Snapchat Adds New Barcode Scanning Capability To App
With the aim to continuously provide greater engagement, Snapchat has announced a new addition for its Snap Camera. Users will now be able to scan food and wine labels to get more information about certain products, such as nutritional value and reviews data.. This additional information is provided through third party apps which allow Snapchatters to scan a range of selected products.
Why is this important?
This latest update is another way Snapchat is trying to enhance the contextual information and utility it provides to users in their everyday lives. Snapchat, like other technology brands, is trying to ensure consumers are the most informed that they can be. The product scanning capability is the latest update in its mission to do so, and follows its other updates, including being able to identify music via its partnership with Shazam and scannable promotions based on logos in McDonald’s and Coca Cola campaigns.
Channel 4’s Four-Week Advanced Booking Deadline Is Here To Stay
Channel 4 has announced that it will continue to offer a four-week booking deadline in order to give TV advertisers more long-term “flexibility”, instead of the previous eight-week deadline. The channel previously lifted all late booking fees and shortened its deadline to four weeks back in May to encourage TV advertising during the pandemic.
Matt Salmon, Channel 4’s director of sales, said: “Our primary objective is to ensure that TV remains the most effective advertising medium for you. To do this, we believe that we must ensure that the campaign that you booked is the campaign that you are delivered; a well-crafted schedule that maximises return across all the metrics that makes TV such an effective advertising medium for you.”
ITV is still operating with a temporary four week booking deadline and have removed late-booking fees until “at least the end of 2020”.
Why is this important?
With such uncertainty over what the pandemic holds for the next year, a permanent shorter deadline allows brands to be more agile with their advertising. It makes TV more accessible to those advertisers who may want more flexibility, such as digitally led or performance driven brands who cannot commit to booking so far in advance. It is also proof of the permanent effect that the pandemic is having across the advertising industry – not just on reducing spends and amore digital focus, but on becoming more flexible to meet advertisers’ needs.
Consumer Trends From Lockdown That Aren’t Going Away Any Time Soon
As many marketing and search professionals will have noticed, the last nine months have brought new and interesting consumer trends. Some are transient and circumstantial, but looking ahead to peak season (November-January, including Black Friday through to January sales) there are some key trends that are here to stay and will change the Search Engine and YouTube future landscape.
Google has identified homes as becoming more important and diverse in the roles we need them to fulfil. Many homes now have home offices, home gyms and home bars that didn’t before and this isn’t changing any time soon. Even during the easing of lockdown restrictions, “homemaking” and “interior decor” searches remained at sustained higher levels than 2019, showing that ‘home diversification and improvement’ is here to stay.
Secondly, whilst retail has broadly returned to previous levels, a lot of this spend is occurring online. This means it is even more important for brands to get the basics right when it comes to online shopping, such as having an online store, being on Google My Business, and showing pick-up/delivery options in Google Maps. However, consumers now expect beyond these basics with searches for ‘live chat service’, ‘virtual try on’, ‘next day delivery’ and ‘apps’ all maintaining their search levels.
Why is this important?
In the first case of ‘home diversification and improvement’, brands with products that can either improve home life or bring activities that previously occurred elsewhere into the home, need to assess and target their offering in peak season to capitalise on this whether via creative, copy, product improvement or complete product refresh.
In terms of the second trend, it goes without saying that having an online store, online booking or online order and physical pick-up system is now mandatory. What is new and growing in demand is the ‘enhanced shopping experience’ where automated digital tools, immediately available communication and extremely efficient order to delivery processes are needed to keep up with consumers wanting an online/in-store hybrid experience.