You can learn about all the latest social trends at our Festival of Marketing event in November. But for now let’s look at what September had to offer.

Facebook announces ‘dislike’ button

In a recent Q&A session, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the social network is currently working on a ‘dislike’ button following ongoing requests from its users.

He said:

Probably hundreds of people have asked about (the ‘dislike’ button), and today is a special day because I actually get to say we are working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it.

Ordinary users will no doubt be pleased to have more ways to express themselves on Facebook, but brands concerned about controlling their online reputation might be starting to worry about all that potential negative and very public feedback.

Nescafe to move all its websites to Tumblr

This month coffee giant Nescafe announced it will be moving all of its global and local websites onto the Tumblr platform, starting with the UK and Mexico.

The move means Nescafe will be able to connect with the Tumblr audience in real time rather than relying on the more static traditional .com websites.

Coffee is in the top five conversational topics in Tumblr’s food category. Nescafe will be able to promote owned media to Tumblr users who will then be able to share it quickly and easily on the platform.

It is a bold move for Nescafe, but one which seems to make sense when social content is playing an increasingly large role in the marketing world. The questions is: will other brands follow suit?

The Co-operative Insurance: Nostalgia FM

The Co-Operative Insurance launched its biggest social media campaign yet in the form of Nostalgia FM, a sort of musical time machine that takes you back to when you passed your driving test.

Just type in the date you passed your test to get a list of tracks that were popular around that time.

Nostalgia FM social campaign

The list will either fill you with a warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling or cringe-inducing horror, depending entirely on your musical tastes at the time.

Users are then prompted to share the results on social media or listen to them on Spotify.

Facebook creates Rugby World Cup guide

In the days leading up to the competition, Facebook posted a Rugby World Cup guide that sets out the top team and player accounts.

The guide includes:

  • The official Facebook pages for each of the 20 participating teams.
  • The top 10 players on Facebook.
  • Two new features created to help fans get involved in the tournament: World Cup stickers and a new function that lets you show your friends what you’re watching.

Wendy’s: #CrackTheMasters interactive video ads

To promote its limited edition pulled pork menu, iconic American fast food brand Wendy’s came up with an interesting way to allow viewers to interact with its video creative.

The video introduces views to three different pitmasters: Sauce Master, Smoke Master and Hip Master.

Viewers are then asked to choose a master to ‘crack’, and once they’ve made their selection they’re taken to a different video featuring the chef they’ve chosen where they’ll be asked to make further choices that will determine what they’re shown next.

At the end of the process viewers will be told whether they’ve successfully ‘cracked’ the master or be invited for another attempt if not.

Jimmy’s Iced Coffee: Keep Your Chin Up rap track

Disclaimer: this campaign actually launched in August and therefore has no business being in a September 2015 round-up. But somehow I missed it last month and I feel it deserves a mention, so here it is.

In a three-and-a-half minute music video dubbed its ‘debut single’, Jimmy tells the story of his Iced Coffee and how the business came about.

With almost half a million views clocked up already and a mostly positive reaction, clearly Jimmy’s rap skills are resonating with cold coffee lovers across the country.

I’ll be keeping my ears peeled for that tricky second single.

Pinterest and Topshop launch Pinterest Palettes

Topshop has partnered with Pinterest to create Pinterest Palettes: a tool that lets users determine their ‘colour DNA’ by identifying the dominant colours of the ideas they pin across the social network.

Users can then shop Topshop’s collections and get suggestions based on their own unique colour palette.

It’s good to see brands experimenting with personalisation on social media, and it will be interesting to see whether it catches on or just ends up being a gimmick.

Ballantine’s: Paul McGinley’s ‘Moment of Truth’ film

Ballantine’s created an emotional video featuring Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley in which he talks about how his dream of being a Gaelic footballer was cut short by a knee injury.

In the video McGinley recalls, “The last thing I ever thought I’d be was a professional golfer.” He went on to be the first Irishman to captain Europe’s Ryder Cup side and won the competition every time he played in it.

The video is a perfect example of combining storytelling and emotion to create a really strong message that stays in people’s minds.

Vauxhall Astra Union Jack

To celebrate 36 years of one of its most iconic British-built cars, Vauxhall created the below video featuring a massive Union Jack flag constructed entirely out of red, white and blue Astras.

It took 128 Astras to create the flag, the whole feat took just under 24 hours to complete.

Live ‘tWItterstitch’ event marks Women’s Institute’s 100th anniversary

This month PR agency Umph combined handicraft and social media in a campaign to promote the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Institute (WI).

The ‘tWItterstitch’ event took place at the WI’s London HQ and saw a team of WI members live-stitching celebratory Twitter messages using the hashtag #theWI_100years.

The hashtag generated more than 2,000 tweets with a reach of more than 7.6m, and was a top 10 trend in the UK.

Check out the example featuring Phillip Schofield’s tweet below.

Twitterstitch social campaign Women's Institute

Instagram tops 400m users and 40bn photos

For a social network that’s only five years old that’s fairly impressive. And according to Instagram 75% of its users live outside of the US.

Of the last 100m members to join the site, more than half live in Europe and Asia, proving it has the same kind of global reach as parent company Facebook.

By comparison, Twitter only has 316m monthly active users while Pinterest has just 100m users.

All Washington Post stories to go on Facebook

All content on Washington Post’s website will flow into Facebook’s Instant Articles feature, equating to around 1,200 post a day.

Facebook’s Instant Articles function enables media companies to publish content directly onto Facebook users’ newsfeeds rather than linking back to their websites.

Other brands such as The New York Times have already begun experimenting with posting a few articles in this way, but Washington Post is the first to commit all of its content to the platform.

#PoweredByTweets launches at London Design Festival

A new installation at Somerset House invites people to come up with an idea that either solves a problem using Twitter or ‘creates something beautiful’ using Twitter data.

The installation, named #PoweredByTweets, is part of The London Design Festival and is the culmination of a contest that began back in April.

Six winning challenged from that contest are on display, including the #PutRedBack campaign to promote gay men’s right to donate blood and a ‘pigeon air patrol’ to see how a flock of Londoners’ favourite flying rats can monitor air quality and report back in real time on Twitter.

You can learn even more about engaging customers on social at our two day Festival of Marketing event in November. Book your ticket today and head to the Social stage to learn how to manage brand perception and reach new audiences.