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 Lisa.
1. Gettin’ piggy with it
A broadcast of Lord Ashcroft’s biography, alleging David Hameron of participating in a crude act with a dead pig, sent the online world into a frenzy resulting in #Piggate completely hogging up Twitter.
An enormous amount of original and creative content was shared on the social media site with politicians, TV personalities and brands all quick to piggyback the trend.
All this nonsense is enough to make you choke on your bacon sandwich.#piggate pic.twitter.com/0yUb6KrEfM
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) September 21, 2015
2. Apple of the emoji eye
Apple have designed a new emoji called ‘eye in a speech bubble’ which they’ve rolled out in the the beta version of an upcoming OS upgrade.
It looks like this:
Experts are left completely baffled about this symbol, since it was not designed by Unicode Authority, the official emoji creators.
Uncertain about what meaning the emoji might hold, Reddit users are throwing around all kinds of suggestions, some claim it could stand for iMessage, while others think it might act as a read receipt.
3. Instagram > Twitter
A picture speaks a thousand words, which is way more than Twitter can offer with its 140 character limit.
Photo sharing app, Instagram currently has more than 400 million users every month, leapfrogging Twitter with their 316 million users.
Photo and video certainly appear to be the future of social media, with Pinterest also expanding in reach and Snapchat growing at a faster rate than any of its rivals.
4. New Twitter buttons
Twitter have redesigned their Tweet and Follow buttons in the first refresh since 2011, we’ll start seeing the update next month. Removing the grey, faux 3D look, the new white on blue style is going to offer users a higher contrast for improved legibility.
5. Sixty years of TV adverts
On the 22 September 1955, the first ever UK television advert was aired for Gibbs SR toothpaste after winning the rights against other household brands including Surf and Guinness.
60 years on, and linear TV viewing is in decline, there’s greater competition for budgets from mobile, social media and digital platforms, and yet investment in TV advertising is at a record breaking high.
With the potential to reach 94% of the British population (ahead of Facebook with 43% reach and Twitter with 19%), TV ads have celebrated some huge successes over the years, creating thousands of jingles, characters and catchphrases as well as setting the rules for the rest of the advertising world.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone. I’m off to Browser Media’s 10th Birthday Party!
