Every time that a new ad unit comes out, first we’re skeptical, next we try it out for ourselves, and then, if it’s really good, we start using it for our clients.

This time, that whole process happened in about 24 hours, and the results have been better than any of their sales materials could have predicted. Better yet – it’s signalling a shift towards quality and entertainment in social advertising that is phenomenal for the user.

Hint: If Facebook ads aren’t your jam, scroll down to the bottom for a quick-hit of what else is up this week in social.

Facebook Canvas

Dayton Boots AdIt’s a mobile-only ad unit that appears in your feed similar to the standard mobile ads, except when you click into this one, you get a full screen immersive experience without ever leaving Facebook.

So what?

The reason that Canvas is a big deal isn’t just because we were able to use it to sell some boots. It’s a big deal because of the way that it forces advertisers to consider the people who are using our work.

Think about the other options: A promoted post that links to a sales page can work well with clever clickbait copy.

A preroll ad is about as annoying as it gets, and while it may work, it’s going to annoy a huge percentage of the users who see it.

Canvas is ambitiously trying the opposite. It’s forcing brands to create experiences that do all of the things that we, as an industry, say that we can do: Deliver a meaningful branded message, entertain first, sell later, etc.

Here’s What It Looks Like

Canvas Ad

Once you click in, the ad delivers a full screen image that can be controlled by tilting your phone from side to side.

As you scroll down, Canvas can deliver videos, image galleries, really anything that’s visual that you can imagine.

The experience is limited only by the advertisers’ imagination, and only once the user has chosen to scroll through all of that goodness, do you deliver the CTA.

Ryan’s in charge of actually building and placing these ads, so he put together a bit of a rundown on best practices and what we’ve learned so far. To go deeper into this stuff, click the button below,

Click for the Canvas Rundown


Did Anything Else Happen This Week?

Yep

Ever wonder what it’s actually like to be a community manager for a major brand? Digiday dug into that question and came up with a day in the life of Carlos Matia, Burger King’s Senior Community Manager.

Creep on Carlos


YSL’s OCD

In what may go down as the strongest move of narcissism from any brand’s new hire, upon being announced as Creative Director of international fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent, their new Creative Director deleted the entire history of posts and replaced it with a shot of himself.
Yikes.

Selfie Sabotage


Zuckerberg Loves the Snaps

If Snapchat suddenly decided to switch to paper-based newsfeeds, I have a feeling that Facebook would be right there with them pitching their new revolutionary print service.

Everything that Snapchat is up to these days seems to show up as a Facebook feature half an hour later, and this times it’s the Snapcodes. According to Zuck’s own Facebook post, we can now hover our phones over each other to start a conversation. Because, you know, that whole “communicating with someone who you’re standing right next to” barrier was one that needed innovation.

Mark <3 Messenger



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Briefed while watching, then re-watching the Masters’s first ever hole-to-ball-to-ball-in-1