SOCIAL
Meta Announces Pride Month Activations in Messenger and Messenger Kids

Meta has announced a new set of Pride-themed features for Messenger and Messenger Kids, providing more ways for users to engage in Pride Month celebrations.
First off, on Messenger – Meta’s adding new Word Effects, camera stickers, and 3D Avatar stickers to its existing Pride collection, which already includes various 360 backgrounds, sticker packs and chat themes.
As per Meta:
“#ConnectWithPride using new Word Effects on Messenger, a fun emoji cascade to everyday words and phrases you’re already using in your chats. Once you select the Pride chat theme, try out ‘Beautiful’, ‘Queer’, ‘Community’, ‘Stand Proud’ and ‘Transgender’, or create your own Word Effects to level up your convos with friends and family in celebration of Pride.”
Word Effects, which Meta launched in Messenger last year, enable you to choose an emoji to be paired with a certain word or term, which will then spark an on-screen explosion of that emoji character whenever it’s used within your chat (hence the rainbows in the image above). That can add a more festive spark to your discussions, and using the above terms, as Meta notes, will trigger an emoji response throughout June.
Meta’s new 3D Avatar Pride stickers, meanwhile, will be available in feed and stories on both Facebook and Messenger, while its chat themes will be accessible in Messenger and Instagram too.
“Later this month, we’ll also roll out a brand new sticker pack that invites conversation around support and love, designed in partnership with the incredibly talented London-based, non-binary artist and creator Wednesday Holmes (they/them).”
Meta’s also looking to highlight inspiring LGBTQ+ voices and artists, including actor and model Kais Boukthir and performer JoJo Siwa.
“This month, you can check out JoJo Goes, a new hybrid docuseries-format that follows JoJo and her celebrity friends as they partake in some crazy fun adventures she’s always wanted to experience but never got the chance to try before.”
On Messenger Kids, Meta’s also bringing back its Pride camera stickers and camera frame, as well as its rainbow AR effect.

Meta’s also announced a range of Pride-themes activations across Facebook and Instagram, providing a range of ways for people to engage with the event. And for brands, Meta’s also releasing an updated Global LGBTQ+ Cultural Guide later this month, which is designed to ‘educate and inspire authentic ways to support the LGBTQ+ community’.
Pride Month is an important opportunity to share your support, which can be a big thing for those within the LGBTQ+ community who still often deal with prejudice and bias based on who they are. A simple note of support, or even the use of a sticker on your profile, can go a long way to improve tolerance and acceptance, and it’s worth taking that extra step with your own social media presence – personal or brand.
SOCIAL
Pinterest Focuses on Travel Inspiration and Education for Black History Month

Pinterest is taking a unique approach to Black History Month, with a new ‘Find Your Routes’ Black Travel Hub initiative, which aims to highlight places that have strong connections to Black history, while also showcasing Black-owned businesses.
As explained by Pinterest:
“Find Your Routes” is inspired by The Negro Motorist Green Book aka “The Green Book”. The Green Book was a guidebook for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era that provided a list of accessible hotels, boarding houses, taverns, restaurants, service stations and other establishments throughout the country that served Black Americans patrons.”
The Black Travel Hub, which you can find here, will present a range of travel options, along with their history, with creators from the US, Colombia, Jamaica, Brazil and more, all taking part in presenting their city.
It could be a good way to provide education alongside inspiration in the app, while also helping people to connect, and support highlighted communities.
Pinterest will also be showcasing Black-owned businesses on Pinterest TV, while internally, it’s also hosting a company-wide event ‘to help employees gain knowledge about the history, present, and future of Black travel through the lens of Black Pinployees’.
As noted, it could be a good way to both spark important conversations, and inspire new travel journeys, which include an extra level of cultural understanding and education, along with a leisure break.
It’s an interesting take on the celebration either way, and it’ll be worth noting what sort of reaction the initiative gets, and whether it inspires more travel as a result.
SOCIAL
Snap Tumbles On Weak Revenue, Gloomy Outlook

Snap shares plunged after missing analyst expectations in Q4, while forecasting a year-over-year revenue decline.
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SOCIAL
Snapchat Adds 12 Million Users in Q4, Posts Lower Than Expected Revenue Result

Snapchat added 12 million more active users in Q4 2022, and Snapchat+ subscriptions continue to rise, but company revenue missed market estimates, in another mixed result for the private social app.
First off, on users – as noted, Snap added 12 million more actives, taking it to 375 million DAU.
As you can see, North American user growth is still flat, while European users saw a slight uptick. But it’s the ‘Rest of the World’, specifically India, which is driving Snap growth.
Which is helping to boost the overall usage numbers, and expand opportunity. But on the revenue side, it’s not pushing things forward in a significant way.

As you can see in this chart, Snapchat’s revenue has increased, but a key problem here is that it’s still reliant on the US and Canada for the majority of that spend, with other markets trailing well behind on the revenue front.

In this chart, you can see that Snap’s Revenue Per User has actually declined year-on-year – so while it is growing, it’s not bringing in revenue at equivalent scale, and it’s even going backwards in some respects.
Which is why its stagnant growth in North America is a problem – though Snap has also seen take-up of its Snapchat+ subscription service increase.
“In Q4, our subscription service Snapchat+ reached over 2.0 million paying subscribers. Snapchat+ offers exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features, and in Q4 we launched new features such as Custom Story Expiration and Custom Notification Sounds, providing subscribers with over 12 exclusive features.”
That’s a handy additional revenue stream, but as with all social media subscription services (including Twitter Blue), take-up is generally limited, and at 2 million subscribers, that’s still only 0.5% of Snapchat’s active user base that’s been willing to pay extra for these add-on elements.
Snap has also faced challenges in rebuilding its ad business, in the wake of Apple’s iOS 14 update, which has impacted data collection, and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says they still have some way to go on this yet:
“We continue to face significant headwinds as we look to accelerate revenue growth, and we are making progress driving improved return on investment for advertisers and innovating to deepen the engagement of our community.”
Snap has seen improvement in its commerce integrations, which includes digital items for Bitmoji avatars which Snap is eventually looking to translate into real-world item sales as well. Snap also says that it’s facilitated over than 161 million product trials by over 35 million Snapchatters for Walmart, leveraging its Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses at-scale.

Those point to bigger opportunities, but right now, amid the broader economic downturn, and restrictions on data collection and targeting, Snapchat is in a tough spot, and will be for some time yet.
Essentially, then, you’re banking on Snap’s future, and its advanced tools that could help it better align with expanded AR and VR use. And Snap is seemingly in a good position on this front – though again, the impacts of the last year, which also forced Snap into lay-offs, will also have some effect.
Really, then, the results here are relative to your perspective.
For advertisers, more Snap users means more potential reach – but most of Snap’s growth is coming from outside the US. More advanced AR activations could become a bigger deal in future, but it depends on how you’re looking to connect, and product fit.
Investors won’t be overly happy with the numbers, but there are positive signs on the horizon. It’s just that the horizon, in this respect, remains well in the distance at this stage.
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