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Meta released its 2026 holiday marketing guide mid-year, covering three key areas: Reels brand exposure, creator collaborations, and shopping process optimization, supplemented with consumer behavior data and quarterly execution recommendations.
Meta recently unveiled a series of cross-app new features for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, covering Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp. These features aim to help users track matches in real time, engage in interactions, and show support, including live chats, score alerts, AI effects, themed stickers, and more.
Snapchat recently revealed its full activation plan for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, covering new Bitmoji store items, AR filters, creator collaborations, real-time topic chats, and offline events in two U.S. locations, aiming to boost user engagement on the platform through the tournament.
Pinterest announced the launch of the Amazon Storefront link feature, which allows eligible creators to showcase their Amazon store on their profile and automatically apply affiliate links to Pins without manual addition. This move aims to enhance cross-platform product discovery and sales conversion, while also driving more traffic to the Amazon Associates program.
Snapchat this week began rolling out a new experience for users under 16, restricting them to sharing Spotlight videos and Stories only with mutual followers, and removing follower and like counts to reduce potential risks. This move comes as multiple countries consider stricter social media restrictions for teens.
TikTok has released a new study on the effectiveness of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) marketing campaigns, conducted by consumer analytics firm Circana, which analyzed 97 Geo Lift studies across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. The results show that TikTok ad campaigns drive an average in-store sales lift of 2.7%, slightly above the social media platform benchmark of 2.3%. Notably, campaigns run during non-seasonal periods achieved a 46% sales lift, while peak-season campaigns still outperformed the social benchmark by 13%. The study also found that sustained advertising (over seven weeks) and the use of premium formats such as Top Feed and Pulse can significantly enhance sales performance.
Snapchat partnered with Dentsu to release research using Lumen Research eye-tracking and Kantar brand frameworks to analyze the attention, memory, and sales impact of video ads. Data shows that a single ad exposure increased consumer spending by 4.4% over three months, with a long-term sales lift of 24%, and a CPM 76% lower than non-skippable formats on other platforms.
TikTok has unveiled its plans for the 2026 Community Festival, which will begin on June 11 and run throughout the summer, focusing on live streaming creators and featuring educational workshops, in-app competitions, and community celebrations. For the first time, it will launch the Creator Academy global course series and host the Match Mania global live streaming competition. This move is a key step in TikTok's push to globalize its live streaming business.
Snap Inc. has acquired spatial AI developer Illumix, aiming to accelerate its AR and AI experience development and drive the integration of digital and physical worlds. Illumix specializes in spatial understanding and digital mapping technology, and its capabilities will directly serve Snap's ongoing AR glasses project. The acquisition comes as Snap plans to launch its first consumer AR glasses in 2026, but questions remain in the industry about whether it can shake Meta and Apple's position in the competition.
Against the backdrop of slowing or even shrinking growth in the US and European markets, India has become a key growth region for Snapchat. The company reports that monthly active users in India exceed 250 million, making it the largest regional market; the number of advertisers has grown tenfold in two years, and the number of advertisers running campaigns throughout the year has tripled. Immersive ad formats and AI-driven targeting capabilities have improved ad effectiveness, but the overall user base is still declining, requiring a balance between ad load and user experience.