It’s Christmas again
But before the Christmas peace is allowed to settle in, there are a few things you need to update yourself on first. That’s why we’ve come up with the last round of digital news of the year.
Let’s have a look:
Threads and Bluesky are fighting for users, while Coca Cola has gone all in on AI Christmas ads, and Black Week has become the new Black Friday.
From all of us to all of you: the December edition of Xtracts, your digital news overview.
1. Has Threads and Bluesky declared war?
In two months, the Twitter clone Bluesky has gone from 9 million users to 20 million. Although there is still a long way to go to reach Threads’ 275 million users, it is still quite a development in a very short time.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter and changed the name to X, many users sought to leave the platform – Threads was created as a response to this. Today, Threads is the preferred competitor to X, but that could potentially change if Bluesky continues to see an increase.
The increase comes in the wake of the US election, where a massive number of users once again distanced themselves from the Trump-supporting Musk. However, Bluesky was not the only platform to increase its user base – Threads also got a piece of the pie.
Still, Threads is a bit nervous. At first glance, it seems that Bluesky’s development is continuing as more and more celebrities also move towards the platform. So even though the app currently only has 20 million, the number can suddenly increase to 100 million or more – it has happened before.
As a reaction, Threads has started new projects and added new features to the app, which are reminiscent of similar features on Bluesky. The people behind Bluesky have also chosen to poke the sleeping bear by writing that Threads has a low number of active users despite a high number of users. This prompted Threads to post a new report about a significantly higher number of active users than claimed by Bluesky.
So, the question is: has war been declared? At this point, probably mostly a cold one.
Source: TV2 and Social Media Today
2. Coca Cola has gone all in on AI in this year’s Christmas ads
And it looks exciting – maybe a little too exciting. In any case, they have not received the reception that Coca Cola probably hoped for. The classic joy and excitement that the brand’s commercials usually arouse have been replaced by horror and criticism. They have been described, among other things, as “a soulless and creepy, dystopian nightmare”, that the campaign has “ruined the Christmas spirit”, and that “Coca Cola has deserved a piece of coal”.
Three AI videos from different agencies have been submitted for the campaign – and none of them made it to DAIVID’s list of the 30 most effective Christmas campaigns in 2024.
Compared to an older campaign from 2020, all three videos score lower on brand recognition, positive emotions and attention. On the other hand, they score higher on the desire for a cola – presumably because the AI version shows a close-up of a Coca Cola bottle.
Take a look at the 2020 version and one of the three AI versions for yourself.
Source: Search Engine Journal
3. Will Google be forced to sell Chrome?
Google has long faced several problems and accusations – particularly from the US Department of Justice (DOJ). One of them is that they have an illegal monopoly on the search market. Now the DOJ has a proposal for a solution: Google should sell its Chrome web browser and potentially the Android mobile operating system.
The reason the DOJ is specifically attacking Chrome is that they believe that it is the browser that has strengthened Google’s position. As you may have guessed, Google is not particularly keen on the idea. They argue that such a sale – of Chrome as well as Android – could endanger security and privacy, as well as harm innovation and technological progress.
The battle between the DOJ and Google has been going on since 2020, and in September it was revealed that Google had violated antitrust laws. As a result, both the DOJ and Google must offer solutions that can restore competition in the search market.
We will hopefully learn more about how it will go in the new year.
Source: Search Engine Journal
4. Google Analytics users are no longer dependent on third-party cookies
Since Google dropped the phasing out of third-party cookies, no one can figure out whether cookies are out of or in the heat. But all the talk of phasing out has given rise to new alternatives that should accommodate a cookie-free future – and now Google itself is offering another one.
The alternative is called Customer Match and is found in a recently announced update to the Analytics platform. Currently in beta testing. Customer Match is intended to improve re-marketing options through first-party data when it is not possible to use third-party cookies.
You may have already encountered Customer Match in Google Ads – just in a slightly different format. The Analytics version is designed to be more seamless and automated. The feature must be manually turned on but is integrated automatically with campaigns that use Smart Bidding.
The first-party data is collected via the company’s own websites, email addresses and phone numbers. Google promises that neither security nor privacy will be compromised: all data is processed in hashing format. This means that all data is encrypted.
Whether it can be a success, the beta testing will reveal over time.
Source: Search Engine Journal
5. Black Week is the new black
Once again, this year, records have been broken in connection with Black Friday: MobilePay announces that during this year’s Black Friday, purchases worth 1.2 billion Danish crowns were made via the payment service. This corresponds to an increase of a whopping 32% compared to 2023 and is thus the highest figure so far.
There may be several reasons for this massive increase. Both the fact that Black Friday this year coincided with the arrival of payday, and that more and more people have become accustomed to doing large parts of their Christmas shopping on this day.
However, it is not only on Black Friday that money is put on the table. For more and more companies, Black Friday has started to extend over a whole week and has thus become Black Week. This also means that turnover is lower on Fridays but increases throughout the week. The reason: retail is under pressure, and a whole week of offers provides a greater opportunity to capture more customers. At the same time, there is competition for advertising space, and it is therefore important to be first on the spot.
Source: Markedsføring and MobilePay