not use audience network as an ad placement? In case you need a little reminder, ads you place on social media don’t only appear there-…

When Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for £11.4bn, it understood one vital thing – we like talking to our friends. As technology has changed, so have our habits – we’re not picking up the phone to talk any more, we’re picking up the phone to text. This makes…

Here we go. Another ‘creepy’ app has hit the app store and this one is after your face. What if you could see if your Insta posts made people happy or sad? Polygram does exactly that. This new photo-sharing social network uses facial recognition technology,…

One of the friendlier pieces of social news this week (that’s not Snapchat slump related) was the celebration of ten years of the hashtag. That humble little symbol that identifies messages on a specific topic blew out the virtual candles after a decade of activism (#blacklivesmatter), brand brilliance…

We’re not decking the halls just yet, but as September looms the big focus will be on where you will spend your paid this Autumn and Winter for upcoming Christmas ad campaigns. It’s a key part of the ad mix, so, which platform will be unwrapping…