If there's one thing you need to know about digital media news, branding, and advertising, it's that there's always something new on the horizon. With Cannes Lions approaching and brands gearing up for summer campaigns, social platforms and tech releases are happening more frequently than ever. Here are all the bits of news you need to know about this week:
Paid Pinterest Gets Even More Real
Pinterest promoted pins took a giant leap forward this week with the announcement of API partners that will make it easier for brands and agencies to buy pins on the site. Pinterest's foray into paid advertising has been much talked about this year, as the platform attemps to compete with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, who have all seamlessly integrated paid marketing into their feeds with great success. Some say Pinterest has been slow on the ad uptake, but the platform has spent years slowly building a loyal audience and cornering a part of the visual media market. The move to paid advertising this year is a careful calculated one
The ad technology partners include the vendors 4C, Adaptly, Ampush, Brand Networks, HYFN, Kinetic Social, SocialFlow and SocialCode, Hopefully these partners will integrate services such as goal-setting and analytics measurement as part of the offerings.
Marc Maron Scores Big on WTF*
President Obama is about to be a guest on a comedian's podcast, one with a curse word in the title, no less. Marc Maron's WTF Podcast will host President Obama tomorrow in Maron's garage studio in Southern California, where all Maron guests go. The podcast generally hosts celebrities of the actor and comedian stripes, and Maron is known for his outrageous and slightly off-color jokes--think of him as Louis CK with a serrated edge. The choice to appear on Maron's podcast, which maintains its anti-corporate stance by recording out of a garage and including raw, off-the-cuff commentary, is particularly meaningful. The way we get news and commentary in this country is rapidly changing, and Obama's podcast visit is a clear sign of that.
Here Comes the First Sponsored Periscope Stream
Sunday marks the first day of summer, and Nestle is ringing it in by celebrating its Drumstick ice cream cone. They announced a slew of paid Periscope personalities who will live-stream content related to the cone. While Twitter doesn't yet have an option for paid Periscope ads, this influencer marketing is second best. What's particularly interesting about this medium, however, is the immediacy of the content and the lack of editing. Whatever happens on the stream happens, which can be good or bad when it comes to brands. Spontaneity a la the Oreo tweet can be great, but the absence of thoughtful editing can make the content look sloppy or in poor taste.
Like YouTube videos and Instagram content that is paid for, the streams will include the word #ad for full disclosure. Drumstick, which recently opened its own Periscope stream, will also be pushing live-streamed content around the ice cream cone on Sunday.
What's WhatsApp Doing With Your Data?
A new report on data collection procedures showed that AT&T and WhatsApp had 1 out of 5 star ratings when it came to data transparency procedures. The report was released by EFF, a digital rights group, and ranked Apple, Adobe, and Yahoo among the top scorers. The rankings evaluated, as the New York Times writes, "transparency to consumers about data requests and data retention, as well as their public positions on so-called back doors that grant government agencies access to customer data." In the post-Snowden era, it's alarming that any tech agency wouldn't re-evaluate its data practices, or wouldn't think that their lax practices wouldn't be media fodder. With big companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple fighting for safer data policies through stricter, government-sanctioned Internet encryption technologies, WhatsApp and AT&T need to jump on the transparency train to avoid being left behind by consumers.
What's Next? Texting With Helmets?
It sounds like a joke, but it's not: the University of Utah in Orem has added a "texting and walking lane" to its stairways, complementing the walking and running lanes that already exist. Those of us who have bumped into someone while scrolling through Twitter or texting someone back might sheepishly smile at this news, but recent research shows an uptick in visits to the ER by people who sustained "walking and texting" injuries. According to the New York Times, the National Safety Council on Wednesday estimated that "pedestrians buried in their cellphones suffered 11,101 injuries from 2000 to 2011." Will this lane improve safety on campus? Will it catch on across the country? Only time will tell. In the meantime, veer right?
More of this week's tech news: AirBnB's $24 billion valuation, AT&T's slowed mobile data fine, and Twitter's CEO news.
* Editor's note (6/19/2015, 2:53PM): An earlier version of this article implied that this was President Obama's first appearance on a podcast; SMT regrets the error.