As we snowball our way towards Christmas and the New Year, let us catch you up with all the latest developments with our weekly digital round-up!

Holiday hashtags

We couldn’t ignore the news that Facebook and Instagram are planning to offer paid adverts this holiday season, that will target users who publish posts about the holidays. No hashtag is safe, with #BlackFriday, #CyberMonday and #Christmas flagging you to these companies who will be keen to grab (or should we say buy) your attention with their latest offers.

By doing this, Facebook hope that they’ll encourage retailers to part with more of their budget in order to access this ready-made group of shoppers and holiday fans. This could spell a new era in targeted marketing and segmentation of particular groups via something as simple as their choice of hashtags.

Sugary sweet inspiration

Holidays and tasty treats go hand in hand, so we thought we’d mention this recently released marketing case study on none other than Dunkin’ Donuts, focusing on their use of mobile technology. Dunkin’ have cleverly increased their mobile engagement through a customer-driven app, loyalty programme and cunning collaboration with other companies, which all work in unison to create a silky smooth customer experience.

Their Dunkin’ Perks Program provides a huge amount of customer data through seamless integration of their brand into their customers’ daily lives, which in turn allows them to provide hugely relevant offers and information straight to the customer’s mobile device.

If you’re searching for mobile technology inspiration, you could learn a thing or two from Dunkin’ Donuts!

PhoCus-ing on travel marketing

ReturnPath have discussed the latest news from this year’s PhoCusWright conference, a global meet-up for the travel industry. This year’s conference saw a large focus on what many perceive to be the next big thing in digital travel marketing; selling tours, activities, benefits and functionality to travellers who’ve reached their destination.

There is also some buzz around the direction Google is taking as distributors of travel content and merchandising, but we won’t spoil the surprise. If travel is your trade, we’d suggest you have a look at the findings and discussions from PhoCusWright 2015.

Virtual Vision

Whilst we’re fairly sure this isn’t the last time we’ll be amazed by science and innovation, this latest technology from Microsoft is truly incredible. Harnessing the power of advanced GPS and Bluetooth technology initially developed for smartphones, Microsoft have produced over-ear headphones that have an inbuilt compass, accelerometer, gyrometer, and speakers that work in sync to tell blind or partially impaired users where they are, what shops are nearby, where road crossings or bus routes are and even what hazards are in the street.

With over 180,000 blind or partially sighted people in the UK unable to leave their homes alone due to poor accessibility and anxiety over unfamiliar places, this is a powerful demonstration of how technology can truly revolutionise lives.

On that note, we’re going to love you and leave you. See you all next week when we’ll be bringing you another weeks’ worth of digital delights!

Until next time…

Komal

Komal Helyer
Head of Marketing

Stay in the digital loop: Follow Komal on Twitter

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