The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every industry and business in some form, ranging from complete shutdowns to massive increases in buying in certain sectors.
Dove Puts a New Face on ‘Real Beauty’ in Homage to Health Workers
Dove has put a new face on Real Beauty advertising through a “Courage Is Beautiful” campaign, breaking in the U.S., showing faces of healthcare workers marked by the protective gear they’ve been wearing during the coronavirus crisis.
Facebook Publishes New Guide on How to Maintain Connection With Audiences Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Facebook has published a new, 64-page guide of key tips and notes to help brands and organizations maintain a connection with their Facebook and Instagram audiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Evolving Discussion Around COVID-19 and How Brands Have Responded
An overview of the evolution of the COVID-19 discussion across social media, which looks at what people are saying, where they’re saying it, and how some brands have responded.
YouTube Moves to Restrict Videos About COVID-19/5G Conspiracy Theory
YouTube has confirmed that it will reduce the recommendation and distribution of videos that promote conspiracy theories that link the spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology.
Instagram Launches ‘Thank You Hour’ Sticker and Story to Share Appreciation During COVID-19 Pandemic
Instagram has launched a new ‘Thank You Hour’ initiative, which will see Stories frames that include the new ‘Thank You Hour’ sticker added to a collective Story that showcases the various things that people are appreciative of amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google Donates $6.5 Million in Funding to Assist Fact-Checking Organizations in Battling COVID-19 Misinformation
It’s interesting to see how social media has evolved over the years as compared to how the world battled with the previous, almost similar, SARS outbreak. Social media platforms did not have the need to spend such a high amount of money during crises as they must today – all to combat misinformation.
LinkedIn’s engagement has been increasing for some time, so it’s not surprising to see more people turning to the platform for professional advice. And this week, LinkedIn has provided some tips on how people can make the best use of its platform to better connect and engage with their networks.
Facebook Adds New Tools for ‘Facebook Live’ Amid Rising Demand and Usage
First off, for regular Facebook users, The Social Network is adding automatic closed captions, while it’s also providing a new option for people to listen to the audio of Live broadcasts without viewing the video, enabling those with lower data capacity to tune in.
Facebook Adds New Video Features, Including ‘Series’ and Updates to Bulk Uploader
With more people looking for more content to watch online, Facebook has launched a new set of video features which are designed to help creators build audiences for their video content and promote return viewership:
Facebook Announces Full Launch of Messenger Desktop App for macOS and Windows
In light of COVID-19, FB Messenger has rolled out a Messenger on Desktop for both Windows and macOS. They are yet to test full functionalities on MacOS, but from the release, it’s a full Messenger version on desktop. It’s a move from them to help organisations and individuals stay connected with each other.
Facebook Introduces Community Hub for Messenger Users to Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic
Facebook announces the Coronavirus Community Hub on Messenger that provides tips, authentic information, and other resources to the users to stay connected and informed about the coronavirus breakout.
Instagram’s Testing a New Set of Animated Selfie Stickers for Stories
The new, animated selfie sticker tool overlays graphics and effects related to different emoji characters on top of your image. The rounded selfie stickers can be applied as many times as you like within a Stories frame.
Facebook is Rolling Out a New Set of Updates for Facebook Live
Because of rising demand for live-stream content amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, including audio only and closed captions, Facebook is coming out with a new set of updates that can create a better user experience.
Instagram Launches Co-Watching of Posts During Video Chat
Now you can scroll Instagram together with friends, turning a typically isolating, passive experience into something more social and active. Today, Instagram launched Co-Watching, which lets friends on a video chat or group video chat browse through feed posts one user has Liked or Saved, or that Instagram recommends.
Instagram’s Testing a New Option to Promote the Sale of Gift Cards via Your Business Profile
According to a new discovery by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram is working on a new ‘Links’ option within its business profile settings that would enable brands to add a new quick link, via a profile button or sticker, to guide visitors to purchase gift cards or make donations.
WhatsApp Launches World Health Organization Chatbot to Answer COVID-19 Queries
To use the service, WhatsApp users can save the number (+41 79 893 1892) in their phone contacts, then text the word ‘Hi’ in a WhatsApp message to begin. The bot will then respond via a series of prompts, covering key queries and information – and ideally, dispelling some of the rumors and misinformation around the outbreak which have been spreading via social and messaging apps.
Facebook Is Testing a New Option Which Would Connect Brand Loyalty Programs to In-App Activity
The process enables brands to use Facebook ads to connect with their loyalty program members on the platform using Custom Audiences to target those who’ve previously created a profile with the business.
With the company sending more staff home to reduce the potential spread of the virus, Facebook says that all of its Spark AR reviewers will soon be inoperable. As a result, no user-submitted AR effects, for either Facebook Stories or Instagram, will be approved until further notice.
Instagram Launches ‘Stay Home’ Sticker and Story to Encourage Social Distancing Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
This week, Instagram has launched a new ‘Stay Home’ sticker for Instagram Stories in order to encourage people to stay inside amid the evolving COVID-19 outbreak.
Instagram’s Working on a Disappearing Messages Option
The new option, at least at this stage, would see all of your messages disappear from the chat window after you’ve read them and navigated to another section of the app. Note that WhatsApp is also looking to add the same functionality, though with added control elements for your disappearing communications (i.e. disappear after 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week etc).
Facebook now lets most users opt-in to dark mode & desktop redesign
Facebook has officially rolled out its sweeping desktop redesign that offers dark mode, tabbed home screen and a cleaner profile, though the interface is slightly different in terms of position of the elements. For example, the profile cover+photo is now in a different position (photo is in the center, not on the side anymore).
Instagram Launches First Stage of IGTV Monetization, With In-Stream Ads Coming to Selected Channels
After its coming, IGTV monetization tools were spotted in testing last month. Instagram has now confirmed that it’s reaching out to a group of selected creators in order to invite them to participate in the initial testing of in-stream ads on their IGTV videos.
TikTok Tests New Options to Add External URLs to Clips & Comment Downvoting
Last October, TikTok began testing a new option which enabled selected users to add Wikipedia links to their clips in order to provide more context on certain elements. Now TikTok appears to be expanding that option – user Sam Schmir has provided these screenshots of a new set of options in the ‘Add Link’ prompt which would enable creators to attach a link to Wikipedia, Yelp or TripAdvisor in their video post.
YouTube Switches ‘Trending’ Tab to ‘Explore’ Which Will Highlight More Content Categories
YouTube is replacing the ‘Trending’ tab in its app with a new ‘Explore’ listing, which will showcase more video categories, along with popular videos, in order to prompt broader discovery.
Instagram Bans Searches for COVID-19 AR Effects, Adds New Information Prompts in Home Feeds
After adding new information prompts and links to official resources in related search queries last week, Instagram is now expanding on its COVID-19 response tools, with additional information panels in the main feed and a ban on searches for coronavirus related AR masks.
TikTok Continues to Gain Momentum, But Challenges Remain in Maximizing the App’s Growth
TikTok was the most downloaded non-game app worldwide last month, outperforming both WhatsApp and Facebook. TikTok installs are up 96% year-over-year, with the COVID-19 outbreak seemingly fueling increased adoption as people look to keep themselves entertained while reducing their time spent in public.
Snapchat Launches ‘Lens Web Builder’ to Simplify the Creation of AR Lens Campaigns
With Snapchat’s AR Lens ads driving significant engagement and interaction in the app, the platform is now looking to open up the option to more brands, with a simplified AR Lens campaign option that enables businesses to build custom Lenses based on pre-made templates and/or Snap’s library of 3D objects.
Facebook is testing the option to cross-post Stories to Instagram, instead of just vice-versa. Hopefully, that means the two apps will finally sync up the “already viewed” status of cross-posted Stories so we don’t have to watch reruns any more.
With
an ongoing retainer partnership, the Christmas
Wonderland campaign was our fifth
campaign collaboration with Montagut within the span of the past 18
months on the Chinese market. Don’t get fooled — Christmas is an
increasingly significant event in the marketing calendars for most
brands in the Mainland and it’s getting harder and harder to stand
out among all the merry buzz.
But
Christmas wasn’t the sole reason that Montagut wanted to celebrate
with their fans in China. The second reason was the launch of
Montagut’s new
Winter 2020 collection
with one of the goals for the end of 2019 being to communicate the
arrival of the new garments and styles.
Our
solution to gracefully feature both new collection and holiday spirit
was a H5 WeChat game set in a French winter wonderland. Bespoke and
dreamy graphics combined with hooking tapping game mechanism made
this game an instant hit with Montagut’s existing followers as well
as nearly 10,000 new fans.
According
to
Candice Meyer,
Head of Brand Image & Communications Asia at
Montagut, “This campaign
was very fun and engaging. Beyond generating buzz and page views,
KRDS was smart to find the right mechanism to attract a very high
number of new fans”.
Miriam
Dabrowa, Senior Communication
Strategist at KRDS Greater China, said: “With
the new opportunities coming in 2020, and especially Montagut’s
140th Anniversary, we truly
can’t wait to create new exciting content together”.
Some
of the KRDS’ clients include Vivo, BNP Paribas, Hong Kong
Disneyland, Meiji, BreadTalk, Toast Box, Volkswagen, AIA, Unilever,
Sony, WWF, Grand Hyatt.
Facebook Will Shutter Audience Network for Mobile Sites
The decision may be in response to recent changes by companies like Google and Apple to limit audience tracking with third-party cookies amid growing concerns about privacy and brand safety.
Google Chrome is blocking intrusive ad formats within short-form videos from 5 August 2020. More specifically, the ad formats affected will be:
Long, non-skippable pre-roll ads or groups of ads longer than 31 seconds that appear before a video and that cannot be made to skip within the first five seconds
Mid-roll ads of any duration that appear in the middle of a video, interrupting the user’s experience
Image or text ads that appear on top of a playing video and are in the middle (⅓ of the video player window) or cover more than 20% of the video content
Instagram is Testing a New Trimming Tool for Instagram Stories Clips
Instagram is working on a new video trimming feature for Instagram Stories, which would make it easier to edit and upload your Stories clips within the app.
Instagram Adds New Listings of ‘Least Interacted With’ and ‘Most Shown in Feed’ in Following Tab
Instagram has rolled out two new category listings within your ‘Following’ tab which will enable you to see which accounts get the most visibility in your feed, and which ones you rarely engage with.
TikTok Provides Option to Upload Content via Desktop
This could be handy for digital marketers looking to make use of the rising video app TikTok. Users can now upload TikTok videos via the desktop version of the app.
Facebook Reportedly Won’t Go Through With Whatsapp Ads
With Facebook dropping its plans to put up ads on WhatsApp, the latter will be focusing on building features for its business users. A large number of people use WhatsApp for their businesses. The company has been rolling out features that can aid small to medium scale companies and they are expected to stay on this path for now.
KRDS Singapore recently welcomed 5 senior hires to the China and Singapore offices to lead and grow different departments in their respective markets.
Joining the Senior Account Management team, we have Ken Tham (pictured first from right) who has over 6 years of experience working with both B2C and B2B brands such as P&G, Porsche, Spotify, Airbnb, Boeing, Montblanc, and HPE. Before this, Ken was an Account Manager at Ketchum where he managed up to 7 to 9 team members for both social, digital and PR work.
Shu Qi Lee (pictured second from right)from Hashmeta has joined as a Senior Account Manager in the Singapore office. She served as Account Manager and subsequently, Senior Account Manager, in Hashmeta. She has managed a few regional brands and has helped grow their digital presence. Some of them were Bosch Home Appliances Asia Pacific, TÜV Rheinland Asia & Africa, DaVinci Gourmet Asia, Tramontina South Asia and NTUC LearningHub. Shu led and won the pitch for the DaVinci Gourmet Asia social media account and spearheaded lead generation campaigns for her ex- clients, DaVinci Gourmet and NTUC LearningHub, through an effective mix of content and visual strategy, media planning & buying and gamification solutions, and results achieved exceeded the clients’ expectations. She also successfully streamlined and improved workflow and processes within the agency for better team performance and client satisfaction.
Yoganand Raju (pictured third from right) will lead the KRDS Design Team to grow their
creative capabilities.
As a Creative Director at Rubecon Communications more than 6 years, he led creatives for the key accounts of the agency and worked closely with the client and the internal teams to deliver the best creative solutions for the brand. Yoga was managing teams across the department from copywriters to brand managers and other stakeholders to ensure a seamless flow of creative deliverables that are maintained at industry standards. He ensured the studio personnel are brought up to speed with the latest updates of Adobe CC and worked on design and strategy for new client pitches. He also collaborated with an array of talents such as photographers, illustrators, retouching artist etc from the country and overseas to produce the best creative solutions for the brand.
Some of the key brands that he handled were Amazon.in, Nippon Paint India, Hatsun dairy products, Arun Icecreams, Ibaco, Oyalo Pizza, The Times of India, Beverly Hills Polo Club, SPI Cinemas, Dalmia Bharath Cements, Schwarzkopf Professional, Star Health Insurance, TVS, Sundram Fasteners.
Mia Kuang (pictured fourth from right) will head the Community Management Team in Shanghai. Previously from MSLGROUP China, she worked with global brands like IKEA, P&G Pampers, Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Her expertise includes social media (WeChat) management and digital strategy planning. Mia led a team to maintain WeChat accounts for IKEA (3 million+ followers) and successfully attracted about 1 million+ followers in a year. She supported ‘Make Room for Life’ Campaign for IKEA, which won the Work of Excellence of MSL Global Awards; and also successfully helped her team to win new businesses including Philips, Lexington Home Brands and Rothy’s.
Miriam Dabrowa (pictured fifth from right) joined as a Senior Digital Strategist for Shanghai. Miriam was employed at We Are Social as a Global Team Project Manager and has helped Chinese brands create a global impact in the digital world. In particular, she worked on a successful campaign for Vivo Mobile during the FIFA World Cup, she helped win for her agency the award for Mumbrella Best Localisation of Global Strategy for the campaign “Inspiring Bonding Moments” for TCL. She also was largely responsible for the growth of the JAC Motors global accounts for more than 2 years.
Commenting on the rapid expansion Preetham
Venkky, Director at KRDS Asia said:
“We are excited about growing the KRDS
family across the various countries we are in. With these new strategic senior
hires, we’re confident of delivering more exciting and innovative campaigns to
existing clients and partnering with new brands. We’re confident that 2019 will
prove to be another fruitful year for KRDS
Omron is a trusted name in Healthcare. It has been providing technologically advanced medical monitoring equipment over the past 40 years. Over the past years, they have been recognized for their smart healthcare devices. The trusted brand has renewed its contract with KRDS Singapore for the fourth year in a row since its initial signing in 2015. The renewal arose after KRDS has enabled the brand to amplify their overall reach and engagement in 2018.
The goal for 2019 is to position Omron as the go-to-brand for Healthcare at home. The brand has exciting products in the pipeline which will be a great addition to their current roster of smart devices. The agency will be customizing content to suit the brand’s new positioning. The focus for this year is on video content as they’ve proven to perform better on Facebook. KRDS will be creating more innovative and immersive content for Singapore and Malaysia on Facebook by making use of all the features the platform has to offer.
Commenting on the renewal Preetham Venkky, Director at KRDS Asia said: “We are humbled and stoked to be working with Omron for another exciting year. 2018 has been a wonderful year where we’ve learnt and grown from each other’s expertise. We’re excited to explore new content formats and visual styles to tell the brand’s story on Facebook. We’re hopeful that we’ll continue to build our relationship with Omron and reach new heights together.
Tang Pei Yi, Assistant Marketing Manager at OMRON HEALTHCARE SINGAPORE PTE LTD, said: “We value the long-term relationship with KRDS as our Facebook agency for the past four years. KRDS has demonstrated strong capabilities in producing quality and relevant content to engage our target audience. What is more important is that KRDS provided much professionalism to ensure the work is produced in a timely manner and input for effective audience targeting and reach out. We look forward to another great year of collaboration with KRDS!”
