Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Will.
1. Facebook Watch goes global
In September of last year, Facebook launched their new long form video platform, Facebook Watch, in the US. Now, roughly a year later, the platform has become available worldwide. Facebook Watch provides a place for Facebook users to discover new shows and engage in conversations with their friends and other fans or creators. The platform gives its users the opportunity to choose from a range of shows from large established brands to smaller new players in the industry. The move to making the platform global comes off the back of a successful trial period in the US, with over 50 million people watching at least 1 minute of video each month, and total time spent watching videos in Facebook Watch increasing by 14X since the start of 2018.
From a marketing perspective Watch allows advertisers to reach potentially billions of users through ad breaks within certain shows. Selected content creators will be able to benefit from advertising breaks throughout their shows, but only if they hit certain metrics. The platform is set to compete with various streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Video, as well as various social platforms like YouTube and Instagram TV.
Although Facebook has reported over 50 million users in the US alone, the viewing time of at least 1 minute still leaves questions over how popular the new platform will be.
2. Twitter wants you to unfollow users
This week Twitter ran a small-scale test where they provided recommendations of who users should unfollow in attempt to help improve their Twitter experience. Users were presented with a notification on their timeline that allowed them to “control what’s happening” on their news feed, which further presented them with the opportunity to unfollow accounts that Twitter did not deem relevant to the user.
A spokesperson from Twitter explained the reason for the test:
“We know that people want a relevant Twitter timeline. One way to do this is by unfollowing people they don’t engage with regularly. We ran an incredibly limited test to surface accounts that people were not engaging with to check if they’d like to unfollow them”.
The test only ran for a couple of days and only included a small group of users, and currently there is no word on a wider rollout of the feature.
3. Wow another iPhone!
With summer drawing to a close and the holiday season just a couple of months away it’s time for brands to start releasing their new products. First up is Apple, who this week has released the information for their next event where they are expected to announce another 3 new models of the iPhone. The new models are expected to include the iPhone XS which will be available with a 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screen and will be available in a new gold version. Full details about the new iPhone will be released at the event on 12th September, but if I was to hazard a guess it will probably be quite similar to last year’s model.
If you can’t wait until the event, here’s a first look at the new iPhone XS models:
4. Beer fight
I feel like Brewdog gets far too much attention in our My Fives, but once again the company has decided to take their rivals head on by attacking the likes of Budweiser, Carling, and Fosters in their latest marketing campaign. Brewdog’s latest campaign directly criticises the taste of their competitors’ drinks by comparing their consumer rating from RateBeer.com with the rating of Brewdog’s Punk IPA. However, simply knocking the taste of their competitors’ products wasn’t enough as Brewdog’s campaign also takes a direct dig at their competitors’ ad slogans.
5. Drivable Lego
As a kid, I absolutely loved Lego and its ability to allow you to let your imagination run free and create whatever you want. I would spend hours building everything from castles to cars and spaceships, but nothing quite compared to the toymaker’s most recent over the top build – a fully functioning, life size Bugatti Chiron.
We’ve built the impossible: a full-sized LEGO Technic @Bugatti Chiron …and it drives! #BuildforReal pic.twitter.com/8YPxk7miGZ
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) August 30, 2018
The ‘model’ is made up of over 1 million pieces including 2,304 tiny Lego electric motors which allow it to be driven at over 18 miles per hour. On top of the fact that the car can actually be driven, what’s even more impressive is the small details such as fully functioning lights, opening doors, and working steering wheel, gear stick, and pedals. Unfortunately, Lego isn’t planning on putting the Bugatti Chiron into production, probably something to do with the fact it took over 13,400 hours to build.
