Today in Digital Marketing - Vanishing Views

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, May 26th. Today, vanishing views. Why has Twitter stopped reporting one of the platform's most important metrics? Also, the peculiar captcha that isn't real. And Snapchat nails enhanced AR. I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead. Today in digital marketing. And it is an American holiday on Monday. I'm assuming everyone down there is taking Friday off for a four-day week, and so there is very little news, and as a result, a very short show today. Well, since Elon Musk's takeover, Twitter has been pushing metrics. First came the public view count for tweets. More recently, bookmark counts were added. But now it seems the platform is removing one of its most significant metrics for marketers, video view counts.

Starting point is 00:00:47 Several users have reported that videos on Twitter no longer display the number of times they've been viewed. It's not clear whether the change is intentional or if it's another glitch. Twitter recently updated its video player to include playback speed and a picture-in-picture style mini player. But some users noticed the missing view counts more than a week ago. Quoting Mashable.com, if the video view count metrics removal is indeed on purpose, this would make Twitter the least transparent social media platform when it comes to video. It's also an extremely important metric for advertisers as this helps them decide how to run ad campaigns on these platforms. The removal of this metric forces users to depend on a different one that often paints videos uploaded to Twitter

Starting point is 00:01:29 as more successful than the clips actually are. As previously mentioned, Twitter does show tweet views, but that's just the number of impressions on a tweet. As tweets are regularly recommended by Twitter's algorithm, users are often served content they don't necessarily have any interest in. If such a tweet has a video embedded in it, and the user does not play the clip, the tweet view count does not accurately reflect how many users actually watched the video, unquote. Do you know what a Yoko is? No? Well, that's okay, because it's not real. But to at least one CAPTCHA technology, it is.

Starting point is 00:02:10 CAPTCHA, of course, the visual puzzle used by sites to make sure that humans are filling in online forms and not bots. But now one of them is asking users to identify objects that do not exist. This trend, of course, could pose a big problem for consumers trying to access your brand's webpage if you use one of these. Vice recently reported that some Discord users were asked to identify a Yoko, which appears to be a snail-like yo-yo hybrid. That picture and other images in the CAPTCHA

Starting point is 00:02:40 appear to have been generated by AI. This problem so far seems to be limited to Discord, where CAPTCHAs are managed by a company called hCAPTCHA, quoting the Vice piece. The issue with hCAPTCHA's strange AI-generated prompts highlights two issues with machine learning systems. The first is that AI systems require an enormous amount of human input to not be terrible.

Starting point is 00:03:01 Typically, image labeling is outsourced to foreign workers who do it for pennies on the dollar. And finally, I told you it was a short show. Snapchat is upping its AR game with the launch of enhanced try-on tools. The platform is partnered with beauty brand OPI to create a new nail polish testing experience within the app. The new process will let consumers test nail polish shades using the Snapchat camera using a new feature called Nails Segmentation. This applies polish and other 2D effects onto a user's nails. You can add textures, designs, or track 2D colors. Snapchat previously offered similar nail polish try-on experiences, but this variation is more responsive and realistic,

Starting point is 00:03:50 and it also provides new ways for brands to showcase nail products through AR in the app. It is a holiday on Monday for Americans. We also take off American holidays. It's not that we're double dipping. It's that, as you can see in today's episode, very little news happens when Americans are on holiday. So there is no episode on Monday. We had intended to bring you another episode of Behind the Ad, but we had a couple of fires to put out at the agency today,

Starting point is 00:04:20 so that took priority. And that will do it for the week. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamik First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is Steph Gunn, production coordinator Sarah Guild, music licensing

Starting point is 00:04:35 by Source Audio, ad coordination by Red Circle. And you know, not many people know this. But our theme composer, Mark Blevis, is one of the very first people to get an account on Blue Sky. It's true. He was the fourth user.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Blue Sky has like 100,000 people in it now. And still nobody follows Mark. He was complaining about this to me just a couple of days ago. He said, because I have friends. And that's a fact. Like Agnes, Agathe, Jermaine, and Jack. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:05:14 Have a restful, long weekend, friends. I will see you on Tuesday. The time has come to make it happen. It's always here, the friend of my mind. I'll never leave you behind.

Today in Digital Marketing - Vanishing Views

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