Queer as Folkestone: Channel 4 marks 50th Pride
Smaller, regional UK locations are the stars of the show in Channel 4’s ad campaign celebrating this year’s Pride. The “Proud all over” campaign, by in-house team 4Creative, aims to show the range of towns and regions – alongside major cities – that are celebrating LGBT+ communities in the event’s 50th anniversary year. There will also be out-of-home elements, with more than 40 local Pride celebrations marked through brightly coloured roadside posters, urban flyposter areas, major railway hubs and ad vans in more rural sites, all with tailored straplines such as "Queer as Folkestone" and "Llanelli – may cause excitement in your wetlands".
Meanwhile, social assets have been created for more than 80 locations that are celebrating, even if there is no local Pride event. Channel 4’s Instagram accounts, @channel4 and @thepinkpalace, will be sharing the assets, while on Snapchat, people can use a special lens to reflect their location and augmentation to project images onto local buildings.
Why is this important?
Lynsey Atkin, executive creative director of 4Creative, added: “Pride is such an amazing celebration that no-one should feel left out of, so it felt right to quite literally – and liberally – spread the love. “We have got a ton of joy from discovering all the smaller Prides out there and setting ourselves the brief of over 40 place-based Pride puns proved as entertaining as we’d feared.” With Channel 4 having such a huge reach this campaign will have a huge impact on making those people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community feel supported and represented in the mainstream media.
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Instagram introduces new age verification features
Instagram is building on and enhancing its existing tools designed to protect younger users, most notably by partnering with ‘Yoti’, whose system can provide AI-based estimates of a user’s age solely from a video selfie. Other new features include requiring ID verification from users changing their in-profile age from under 18 to over, as well as ‘social vouching’ where users can get three mutual followers to vouch for them being over 18.
Why is this important?
These features are an important addition to one of the many social media apps where there are worries that younger users are being exposed to potentially inappropriate content, alongside the concerns surrounding the negative impacts these platforms can have on users’ mental health. Some key examples of what these features will be used for are to stop teenagers from being messaged by unknown adults as well as to ensure they receive more restricted ad content.
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Spotify commits to brand safety for podcasts
Spotify has announced it is now partnered with Integral Ad Science to create a brand safety framework for podcasts. This technology helps advertisers exclude topics that don’t align with their brand. Reporting tools will also be developed to give insight as to where their ads are being listened to. Podcast ad revenue is set to triple to more than $4 billion in 2024.
Why is this important?
This is an attempt to keep the Spotify platform a safe environment for creators, listeners, and advertisers. It also allows advertisers to take control and have transparency in the platform whilst providing safety for brands. This technology is the first of its kind across digital where there are currently no safety precautions for audio.
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Campaign of the Week: Westfield hosts Wimbledon Experience with Ocean and Vodafone
Wimbledon is being brought to tennis fans in London through an immersive VR experience by The All England Club in partnership with Vodafone and Ocean Outdoor. Located at Westfield Square in Stratford, this flagship activation will bring the Wimbledon experience W12 to lovers of the sport for two weeks from the 27th of June to the 10th of July in which all of the Championship matches can be watched in a garden-themed area with lawns, flower beds and refreshment areas. This will be the 5th year of Ocean Outdoor partnering with the All England Club and they will also be showing 60 second highlights across 35 full-motion screens in 11 UK cities. The Head of Brand Experience and Partnerships at Westfield stated, “…we’re excited to be combining Ocean Outdoors world class digital screen capabilities with Westfield London’s experiential event space to bring the Wimbledon experience to W12”.
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