New descriptive ‘pins’ from some brands, will now show relevant content, such as pricing or movie reviews, rather than only linking back to the brand’s website.

Pinterest has worked in partnership with a number of companies, including Sony, eBay, Netflix and ModCloth, to roll out the new content-laden pins. The information contained in the new pins will be dependent on which brand is posting them. For instance, a pin posted by Sony may potentially include product specification, dealer locations and pricing information; a Netflix pin could have a movie or TV show review and a cast list.

A representative from Pinterest said:

“[The] community will now see more useful Pins at first glance, rather than having to dig around or click to other websites.”

The change to some pins will offer brands an advertising opportunity that previously hadn’t existed within Pinterest. The new levels of detail allowed can give users far more detail than was previously available, meaning brands can pin specific details about products and not have users click away when they find themselves being navigated away from Pinterest.

The new descriptive pins could mean users spend more time on each page, which in turn would make it more attractive for advertisers seeking to gain a foothold in visual social media platforms.

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The new Universal Analytics tool will give marketers the ability to monitor usage within sessions and across devices. As a result, it is expected that they will be able to gain more insight into how consumers use different devices to access online content.

In Google’s previous analytics apps, users have been able to view different devices accessing content. However, one single user using a PC, a smartphone and then a tablet would register as three different visitors; which isn’t ideal for marketers. Using User ID, Universal Analytics now understands that the three visits are from one person.

The updates also mean that future investments will be directed more accurately. For instance, a consumer might visit a website on their tablet, but then completes a purchase on their desktop. With the new parameter, analysts can determine that only one person visited the site.

With cross device measurement, marketers can see how a user switches between devices. Previously, analytics tools would have shown little value in tablet usage as part of an interaction which resulted in a significant purchase being made later on another device. The new system demonstrates clearly the significance of continuing to invest in cross platform optimisation.

As digital marketing is becoming more prominent, the need for data analysis is also growing; it is clear Google’s changes will have a profound effect for marketers.

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The changes will allow marketing teams to target keywords and tweet users based on intent. This will be on top of geo-tagging and simpler interest based filters.

Analysing recent tweets, a snack company would have the potential to target those who had tweeted “I’m hungry”. This can then be supplemented with Twitter’s other tools designed for targeting users and suddenly marketers are reaching a much more specific user group.

Several major brands have already used the keyword targeting tool on a trial basis and results have been promising. Some brands saw engagement rates of nearly 11% on promoted tweets. This figure is significantly bigger than Twitter’s best existing engagement rate, which was around 2%.

Speaking about the development, Twitter’s Kevin Weil said:

“We think this will be a big step for us and we are super excited to launch keyword targeting in timelines. More relevant, actionable promoted tweets are better for users and ultimately brands.”

Twitter hasn’t confirmed how far into the history of users’ timelines it would look with its keyword targeting. Instead it claimed that this would be considered continually and the company would be working with user and advertiser feedback.

Twitter will continue to allow users the option to dismiss any promoted tweet that they don’t consider relevant.

Experts believe this introduction of keyword targeting will appeal to more recognised brands as marketing campaigns become more successful.

Twitter is predicted to bring in over $580m in global advertising revenue this year, with twice that amount expected in 2014.

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This week, Blackberry’s challenge to Android and iOS continued as the firm announced the introduction of Flurry Analytics for its latest operating system. It also announced that its popular messaging service, BBM, will be made available to Android and iOS users by summer 2013.

Developers of apps can use Flurry Analytics to access user data. It provides developers with information about users that includes demographics, engagement and buying patterns. Flurry Analytics has been available for rival mobile operating systems and this addition to Blackberry gives it parity for developers and marketers and could see an increase in apps for the platform, something it has often received criticism for.

Flurry Analytics will allow developers of apps for Blackberry 10 to gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour and will prove invaluable in terms of monitoring spend and income streams.

According to Martyn Mallick:

“We’re excited to work with Flurry to provide developers with Flurry Analytics, which will help enable them to bring high quality apps on the BlackBerry 10 platform.”

Whether the addition will see Blackberry challenging iOS and Android is yet to be seen. Certainly, it seems likely that Blackberry users will see a range of new apps and apps are often seen as key to sales in the smartphone market.

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In the UK, around 66% of smartphone users are using mcommerce apps. In comparison, approximately 57% of German smartphone owners, and 55% of American smartphone owners, use mcommerce apps.

UK smartphone owners are also spending 50% more time with mcommerce apps than all of the markets Arbitron surveyed. This is in addition to the overall number of sessions undertaken by UK smartphone users.

In the UK, smartphone owners are averaging around 135 minutes a month using the apps, equating to nearly 55 sessions. Across the Atlantic, American smartphone users are spending, on average, just over 90 minutes per month whilst German and French users also log significantly less mcommerce use than UK users.

The most used mcommerce app in the UK is eBay, with nearly 44% of those surveyed using it for more than 144 minutes per month. The next most popular is Amazon mobile. However, Amazon is used considerably less than eBay, with barely more than 29 minutes per month usage.

Andreas Piani, European Arbiton Mobile’s general manager, said:

“If they haven’t already, merchants should be taking advantage of… the mobile medium and ensure that they have a diversified strategy to engage consumers… mcommerce isn’t just an appendix to ecommerce, and apps aren’t just a downloadable declination of mobile-optimized sites.”

He went on to explain that businesses should ensure they have mobile-optimised sites to ensure mcommerce opportunities are maximised.

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The increased spend in mobile advertising accounts for more than 50% of the total increase in digital advertising spend for the period. The increased ad spend was as a result of the explosion in smartphone sales. Mobile advertising accounts for nearly 10% of digital advertising spend in the UK – nearly ten times the 1.1% it accounted for in 2009.

According to Tim Elkington of IAB:

“Mobile has reached this milestone because marketers are becoming more attuned to the ‘always on’ nature of consumers.”

Elkington went on to explain that, in light of the excitement surrounding mobile, over the past half year another 20 of the top advertisers in the UK have developed websites optimised for mobile devices.

With 4G’s bandwidth allowing for more data intensive content and the success of the tablet device, it seems mobile’s growth is likely to continue. Investment in mobile optimisation will see more and more consumer interaction.

Despite the relative newness of 4G in the UK, there has been significant growth in video advertising for mobile. Indeed, there has been a 1,601% growth in video advertising, with spend rising from less than £1m in 2011 to £13m last year.

The biggest spenders within mobile advertising were entertainment and media companies; retail and consumer goods closely followed.

Advertisers seeking to ride the mobile wave will need to ensure ads are relevant and must engage customers to bring improved results for brands.

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As consumer use of mobile devices continues to grow, at almost exponential rates, marketers are continually seeking new ways to deliver to quality content to mobile users. Optimising websites and emails is paying dividends for many but stalls in load time or sites not operating smoothly can lead to consumers clicking away.

For marketers seeking to gain a presence amongst mobile users, Samsung’s unveiling will be welcome news. The company’s new module, which is the world’s first 4GB LPDDR3 DRAM, will be faster and physically thinner, increasing its power and flexibility.

The new memory is closer in architecture to that used in desktop PCs and will help close the gap in performance between the two options. Samsung’s Vice President said:

“Our 20nm-class 4GB mobile DRAM provides another example of our ability to deliver well-differentiated, high-performance, high-density memory to customers in a timely manner.”

The new memory is 100 per cent quicker than the previous offering, an LPDDR2 DRAM module. In addition to the increased speed, the new DRAM module will use less energy, due to its 20nm process technology.

Samsung is hopeful that the new memory modules will provide the speed and power needed for the next wave of feature-packed smartphones to hit the market.

The increase in speed should prove popular with marketers and consumers alike. Consumers are increasingly seeking memory and processor-hungry content; whilst marketers are continually looking to provide engaging content to dazzle consumers.

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The software development platform will allow it to further develop premium apps. The takeover is estimated to have cost Facebook $85 million.

Facebook appears to have plans to integrate more premium apps into its social media channel, and with around a billion users, it makes sound financial sense to do so.

Douglas Purdy of Facebook spoke about the development, saying the acquisition will make it easier for developers to create mobile apps with the social network.

The integration of Parse into Facebook will allow software developers to build cross platform apps. This is an increasingly important area for developers as mobile device usage is rapidly increasing. Parse is specifically designed to enable developers to use native objects with the provision for data storage and user management options.

It was during Facebook’s first conference for mobile developers that it announced the acquisition of Parse. Alongside the introduction, there were other tools for developers unveiled, such as Open Graph, which allows better Facebook login from mobile devices.

The new tools and developments are clear indicators of the company’s vision to allow software developers to create apps that will operate across mobile devices more efficiently.

Facebook has worked with the team at Parse and is convinced the new products and tools are key to the rapid development of mobile apps.

Facebook believes it can work with Parse to expand the range of services and products it offers.

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Sales of tablets actually accounted for more than half of all sales of computing devices.

The performance of tablet sales reveals an annual increase of 163%, supporting a revenue value increase of 87%. The figures are impressive but are actually lower than sales figures for the final quarter of 2012, due mostly to the festive shopping period.

As marketing teams work with web developers to create strategies for the remainder of the year, these figures should raise alarm bells for those who have yet to embrace mobile devices in their approach. With consumers increasingly accessing the internet on their mobile devices, businesses not optimising websites and content are likely to lose out to competitors who do.

In conjunction with increased tablet sales, wireless keyboard sales are also increasing. This may indicate that consumers are using tablets as alternatives to traditional laptops.

Sales of smartphones remained buoyant during the first quarter of 2013, with a 15% growth.

The increase in tablet sales is also hitting the traditional PC market, as sales in laptops and desktops declined significantly during the same period. This change to how consumers are using devices is clearly significant for marketing executives and web developers.

With the UK’s mobile device market having such strength, the potential for mobile marketing has never been greater. Marketers need to ensure their content and websites are optimised for mobile or face losing out.

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Customers and marketers were hopeful of a release date before Christmas 2013, and letters to Santa had already been drafted. However, those among the avid pre-order crowd were told this week that the breakthrough technology won’t be ready for the festive season.

In an interview this week, Schmidt explained that the product is about another year from release. This gives a potential release date of spring 2014 for the much-hyped device.

The ‘wearable computer’ sparked much feverous interest when it was revealed earlier this year and marketers were licking their lips at the thoughts of potential new geo-marketing options and Google Glass content.

Schmidt told the BBC that the launch of Google Glass was not as close as online speculators had claimed. He further explained:

“There will be thousands of [Google Glass devices] in use by developers over the next months, and then based on their feedback, we’ll make some product changes, and it’s probably a year-ish away.”

The technology is designed to be worn on the face and is set to change the way users interact with the environment.

Regardless of the delay in rolling out Google Glass, it is already known that users can take photos, record video and share this content immediately. Users will also have access to navigation apps using voice commands and are likely to be able to view language translations.

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