Morning Update: Twitter switches favourite for ‘like’; Vice gets cable channel; John Stewart’s HBO deal
You can say a lot with a heart. Introducing a new way to show how you feel on Twitter: https://t.co/WKBEmORXNW pic.twitter.com/G4ZGe0rDTP
— Twitter (@twitter) November 3, 2015
AdWeek: Twitter Mimics Facebook by Changing Favorites to Likes
Twitter wants users to show their appreciation for tweets more often, so today it replaced the “favorite” button with a “like” button in the shape of a heart. The San Francisco company said it thought the old button—which appeared as a star icon—was too confusing.
Regular social media users will recognize the like as a Facebook move and the heart symbol as the way to show appreciation on Instagram. So when Twitter’s product manager Akarshan Kumar wrote that “we’ll be calling them likes” in his blog post without acknowledging the term exists elsewhere on the Web, we can probably assume it was done with at least a little tongue-in-cheek humor in mind. (Otherwise, it’s akin to someone saying, “I am a fan of this band. You may have heard of them—they’re called the Rolling Stones.”)
But to be fair, social media platforms effectively copy one another quite often. For instance, Facebook mimicked Twitter in early 2014 by creating a Trending section on its platform. More recently, Facebook debuted Place Tips, which some saw was an answer to Snapchat’s Live Stories.
Mumbrella Asia: Batey aims to reclaim Indian music from Bollywood with #NotSoFilmy campaign for Vivo
Once legendary advertising agency Batey, which was described in a press release today as “Grey Group’s sub-unit,” has launched a new campaign for hi-fi music smartphone brand Vivo in India that aims to reclaim music from Bollywood.
The #NotSoFilmy campaign began with a challenge on social media involving three Indie musicians, Uday Benegal, Monica Dogra and Prateek Kuhad. The trio composed an original song for Diwali while engaging with fans on Twitter about what defines real Indian music.
The Guardian: Jon Stewart’s HBO streaming deal is a sign of the times
The announcement that Jon Stewart would be joining HBO might seem a little shocking at first. After all, the subscription service already has its own version of Stewart: former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. It also has Bill Maher doing his weekly comedic take on politics and they just spent millions hiring Bill Simmons to do his own talk show after ESPN failed to renew his contract and eventually shut down Grantland.
Adage: Vice CEO Says New Viceland Cable Channel Will ‘Re-Imagine’ the TV Commercial
A&E Networks, co-owned by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., is forming a cable network with Vice Media called Viceland, letting the upstart video company air TV shows about gay culture, marijuana and music.
The channel, previously A&E Networks’ H2, will start in early 2016 and reach 70 million homes, the companies said Tuesday in a statement. Vice, led by co-founder Shane Smith, will supply the programming, while A&E Television Networks LLC oversees technical operations. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.“This network is the next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global roll-out of networks around the world,” Mr. Smith said in a statement. He added that Vice will “test new and innovative monetization strategies” but did not offer specifics other than that Vice will work with brands “to re-imagine the nature of the television commercial.”
DigiDay: The agency view: Can The Sun make a free digital model work?
At a time when most publishers are turning to paywalls, The Sun is going in the opposite direction, abandoning its paywall to cast its lot with the rocky and difficult digital advertising world.
Later this month Britain’s best-selling newspaper will go free, a decision made soon after Rebekah Brooks returned as CEO of parent News Corp’s U.K. newspapers. She told staff the title will become “predominantly free” from the end of the month, with a sprinkling of paid features such as its fantasy football game Dream Team.
The bold move faces several hurdles, according to media buyers.
