Barclays first UK bank to offer Twitter payments
Barclays has become the first British bank to let social media users make payments to individuals and businesses’ Twitter handles using the Pingit app.
media
75% of marketers plan to increase programmatic brand spend
Three-quarters of marketers plan to increase programmatic brand spend in the next year, but financial transparency is biggest factor holding the practice back, according to a survey conducted by programmatic advertising specialists, Infectious Media.
19 hours and counting: customers kept waiting by big brands on Twitter
BT and EE are persistent bad offenders with the lowest response rates and slowest response times on Twitter, while Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Morrisons are the best, according to new research looking into social CRM.
Top digital countries: Singapore and Sweden lead the way
As digital technology becomes more accessible worldwide, which countries are most advanced and which are growing the fastest? This new chart from the Harvard Business Review takes an empirical look at the countries to watch (and which ones are losing out) in the new digital economy.
Video: The evolution of the laptop, mouse, and digital storage
Since the advent of personal computing in the 70’s, the technology we’ve used to create and consume digital media has changed dramatically. These three gifs chart 40 years of changes in less than a minute for your viewing pleasure.
Do native ads work? Guardian and Unilever to ‘prove value of sponsored content’
Guardian News & Media has launched a new initiative aimed at proving to nervous advertisers that native ads do work, with Unilever the first brand to sign up.
Nestle recruits interns via Vine contest
Food giant Nestle has teamed up with Twitter to offer an internship, picking a winner based in who submits the most inventive Vine video.
WeChat users send 1bn virtual red envelopes for Chinese New Year
WeChat users exchanged over 1 billion virtual hongbao (red envelopes containing cash gifts) on New Year’s Eve.
YouTube ad-free subscription service ‘coming in months’
In a high-profile test of the paid content versus ad-funded business models, Google is preparing a YouTube subscription service that lets people pay to watch videos without adverts.
Dove tackles Oscar Twitter trolls with #SpeakBeautiful
Dove has teamed up with Twitter to launch a new campaign for Oscar night, promoting self-esteem as part of its ‘real beauty’ message.