It’s 2020, we’re all full of aspirations for the year, and one of them is staying ahead of the curve. We’re a data and behaviours led digital consultancy, bringing you the opportunity to get under the skin of this year’s fastest growth, most exciting social media platform – TikTok. From the hottest creators, to epic memes, to this summer’s likely biggest hits, the Chinese-owned platform is the one to watch. Our TikTok breakfast seminar is on Thursday 13th February at 8.15am in Paddington. Over the course of an hour we’ll cover what it is, whether you should be diving in, and how it works in detail. Plus pastries and coffee. What more could you hope for? RSVP right here to secure your place for our breakfast seminar at our offices (WeWork, 2 Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, W26LG). Be quick though, spaces are limited and going fast.

Facebook. It gets some flack. So here are the musings of one of our Senior Consultant’s, Becki, to remind us why it’s not so bad. TikTok – new favourite child Instagram – good looking cousin who is always travelling to a glam place Twitter – annoying auntie who people try to avoid but actually enjoy when they spend time there LinkedIn – professional mentor YouTube – that friend that knows almost everything Facebook. Oh Facebook. You make me oh so mad. We love you so much but you are really making this complicated now. Your news coverage is making it hard to stick up for you. People don’t always read past the headline and they just think you’ve stolen their data. Your products suck technically sometimes – how is this a thing when you are a tech company? Why don’t you want to talk to me? Try to call but can’t find your number. People tell me they don’t use you anymore. So this is what I tell them: Have you found your favourite brands group page? These are purest, most wonderful places, where you can go back to the roots of Facebook and connect with people with the same love. Yes hi Beauty Pie Tried and Tested, love you all ❤️ And what about your local areas group page? Things don’t get funnier than these places. Messenger – connect anywhere in the world. For free. No they aren’t listening. Facebook memories – don’t you just love being reminded of that post 8 years ago when that boy was mean to you so you quoted a music lyric. I do. Photos, glorious photos, at your disposal without taking up precious phone storage space Family – because let’s be honest even my 74 year old dad can use Facebook better than his actual phone Ads – don’t complain, there are some great companies out there doing some fabulous ads. The algorithm does work so if you’re seeing rubbish ads you’re probably looking at rubbish things. Oh and you can just hit hide ad Stalking – what’s Julie from junior school up to? You’re still friends so take a look Marketplace – that 1990s TV clogging up your spare room? Flogit on marketplace And let’s not forget that despite the overwhelming evidence he’s a robot, Mark Z is a genius. A literal genius. A worldwide community built on a small thing called the internet. Don’t forget all the good it’s brought to the world too. #Facebook #socialmedia

Another year and there are even more changes in how we’re using Instagram. The app remains, at its core, about image sharing but with each year the ways and reasons we use it change dramatically. So, what happened 2019? A view from our resident Instagrammer (and consultant), Olivia. Instagram Stories > Instagram post The use of Instagram Stories exploded in 2018, with growth continuing in 2019. More than 500 million users view Stories every day – to put this into context, one billion people use Instagram a month, so Story usage is huge. Adding to that, 62% of people say their interest in a brand or a product increases after seeing it in an Instagram Story, so it’sprobably time that you (and your brand) pay more attention to them. This growth has continued for two main reasons: curiosity and interactivity. According to research provided by Instagram, Stories have begun to act as a means of monitoring friends and family members movements – creepy, but true. We all know those people who can’t text back but can put up a Story. Plus, the time pressured nature of Stories makes us more inclined to view them due to a fear of them elapsing and missing out on the content. However, this hasn’t changed this year, so what else has been driving this growth? This answer is interactive features. 2019 has seen more and more being incorporated into Stories, for example questions, quizzes and countdowns. It’s helped make the format more interesting and engaging to viewers. This isn’t just an opinion, it’s a fact. Nine out of ten Stories that use a polling sticker in the video have increased video views vs. the average. The combination of curiosity and interactivity have led to a big trend – although it arguably started right at the back end of 2019 – the new interactive filters. It both entices you with the interactive nature, plus you’re curious as to what you’re going to get, then others follow your lead due to the same patterns of behaviour. The longevity of these filters will be an interesting one to watch, are they here to stay or will it become a case of curiosity killing the cat? Increased usage of Instagram Stories also seeps into the wider Instagram landscape, reflected by the increased number of apps that are now available to increase the aesthetic of your Stories. From the likes of Unfold, to Life Lapse and Adobe Spark, the increased need for Instagram Story content to be creatively engaging is apparent by their existence. So in summary: if you’re not using Instagram Stories, you should be. 2. Instagram feeds adopt a more unified aesthetic The knock-on effect of Stories becoming increasingly significant (and used) has meant that Instagram grids have become even more polished. Firstly, due to continuous changes in the algorithm, posts need to be more engaging to appear within a users’ feed. But, things have developed further than this now with the whole overall aesthetic of a page’s feed now being much more of a consideration. Increasingly, Instagram grids are being used in a similar capacity to the explore page: as a means of discovering products. Users scroll through to look at posts to discover new products, or services within the page, rather than scrolling through their home page. So, pages have had to become more stylised to engage the user, to capture their attention, leading to that perpetual scroll that we are all guilty of finding ourselves in. A key trend within this is Micro-Colour Blocking, in which you use sections of colour to create a connection between different posts, with a good example being @postmates. Another increasing popular grid characteristic is a connectivity between the images of grid posts, with the greatest example of this – not even my humble opinion, just a fact – being @aldiuk. Both of these trends reflect the need for a more stylised grid, supported by the availability of apps such as Planoly. It’s not just about how good your posts are anymore; it’s about how good your grid is. 3. The Explore tab is only going up Oh, boy, did we love the Explore tab in 2019, wanting to explore more and more and more… Over 200 million Instagram users utilise the Explore grid daily, resulting in over 50% of Instagram accounts using this every single month. The Explore tab isn’t too far off Stories in usage when you consider that you’re being served content you haven’t chosen to engage with. We want to discover far beyond our preexisting interests, or delve deeper within them. And you guessed it, Instagram has facilitated these behaviours. To put it frankly: the Explore tab has become so much easier to navigate. Not only does it update according to your algorithm – I am served a lot of Saoirse Ronan content after my new found love for having seen her performance in Little Women – but, it’s now also so much easier to find what you want. With the introduction of shortcuts, you can now directly go to IGTV, Shop or content within a range of interests from Food, to Animals and even Comics. This means you’re able to find what you want, opposed to it feeling like you’re in a weird vortex of endless content. This more user friendly Explore has helped to increase its usage. It’s just become so much more convenient, with Instagram being rewarded for this new practicality with 81% of users now actively using Instagram as a means of discovering new products. So, it begs the questions: are we now starting to use Instagram for relatively similar basic functions as we use Google? 4. Dangerously easy to shop on This is a development that my bank balance is not thankful for: it is becoming increasingly easy to shop via Instagram. I am not alone in this, with more than 70% of shoppers now using the platform to discover and search for the latest brands and products, and 46% going on to make a purchase either online or offline. Instagram has now become a serious rival – if it wasn’t already considered to be – for Pinterest in terms of discovery. The three main ways Instagram has done this is through functionality introductions: product tags in feed posts, product tags in Stories and the shopping feed of the Explore tab. The success of these shoppable tags is evident, with more than 130 million clicks on them per month, so it was only a natural progression for Instagram to try to streamline this process even further… Enter, direct purchasing within the app. The Beta phase of direct, in-app shopping rolled out in the US, including brands such as Dior, Nike and H&M. This further developed with the first Shoppable influencers, such as Chiara Ferragni and Kylie Jenner, who were able to add tags to their posts which allowed for the products – if the companies were included within the Beta checkout programme – to also be purchased within the app. Whilst this could be seen as creating a more consumer friendly experience for Instagram users, it is relatively self-interested. Shock. Direct purchasing acts as a means for Instagram to take something back financially from the influencer market that it has been so key in creating. With merchants charged a selling fee for the use of in-app checkout, now Instagram also profits from their product selling platform. So, Instagram wins with increased revenue, brands with more people being influenced to purchase their products, but does the consumer win? As always, Instagram is constantly evolving to both adapt to how we use the app, but also to keep ahead of us in order to influence how we use the app. As to who is driving this change, it is somewhat of a question similar to which came first, the chicken or the egg? 2020 will be no different, so let’s hope that for Instagram (and my love for it, whilst I can sometimes be cynical of it), that the best is yet to come…

As 2019’s most downloaded app, TikTok has seen a huge surge in popularity over the last year, with not just individuals but brands, organisations and celebrities flocking to the platform in a quest to produce the next viral video. But what makes a successful Tiktok? In true OneFifty style we’ve turned to the data to find out. Every day for the past month we’ve been tracking the stats of the app’s top 3 trending hashtags as well as the videos that appeared on our “For You” page and mapping out the trends. Here’s a roundup of what we noticed in January: “Let the music play…” 🎶 The vast majority of high-performing Tiktoks and hashtags are centred around music. This is unsurprising, given the Musical.ly heritage in both product and audience terms. Dance routines occur very frequently and range from the more complex and skilled to the more basic and easily replicable Put your hands up 🙌🏻 The “emoji hand gesture challenge” has recurred multiple times throughout the month, and in different variations. Lip-sync battle Aside from dance, another popular feature is lip-syncing to song lyrics or dramatic voiceover clips from (mainly reality) television (think Gemma Collins’ hair-straightener meltdown in the Big Brother house). It’s a ‘brand’ new world Brands and organisations have featured frequently among the top trending hashtags this month, with the Red Cross and Samsung having created custom hashtags to promote their causes. The latest news source? Many top trending hashtags are linked to, and driven by, current affairs or pop culture (the Australian bush fires, ‘Blue Monday’ or a recent episode of Love Island) Fame is fleeting Trending hashtags remain in the Top 3 for two days, but their content (a certain dance routine or song) can appear weeks later in the For You page. We’re continuing our analysis in February, so watch this space… #tiktok

Here at OneFifty, we (I say we, but I mean Alex Pearmain), love a sports analogy/metaphor. Big client meeting? That’s my Game 7 in the NBA finals. It works because it’s relatable. We get it. I’m (and this is Dan, by the way) now going to tell you how I use the philosophy of Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, to optimise my performance at OneFifty. And before you mention it – no, I’m just a suffering Arsenal fan who enjoys reading about sport-based philosophies. Pep Guardiola (also known as “Fraudiola” depending on who you support) has a blueprint. His team must train, play, eat, and sleep a certain way. He wins (most) games, hours before anyone heads onto the pitch – the opponent is already defeated in the tunnel, awaiting the inevitable. Here are some of his methods/skills that I try to apply at OneFifty: Communication – In the past 6 months I’ve been in a transitioning phase. There comes a time when you stop (at least some of the) “doing” and start allocating tasks to fellow team members – coaching them through what needs to be done. Our good mate, Pep, doesn’t just give orders and off you go. He explains why something needs to happen and the best way to get it done. I know the team around me, their learning styles, and appropriate tone of voice to use – it all goes a long way in creating a great team environment and getting things done! Innovation – Society changes and social media evolves. There is always a new method or idea that can be used. Guardiola decided to move Lionel Messi from the right-wing to a false 9 (a decoy centre forward) in 2009 and won the treble in his first season as Barcelona coach. Here at OneFifty, a great paid media strategy that worked 2 years ago likely won’t be as effective today. I constantly need to be using new, relevant information (that‘s data-led) to implement new ideas and get the best out of my work Flexibility – Guardiola’s teams are widely known to play beautiful football – think Xavi and Iniesta (“Xaviesta”). But when the going got tough, who did he look to, to shore up his midfield? Tough man Seydou Keita. Pep was flexible enough to use different player profiles within his squad to get a result. At OneFifty I’ve had a great opportunity to learn a variety of skills – from data, to content-writing, to client-management. I work in a fast-paced environment, where quick-fire tasks can arise at any stage of the day. I have to be flexible around the given task. Do I need to combine both content-writing and data for this task? Which team members do I need to help? How do I re-prioritise my tasks? All important thought-processes that need to be actioned There you have it – if you put your mind to it, sport and OneFifty share many similarities. Work ethic, team ethic, responsibility, and a bit of flair (!) can take you a long way. #waysofworking

On her 10th Twitterversary, Senior Consultant Sarah reflects on why Twitter is her first love… We humans are fickle things. We loved Bibo and MySpace back in the day, Facebook had its moment of glory; now we’re all over TikTok and can’t make up our minds whether Byte is the new Vine or we’re too busy watching Insta Stories to care. Let’s not even get into Snapchat. But here’s why Twitter will always have a special place in my heart. Having Twitter got me my first job in social media in 2010. I can remember the first account I ever followed – the French news site Le Monde, during my year abroad in Paris. I unfollowed them pretty quickly when I realised I didn’t really care for reading French news, preferring the ‘Franceinfo’ radio app (more on my love of audio here). But after that, I did start following the small handful of friends back home who also used Twitter. Inspired by this, I wrote my dissertation about how social networks impacted student’s social capital when geographically displaced from their usual circles. Facebook had been around in the UK for a couple of years by this point, and brands had started cottoning on to the fact that social media could be used for marketing. Then, whilst in my final year of uni, I started working for a seed-level startup who were working on taking online video and making it possible to watch on your TV (side note: cool idea, wrong execution, they didn’t last). I basically got the job because I was the only person they knew who even had a Twitter account; I’d tweet links to cool YouTube videos, trawl Twitter for people and journalists talking about web TV and tweet back to anyone who mentioned us. Looking back at my early emails about it does make me cringe slightly (‘Let’s follow lots of random people to get the name out there’) – ah, inexperienced youth. 10 years on I’m pleased to say that my marketing techniques on Twitter may have improved somewhat, and I’ve had the chance to run some really cool corporate accounts over the years. I’ve been at the forefront of excellent community management and Twitter being a place to take customer interactions to the next level. It’s been pretty fun. Aside from a 6 month social media hiatus a few years ago, I’ve regularly tweeted my thoughts on my personal account. It’s been a place for me to keep in touch with professional connections, including various exchanges over the years with OneFifty co-founder Alex Pearmain, who I worked with many moons ago. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Twitter, he and Katie might not have approached me to work at OneFifty, and I certainly would’ve had to think a lot more before saying yes – it made a leap into the unknown a little bit less scary. So that’s how Twitter got me my first and current jobs. I’m sorry Instagram, and you’re alright too LinkedIn, but Twitter will always be my number one love. Give me a follow on @sarah_morton; I also tweet office life and interesting reads from @weareonefifty 🙂 #Twitter

As a Senior Consultant at OneFifty, Anne-Catherine looks at patterns of data and decision frameworks every day. So, when it comes to buying a property this is how she’s used this approach find her perfect home. It might save you some time if you’re house hunting… For most of us, buying a flat or house is a big thing and we put extra effort into it. Whether you like spreadsheets and data or not, you probably have (or will end up) creating one to track all the possible properties you can buy, the price, maybe the agent’s contact details. A tracker is a good way to stay organised and have a useful overview BUT not that helpful to make a decision. At OneFifty, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to go about assessing the relative importance of various factors that are needed to make or measure the ‘best’ decision (given a specific goal). In my case, there were three goals: Value for money Viability to rent it out in the future Find a well-connected location to support my busy lifestyle When looking to make these decisions, we also consider one other thing: measurable variables (or proxies of it). The keyword here is ‘measurable’, so that we can simply calculate which options have the highest likelihood to achieve those goals. My six variables were: Distance to work Distance to gym Area look and feel Price per sqm Proximity to park/ outdoor space Lease expiry date All these variables were numerical apart from “area look and feel”, which I therefore ranked on a categorical scale. With a few minutes of Google searching the data gathering is pretty easily completed. So far so good and probably pretty similar to what you would do. My question to you now: are all these criteria equally important to you? Probably not… I’m a very active person, so proximity to the gym and park/ outdoor space are more important to me than the distance to work. Likewise, I want value for money, so the price per sqm is crucial. What I have just described in two sentences is what we call ‘applying a weighting system to your decision-relevant variables’. Not every variable is equally important to you, which is absolutely fine and something that should be reflected in your decision. Good news on that, you don’t need to go any deeper into maths-chatter with me. I’ve already done the work for you and you can simply have a look at this spreadsheet, make a copy and modify the weights and variables as you wish. Alternatively, just drop me a message, I’m happy to assist fellow home buyers: I hope you can see how easy it is to filter for the relevant or desired options and make that ridiculous number of flats and houses you could potentially buy more manageable. The outcome for me was that I was very clear on the flats worth investing my time in, so I’ve started to put the leg work in and have cycled to my top 20 viewings over four months (estimating a good 108 miles based on my Strava tracker!). Approximately 20% of the places I saw were what I was hoping for. Even better news, my top-ranked place was so me that even the seller couldn’t resist my offer – some would say data magic happened 😉 Let me know how you get on with my spreadsheet. Any furniture or appliances you don’t need anymore are equally welcome – quick buy & free delivery only! In the meantime, I still have a few more boxes to unpack and to prepare for my house warming. #analysis #data #decisionframeworks #househunting

Alice is here for you, as is TikTok. It’s a tough time right now. You don’t need us to tell you that. And with the constant streams of information out there it’s easy to feel overwhelmed sometimes. But there are also some positives to be found, if you know where to look. Enter: TikTok Back in February we wrote a blog post about how we’ve been tracking TikTok trends. Everyday we have been taking note of the top three trending hashtags and their key stats, mapping out any patterns. Recently, we’ve noticed a shift in these trends as the nation’s TikTokers are banding together in a bid to make this time a little easier for everyone, or to just give out some well deserved recognition. Here’s a summary of the top trending hashtags we identified: #houseofTikTok is centred around finding ways to occupy yourself in the age of social distancing and includes a link to support the World Health Organisation. Among the top trending videos we have seen cooking tutorials, impressive home crafting projects and home workout sessions. #handwashingmove saw some rather inventive takes on handwashing techniques from the British Red Cross to encourage good hand hygiene, and a custom screen filter to really drive the point home. #workoutfromhome saw a whole host of freely available and easily replicable at home workout routines for you to have a go at. It coincided rather well with our current office work from home mantra – “Fitter not Fatter’…. #cupboardcooking was a welcome encouragement to finally step up our cooking game, and maybe try out our own version of a Nando’s staple NHS workers also made a well deserved appearance.  #stayathome saw the staff themselves create videos to encourage the public to stay at home, whilst #thankyounhs, which coincided with the national call to applaud the NHS on 26th March, featured some heartfelt messages of appreciation for those on the frontline. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, or just really bored, TikTok could be the place to go for a little light relief, and perhaps a new hobby. And who knows, it might just set you on the road to mastering some impressive clay fish art of your own one day. #tiktok

If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ve probably seen people sharing the top TikTok challenges on Instagram and Twitter – you don’t have to be using TikTok to recognise the Dream Feet Dance (you probably know it as the ‘TikTok foot dance’ though) or the Emoji Challenge (again, you might know it as the ‘TikTok hand dance’). You’ve probably wondered how these videos are made, but been too shy to give them a go – well now’s the ideal time to download the app, perfect your dance skills and learn how to use TikTok. After all, what better way to use your time if you’re spending the weekend inside the house? That’s why we’ve created this handy video to show you exactly how to film your first video and how to edit on TikTok too. Which easy TikTok dances should I go for? If you’re wondering which trend is easiest or which you should try first, open TikTok and head to the ForYou page and find a dance you like the look of. We’ve chosen the ‘Duet me pls I’m lonely’ song for our video, which is pretty easy to get the hang of and a great introduction into the world of dance challenges. There are loads to choose from, and it doesn’t have to be dances either – there are a number of viral TikTok challenges where people lip-sync or wink at the camera in time to music (strange, we know). Now the fun part. Once you’ve found the sound you like, tap the name of the song at the bottom to see all the top TikToks which have used that sound. From here you can press the ‘Use this sound’ to start recording your first TikTok. How to film Practised your dance routine and ready to capture it on camera? The easiest way to film is to hold down the centre button to record your video, and the sound will play in the background. There are additional options here to speed up or slow down your video, as well as adding flash and filters, but we’ll come to those shortly. How to add edit filters and effects on TikTok Once you’ve filmed, slick the tick button The filter icon is on the top right corner of the screen; click this to open up your filter library. There’s a whole range in here; some of the best TikTok filters include colour changes (similar to Instagram filters), black and white or even neon colouring! Our favourite at OneFifty is the sparkle effect filter. You’ve sorted the colouring of your video – now it’s time to add effects. Click the effects button and chose from TikTok’s wonderful array of effects to add onto your video. Rainbow strobe for the first 15 seconds? Go on then. Just drag and drop onto your video for the desired amount of time. You can also add transitions, such as a count down, or add stickers and emojis over the top of your clip. How to edit text on TikTok Many TikTok challenges have text which appear over the video. To add text to TikTok, simple chose text from the icons at the bottom of the screen and start typing. You’ll see here that there are various text settings to chose from, including fonts, colours, alignment and the background. To edit the amount of time that the text is on the screen, tap the text, choose ‘set duration’ and move the slider to select the start and finish. Ready? Press the tick and you’ve made your very first TikTok! That wasn’t so hard, was it? If you want to know more about making TikToks, get in touch, follow us on TikTok or head to our TikTok page to see how we’re supporting other brands. #howto #tiktok

We’ve all been WFH for a little while. Here’s how Becki is making it an office away from the office. There are loads of wonderful blogs flying around about #wfh tips (just like this one from our very own Olivia, here) and we are all very much nailing our new life at home (mostly.) However one thing here at OneFifty that we pride ourselves on is that we, whilst doing the most excellent work, also have fun. That shift to an online workplace, made us realise how many “little moments” we all enjoyed in the office so we’ve been discussing how to make your office a bit more “real” during lockdown. Video call, always If like me you are struggling to see through your fringe, and actually really like wearing joggers to work, this one can be a bit of a toughy, but honestly, a video call over a phone call makes all the difference in these times. A little chat never hurt anyone Sometimes (only sometimes) I interrupt the office, to chat some serious celeb gossip, or laugh at something in the media, or even just to talk about the best water cooler conversation I’ve heard. This can still be done on Slack (or however your company is operating remotely) – we’ve had some absolute crackers on our #random channel and they make it all feel a little more normal. Just checking in For everyone, at some point, during this time, it’s going to feel a bit rubbish, and it shouldn’t just be down to someone’s line manager to check they are okay. Just dropping a Hi, or a link to something they love or will find funny can make all the difference to their day. The message box When you have a normal team meeting, there is always someone gobby saying something at some point (not looking at myself here 👀) and that doesn’t need to stop now. Behold the message box. We aren’t suggesting you heckle your manager whilst they are doing an important update, but when your boss turns up with the most interesting wallpaper you’ve ever seen, be vocal in the message box (you have to see it to believe it here) it can bring a lot of light relief. The coffee break We work at a WeWork, and amongst other perks, the best one (IMHO) is the free barista coffee. We are even starting to miss the 30-minute queue at around 9:30am. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t partaking. Book a call, invite your office and just hangout. Talk about nothing, and enjoy your coffee just like you would in the office. The fun stuff 99% of the population has done a “virtual pub quiz” recently (us included) but there are lots of other fun things you can do as a team. We’ve had a virtual book club, we have mini food challenges and we’ve even done presentations of our niche knowledge. Find something random and do it as a team. Whilst this time doesn’t have a set end date, we know it will pass. But for now, utilising these tips you can really seize the day and enjoy #wfh even if it’s not really your thing. #wfh #workingfromhome

The PS5 has just been announced. Anne-Catherine is going to tell you why you should care. It’s been a little while since you heard from the numbers girl at OneFifty (which we all are, but only yesterday I was called the analyst supremo – an exquisite club to be in). Enough words, as that clearly isn’t my strength… Let some numbers speak. Yesterday, PlayStation revealed the new PS5 via social. And let me tell you, some of these stats will blow your mind. The live event broke 1 million views on Twitch and 2 million on YouTube 4M users joined the Twitter conversation worldwide: That’s a rocking 16M impressions & 7.1M Twitter mentions in a single day – more mentions than we saw for iPhone in the last 30 days 😳 The US and Japan both saw more than 800k mentions of PlayStation5 each In Europe, France and the UK saw the biggest spike in conversation but lagged far behind Japan and the US (c. 200k Twitter mentions What did we find interesting about it? Are consumers hungry? I wouldn’t want to go as far as it’s a sign of an uptake in financial confidence, but a PlayStation is a non-essential good to purchase. Despite the PS5 hype, we still see fewer people talking about shopping for clothes (-60%) or buying electronics and gaming equipment (-46%) on social media compared to earlier in the year (April & May). Fact or fad? Gaming is one category where it’s useful to study hypes vs purchase. We’re yet to see if hype turns into sales but similar analysis shows this is a lead indicator for purchase intent. Let’s see what happens to Amazon’s bestseller list later in the year when the PS5 goes on sale. Are true friends never apart? Appreciate I haven’t completed a full-on research study, but it was notable (across the industries we work with) that some communities just seemed to have disappeared at the beginning of lockdown. I’m sure you’ve noticed that some of these so-called Fitness gurus on Instagram have vanished, while your favourite football club was there to stay. One trait that stands out for the gamer community is its densely connected network. In fact, they are 7-8 times more likely than the average Twitter user to know and follow each other. The most used term in how they describe themselves in bio descriptions is ‘fan’. What you might call just a’ bunch of nerds’ is actually a trait that makes them stick together even when the world is upside down. And yes, to all the women out there: Men expect a PS5 when they can’t even buy us flowers LOL If you’re interested in how we’re currently monitoring consumer confidence and how we track lead purchase intent indicators across different sectors on social, get it touch. #purchaseintent #ps5 #playstation #data #sony

Sarah is a big fan of GIFs and Stickers. This is why you should be too. GIFs have come a long way since their humble beginnings back in 1987 – at one time banished only to the depths of tumblr blogs and Reddit forums, GIFs have made the biggest comeback since Michael Jordan in ‘95. The millennial’s meme format of choice, GIFs are the poster child of effort-free Internet messaging, in which Patrick Stewart facepalming can say more than words ever could – it’s no wonder the Oxford Dictionary named ‘GIF’ their word of the year in 2012. The widespread success of GIFs on social media can be attributed to one website in particular, GIPHY. The forgotten child of social, GIPHY is in fact one of the most visited websites in the world (currently #521), dedicated to finding the perfect animated response to any tweet or Whatsapp. It’s no wonder that it captured the eye of Facebook who purchased the website and its 700m users earlier this year for $400m (although with some scrutiny from the regulators). Contrary to what you may think, GIPHY isn’t all cat GIFs and celebs (although there are plenty of them on there) – in fact, it has some great marketing benefits for brands. We’ve been using GIPHY for some of our clients for a year or so now, and have been excited by some of the results we’ve seen. So, we’ve answered some of the key questions about the platform below. What can brands use GIPHY for? There are 3 key reasons why brands might use GIPHY: Content: Social channels like Twitter and Facebook use GIPHY within their inbuilt keyboards – so if you go to send a tweet and select GIF, this searches GIPHY’s database and finds the perfect one. We’ve done this for our client, Toby Carvery, sharing its huge Yorkies, crispy roasties and slow-cooked meats when people are searching for roast dinner terms. It put their content (and food) in front of 2.1m people in less than a year. 350k views on this delicious roast for Toby Carvery Stickers: You know those cute little GIFs that pop up when you search on Instagram stories? They’re called stickers, and Instagram runs them through GIPHY’s search engine. This means if you upload stickers to your account, both your brand AND consumers can use branded GIFs on their stories. It’s a nice extra touch for your marketing when you’re using the app’s core functionality to add some movement to your branding – we’ve recently seen over 2000 views on an Instagram story sticker we uploaded 7 days ago, and haven’t yet used ourselves. Zopa branded sticker – 250k views in 3 months How many views will I get on GIPHY? Erm – a lot. With no media budget spent promoting GIF use or content using the GIFs, we’ve seen incredible results. For our client Zopa, we’ve had over 3m views on branded content over the course of a 6 month period. That’s a lot of eyeballs with very little investment needed. What else do I need to know? Branding: branded GIFs aren’t really what people are looking for most of the time, so if you want your logo in every GIF, you may not see the results you’re expecting. The key is to ensure that your GIFs are still recognisable as your brand, whether that’s reflecting colour, font or devices, BUT that they’re commonly useable by consumers and your brand alike Verified account: To get your GIFs onto Instagram stories, you’ll need to apply for a branded account and get it verified. GIPHY warn that this can take quite a long time (c. 4 weeks), but in our experience this has happened within a few days of application Stats are lacking: Unfortunately, you’re not going to get the same kind of analysis on your content as you do on Facebook, right now. You get view counts and most popular uploads, but that’s about it You’ll lose hours: Seriously. Hours. So many GIFs to watch. Is if pronounced gif or jif? Sorry, it’s not a debate worth getting into. I’m ready to GIF! What’s next? Get in touch to see how we can get you results on GIPHY… #GIF #GIPHY