Blog

Hello and happy June! The forecast is (relatively) warm across all the Outcrop offices, or at least it's not calling for any blizzards, so we're pretty pumped going into the weekend!

And speaking of warm, let's talk climate change awareness. Check out this neat campaign from WWF France (that's World Wildlife Fund, not World Wrestling Federation) that uses Snapchat's Snap map feature to create heat maps. Posting a series of snaps from the Arctic, they created an #ArcticHotSpot on the map. Any users clicking on that content would find videos warning about the impact of climate change on the Arctic ecosystems and also tips on how to take action. 

Did you watch that whole video? Would you prefer getting all the pertinent information about a campaign in six seconds? Eighty-one per cent of survey respondents said they found six-second ads to be effective.

And now that we're all worried about baby polar bears and seals and the shrinking polar ice caps, don't you wish there was something you could do offset your own carbon emissions? If you frequent Ben & Jerry's in London, you can! It's the first retail store that uses a tech platform designed to offset the impact of daily purchases. Add a penny to the cost of a scoop of ice cream and it'll help mitigate the emissions that went into that scoop: the ice cream transportation, the energy require to keep it frozen etc. We can't undo all these emissions of course, but what it does is help a project based in Cordillera Azul National Park in Peru. 

And we've said it before and we'll say it again: don't snooze on Pinterest. It's so much more than just mason jar and burlap cloth crafts! Monthly users are up to 250 million and current valuation is expected to be in the neighbourhood of $12.3 billion. All content is photo and video-based. If your content includes beautiful eye-catching visuals, why wouldn't you want to be on a platform that's all visual search? We'll have to check out their Lens feature, which allows users to use their camera to search for similar decor/food etc. 

And lastly, we'd be remiss to forget a few Facebook updates. Want to use a poll in your Messenger Stories? Boom. Now you can. Do we think this will make it easier to decide on a place for lunch or will people still choose the "I don't care you decide" option? And if you liked the rainbow overlay that Facebook introduced a few years ago to celebrate Pride, you'll love this year's customization options: rainbow status backgrounds, Pride-themed AR filters, and stickers to add to your Instagram stories. 

That's a wrap! Enjoy the weekend, make good choices and let us know if you come across any interesting campaigns we should check out: @outcropcom on Twitter and Outcrop Communications  on Facebook.