Facebook aims to assuage user trust concerns with Off-Facebook Activity tool

Facebook is giving its users more guidance on data it holds on apps and websites interacting with the social giant.

The company is launching Off-Facebook Activity, which aims to ‘help shed more light on practices that are common yet not always well understood’, in the words of Erin Egan, Facebook chief privacy officer for policy and David Baser, director of product management.

Despite its dystopian name, users can see a summary of the information other...

21 August 2019 | Advertising Technology

Good news, fake news: The mediars fight for encryption – and against misinformation

According to reports, senior figures in the Trump administration held a meeting last month to consider whether to pursue legislation outlawing end-to-end encryption on US-made messaging apps.

While the ultimate outcome of the meeting is yet to be seen, it brings to light a serious question that we all - governments, consumers and businesses - need to ask ourselves: what do we lose when private messaging is truly private?

On the one hand, end-to-end encryption means that private...

15 August 2019 | Attribution

Why empathy is the most underrated weapon in the marketer’s arsenal today

In a 2014 New York Times article, Sam Tanenhaus argued that millennials were ‘Generation Nice’. He pointed to shopping habits (millennials prefer chemical-free goods and ‘disposable’ clothing) and food choices (vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free eating has become increasingly popular). He concluded that ‘these habits and tastes look less like narcissism than communalism. Its highest value isn’t self-promotion, but empathy.’

Whatever you think...

8 August 2019 | Best Practice

Opinion: Have marketers learned anything since Cambridge Analytica?

When the Cambridge Analytica story broke last year, it represented a real turning point. All across the country, Facebook users downloaded their data files and expressed shock at the information collected - especially considering these details could have been used by the consultancy firm to influence their voting behaviour.

However, I – and many other marketers – were not surprised by the contents of our data files. After all, for years, we had been using audience data...

5 August 2019 | Best Practice

A pertinent question: Do we put convenience before ethics when it comes to brand loyalty?

Most of us would like to believe that sound ethics and corporate responsibility is important to us when choosing a brand. But how many of us would say it matters more than convenience and cost?

We may not like to admit it, but it is purpose that attracts us to a brand. To grab the attention of consumers and progress past the courting phase of a relationship, a brand has to convince people that its purpose will meet their needs. If the goal is to provide things quickly and cheaply,...

16 July 2019 | Branding

New report examines brand affinity among Gen Z – and the companies getting it right

How should marketers prepare for the incoming move of Generation Z into the workplace? According to a new report, the narrative of a more conscientious, ethical generation is mostly true – but don’t feed any stereotypes.

The 2019 AFFDEX report, from student discount hub UNiDAYS, found Nike, Netflix and Instagram were the most popular brands across all categories. YouTube and Adidas completed the top five.

What marked them out was what the report put as part of...

11 July 2019 | Best Practice

How Gen Z is changing the rules of social: Moving from demographics to true communities

Social media usage continues to evolve at a rapid rate – and as Generation Z continues to flood into the working world, its applications for both users and brands who wish to take advantage of it come into much sharper focus.

That is the idea behind the first in a new series of reports from ZAK, a London-based creative agency which purports to ‘create big brand ideas that engage under 30s’, in its own words. The first paper explores the disparity between mainstream...

3 July 2019 | Case Studies

Wikipedia co-founder calls for social media strike to fight ‘long train’ of abuses

One of the co-founders of Wikipedia has called for a two-day strike of social media to protest against ‘serious grievances’ and a ‘long train of abuses’ by the platform arbiters.

Larry Sanger had posted a ‘declaration of digital independence’ on his blog at the start of June in which signatories – numbering just over 300 at time of writing – can advocate for decentralised social networks. The primary principles of decentralised...

1 July 2019 | Campaigns

Consumers are understanding the risks of social media addiction – but taking the next step is hard

Another week, and another example of how consumers are trying to fight for their privacy rights in a world of social snooping and data overload.

According to recent research from Kaspersky, which polled almost 12,000 consumers across 21 countries, one in three (32.3%) admitted they did not know how to fully protect their privacy online. More than half (56%) agreed that total privacy was not possible in the ‘modern digital world’, as the research put it.

A small...

27 June 2019 | Customer Experience

Philip Morris’ influencer campaign goes up in smoke following investigation

The influencer marketing ecosystem is one where a fine line needs to be trodden – as Philip Morris has found out to its cost.

The tobacconist announced earlier this week that it was suspending its social media campaigns after a Reuters investigation found one of the key influencers engaged for a new ‘heated tobacco’ device campaign did not fulfil the company’s internal standards and regulations.

While Moscow-based Alina Tapilina, who according to her...

13 May 2019 | Advertising