Skip to main content

Facebook brings its Canvas ad format to Instagram Stories

The biggest is probably the expansion of the Canvas ad format to Instagram Stories (which supposedly reach 250 million people daily). While businesses have been able to advertise in Instagram Stories since earlier this year, this introduces a new, full-screen, interactive ad format to that mix.
“With the ability to utilize Facebook’s fast-loading full screen Canvas format in Instagram Stories, marketers are able to use the creative versatility of Canvas to tell compelling brand and product stories,” Instagram writes in a blog post. “This seamless extension of the full screen experience allows advertisers to capture the attention of customers with just a single ad.”
Instagram also says businesses will now be able to upload the media they used for organic Instagram Stories and save them for use in future ad campaigns through the Power Editor and Ads Manager. Plus, the company wants advertisers to incorporate Instagram Stories into their campaigns across Facebook properties — it says Stories can now be added to Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network campaigns through placement optimization.
And here’s some Instagram Stories news that’s not focused on advertisers: The company says users will be able to share Stories as a direct message to their friends. (If you don’t want people sharing your Stories this way, you can turn off the feature.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Google 'Translate' app offers offline translations, conversation mode

Google on Wednesday announced updates to its "Translate" app that would enable users in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu languages to use offline translations and instant visual translation in their preferred language. Google "Translate" has also added support for conversation mode feature -- that lets users have a bilingual conversation with someone, simply by talking to "Translate" app -- in regional languages such as Bengali and Tamil. To activate the feature, users should tap the mic to start speaking in a selected language, then tap the mic again, and the "Translate" app will automatically recognise which of the two languages are being spoken, enabling a smooth conversation, the company said in a statement. Meanwhile, the offline support enables users (of Indian languages) to translate a word or sentence even when they are not connected to the Internet. To use offline translation...

North Korea ‘hacking Bitcoin exchanges to steal money’ as Kim builds 'criminal enterprise'

Bithumb was hacked in February, although the breach was not noticed until June, and it was only made public in July. At the time one customer claimed more than a million dollars’ worth of digital currency was stolen. Claire Finkelstein, a national security expert and faculty director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Ethics and the Rule of Law told Buzzfeed News: “This is very consistent with what I would expect North Korea to be doing.” Luke McNamara, a senior analyst with FireEye, also said: “I see there being two macro drivers of this threat activity.” According to Mr McNamara, the first driver was the tightening of sanctions on North Korea's economy. But he added: “You also have cryptocurrencies appreciating significantly since the beginning of the year. So you see cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly in South Korea, becoming a logical target.” Ms Finkelstein warned that Bitcoin is a “high-risk currency” because it can be “easily manipulated” maki...

Cryptocurrency chaos as China cracks down on ICOs

China’s move last week to ban initial coin offerings (ICO) has caused chaos among start-ups looking to raise money through the novel fund-raising scheme, prompting halts, about-turns and re-thinks. China is cracking down on fundraising through launches of token-based digital currencies, targeting ICOs in a market that has ballooned this year in what has been a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs. The boom has fueled a jump in the value of cryptocurrencies, but raised fears of a potential bubble. “This is not unlike the dotcom bubble of 2000,” said a partner at a venture capital fund in Shanghai, who didn’t want to be named because of the issue’s sensitivity. “There are a lot of companies raising a lot of money for not very good ideas, and these will eventually be weeded out. But even from the big dotcom bust, you still have gems.” “One of the reasons regulators stepped in was that the ICO fever extended beyond the traditional crypto community. The timing w...