The First Snapchat Ads Shot Entirely on Spectacles: Burger King and grocery chain Sainsbury’s are the first two Snap clients to use the glasses to shoot ads that appear on Snapchat. The creative difference between Spectacles’ clips and other footage lies in how the glasses capture video in a POV, circular fashion. Burger King’s ad appeared via the app in the U.S. for National Cheeseburger Day. Delicious! (LINK)
Chili’s Tries a New Social Voice: Restaurant chain Chili’s found itself tagged in a random comment about healthcare and jumped into the discussion with a wit and enthusiasm that has sparked a swarm of buzz and attention for the brand this week. Chili’s social media manager told BuzzFeed that the restaurant’s team was more than happy to take the time to help fans. “Life’s too short not to have fun with it,” he explained to BuzzFeed. “As you can see, we don’t take ourselves too seriously on social.” We’ll be watching to see how this new voice spills over into their proactive social content and engagement. (LINK)
The Beyoncé Army Takes to Instagram: Instagram, who this week is testing changing their number of grid tiles from three to four across, is blowing up with Beyoncé goodness this week. The music icon and social media star posted a series of images on Thursday highlighting 16 self-focused photos, each directly sourced from a past, impromptu, photo shoot with Jay-Z. The photos, published with no comment or detail, are currently are all gaining incredibly traction with over 3 million current likes as of Friday morning. Yes, Beyoncé is a big deal; but it is creative posts like this that help her maintain her iconic status in cultural relevance. (LINK)
Are Smokers the Nicest People Online? In a world of political issues, opinionated commenters and trolls, it turns out there are still communities who embody #WholesomeMemes everyday. Thanks to better education and Ad Council marketing campaigns, smokers are one of the most persecuted, under-appreciated interest groups in our society. So perhaps that’s all the more reason they are seeking each other out online through message boards, Reddit, YouTube, and websites like airportsmokers.com, where they offer each other advice, reviews, support and community. Who knew the key to warm-hearted acceptance online was the same as bumming a smoke off a friend? (LINK)
BONUS #HUMBLEBRAG: Did you catch South Park’s season debut? Cartman trolled us all by triggering our Amazon Echos throughout the episode – making them say foul things and adding unwanted items to their shopping lists. At Fallon, we’ve been obsessed with voice-control going mainstream and the evolution of conversation design for our clients. So we built our own Amazon Flash Briefing for the Fallon Social Pulse. Just say “Alexa, enable Fallon Social Pulse skill.” Then ask for your flash report, and you’ll get all this social goodness direct to your Echo every week! What a time to be alive, right? (LINK)
GREG SWAN 