This Week in Digital – Facebook Providing Advertisers with Post-Campaign Placement Reports and is Also Providing a Group Video Chat App, Majority of Holiday Shopping done Online, and Apple’s Venture into AR

The digital world is ever-changing, and here’s the weekly newsletter detailing the major digital trends that have occurred recently.

#1. Facebook plans to give advertisers post-campaign placement reports

• Facebook will tell brands where their ads appeared and ban certain content from carrying ads.
• They have listed 9 categories of content ineligible to feature ads.
• Now, Facebook is getting more transparent with brands about where their ads appear and is taking a harder line over what content can carry those ads.
• Facebook will officially roll out placement reports for ads running across its Audience Network ad network of third-party sites, as well as for ads appearing within videos and Instant Articles on Facebook.

#2. Facebook testing a group video chat app called ‘Bonfire’

• Facebook’s Messenger added group video calling last year, begging the question of why the company needs another stab at the market.
• Facebook has rolled out a standalone mobile app in Denmark called Bonfire, that enables people to host video calls with multiple people.
• While limited to Denmark for now, Bonfire may portend a broader attempt by Facebook to corner the fledgling group video chat market.
• Odd as that may sounds, Facebook isn’t opposed to making an all-hands-on-deck assault on an emerging product category, as evidenced by Facebook’s, Instagram’s and Messenger’s and WhatsApp’s cloning of Snapchat’s Stories feature.

#3. 41% of surveyed consumers report doing the majority of their holiday shopping online last year

• According to a recent Walker Sands poll, 41 percent of more than 1,600 consumers surveyed report buying all, or at least a majority of their holiday gifts online last year.
• This includes survey results on everything from how often consumers shopped online to the devices they prefer to shop with and the motivators behind their online buying habits.
• Among the 41 percent who completed their 2016 holiday shopping online, 71 percent say that they shop online at least once a month.
• The survey broke down the device usage preferences among the high-frequency online shoppers, with 78 percent preferring to use a desktop, 48 percent a mobile device and 24 percent via a voice-controlled device.

#4. Apple’s ARKit launches a new venture into the realm of Augmented Reality

• With similar new tech from Google, Microsoft and Facebook, advertising and marketing now have new dimensions.
• That’s because Apple announced yesterday the release of its ARKit, a set of software tools that makes high-quality augmented reality (AR) possible through Apple iPhones and iPads.
• It overlays 3D graphics, animation and photo-realistic objects on what we used to call the real world, in ways that take the next step in AR.
• With this wide availability of AR, it can possibly change from a novelty to a viable marketing vehicle, and create new paid and owned marketing opportunities for brands and agencies.