Weekly Digital Roundup (5.19.14)

For your digesting delight, we’re kicking off a weekly digital news roundup to keep our circles privy to the web’s happenings. Social, SEO, marketing, design – each Monday we will cover our industry’s key topics, in case you missed them. Without further ado, here’s what we found to be the biggest news, so you may comfortably remain snuggled under a rock.

Payin’ with Pics

Leveraging the Insta food pic craze, veggie brand Bird's Eye created a pop-up restaurant called The Picture House, allowing customers to eat free if they grammed their meal and tagged it with #BirdsEyeInspirations. The concept turns the trend of diners routinely sharing photos of their meals into an incentive to create buzz for the brand. What a deliciously affordable tactic.

Mobile Sharing and Buying Trends

A recent report by Sandvine found that YouTube accounts for 17.26% of data shared through mobile devices and that Facebook accounts for 14.76%. The report shines light on the consumers' growing reliance on mobile to share photos and watch videos. So if you aren’t optimizing your content and social for mobile yet, you should get on that. We held a webinar on it, if you need some tips!

Smart phones are prompting more shoppers to visit retail locations according to a recent study from Deloitte. The study found that 22% of mobile users were more likely to visit a store after browsing on their devices, while 19% said they were less likely to do so. Another exciting stat was that 19% of last year's in-store purchases were influenced by the use of mobile devices.

NASCAR Gets Sappy

NASCAR has launched a new campaign for Father’s Day involving highly social elements around the legacy of fathers and children bonding over racing. The campaign's social media call to action asks fans to share NASCAR moments to reach generations both young and old.

24-Hour Digital News Network

It won’t be much longer until our ever-changing industry updates will be freed from the confines of a mere 22-minute TV segment. CBS is working on a 24-hour digital news network in an effort to extend CBS News assets more into the digital media age. Les Moonves, president/chief executive officer of CBS, wants to head up this “exciting alternative to cable news,” discussing the proposal right now with various Internet companies for partnerships. About time the media catches on!

Pinterest Ads Ramping Up

Pinterest has signed up more than a dozen marketers including General Mills, Gap, ABC Family and Kraft for an expanded test of its promoted pin ad units (which we covered last week). Promoted pins show up in searches and category feeds, with CPMs reportedly costing between $30 and $40, and initial commitments of at least $1 million being sought. More on this marvelous monetization scheme here.

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