The Friday Five: Asda Elf Ad Wins Top Award, LinkedIn Launches New Features, and Sunak Pressured to Ban Staff Using TikTok

Good afternoon, fellow marketing! It's time for your weekly dose of digital marketing news and insights with our newsletter, The Friday Five. As usual, we've gathered the top five most noteworthy stories of the week for your convenience. From social media shake-ups to the latest SEO updates, we've got you covered.

So, grab your favourite beverage, get comfortable, and let's get into it!

1. TikTok Limits Screen Time for Under-18s

TikTok is introducing a 60-minute daily screen time limit for users under 18.

The move is part of the video app's efforts to help young people manage their use and follows the introduction of a prompt last year that increased screen time tool usage by 234%. Users can opt out of the limit, but anyone under 18 who exceeds the threshold must enter a passcode to continue using the service that day.

TikTok said it consulted with researchers in developing the new limits and had worked with experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital. However, critics have welcomed the screen time limit but described it as the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to TikTok's response to young users' exposure to the platform.

Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, recently published research showing TikTok's algorithm "bombards" teenagers with harmful content and described it as "the crack cocaine of algorithms" that needed to be dealt with urgently.

He called on the platform to focus its efforts not just on curbing screen time, but also to "clean up" feeds of harmful content to make it a "safe environment for children".

For more on this head over to the BBC.

2. Meta’s AI Ad Tool Advantage+ Boosting Ad Campaigns but at a Cost: Control

According to multiple brands, Meta's AI advertising tool, Advantage+, has reportedly boosted ad campaigns' success.

The tool was launched in August to overcome the restrictions introduced by Apple in 2019 that force apps to obtain users' permission to track them and deliver personalised ads.

Instead of using personalised advertising, Advantage+ uses AI to generate numerous variations of adverts tailored to marketers' objectives, then determines the most effective ad to run.

However, three companies have told the Financial Times they are apprehensive about the tool, given the amount of control they have to hand over to Meta as a marketer. One UK-based games firm said they decided not to use Advantage+ due to the amount of control they had to give up as a marketer. A UK-based retailer said the results were significantly better but that marketers had to give over control, creating an "algorithmic black box solution where there is an algorithm saying it can do better [marketing] work than you can".

The new tool aims to help Meta overcome restrictions that Apple introduced in 2019, which forced apps to seek user permission before tracking them and serving personalised adverts. Meta has reportedly lost up to ￡8.2bn ($10bn) in revenue after Apple introduced advertising and data privacy restrictions.

For more, head over to the Financial Times (paywall).

3. Asda’s Christmas Ad Was Top Performing Ad in 2022

ITV and research company System1 has released the 50 top-performing UK ads of 2022, with 21 of the ads being Christmas-themed.

System1's Test Your Ad platform analysed 25,000 ads aired in the UK last year and measured viewers' emotional responses to each ad. Every ad that made the top 50 scored 5 stars or higher on System1's scale from 1 to 5.9 stars, with the average rating being 5.4 stars.

Asda's Buddy the Elf festive ad won first place with 5.9 stars, while Christmas ads from Disney and Amazon followed closely behind in second and third place, respectively. Retailers also secured fourth and fifth place.

The year also saw emotional engagement increase overall, and brands were particularly successful in engaging viewers through emotional storytelling.

According to Campaign, System1's 2022 ranking shows the rise of the "Christmas creep," with festive ads appearing as early as September. This year's list also saw fewer "purpose-driven" ads that tackled social or political issues compared to the previous year.

Advertisers continued to focus on emotional storytelling, with campaigns that featured animals, children, and celebrities. Meanwhile, The Drum reports that Asda's Buddy the Elf ad has received criticism for misleading customers regarding the availability of the featured toy, resulting in the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banning the ad from being shown again.

For more, head over to Marketing Beat.

4. LinkedIn Launches New Ways to Keep You on Their Platform

LinkedIn has introduced several new tools to help users create, share, and promote content on the platform.

Among the updates is the ability to customize the SEO title and description of LinkedIn articles to make them easier to find. Users can also now prominently display different types of content in the Activity section of their profile, including images, videos, newsletters, and documents.

Additionally, LinkedIn has added a central location for analytics and creation tools, allowing users to create content and measure performance in one place.

Another feature introduced by LinkedIn is scheduled newsletters and articles, making it easier to plan and share content at the best times. The platform has also created a one-click subscribe URL and an embeddable button to help newsletter authors find the right audience. Lastly, LinkedIn is enhancing newsletter discovery by making them more visible in search results, with users searching for newsletter authors now seeing their newsletter under their name in the search results.

These updates provide valuable new ways for LinkedIn users to optimize their content and improve its visibility in search engines, showcase different types of content, and promote their newsletters to a wider audience.

For more on this head over to Search Engine Journal.

5. Stop Scrolling! Sunak Told to Ban Gov Officials from Using TikTok over Security Concerns

UK PM Rishi Sunak is under pressure to ban government officials from using TikTok over concerns about cybersecurity risks posed by the Chinese-owned social video app.

The European Commission recently suspended the use of the app on its staff’s devices over similar concerns, following a similar move by the US last year. Despite this, the prime minister has thus far refused to ban parliamentary staff and MPs from using the app.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, has called for a ban on using the app on any mobile phones used for work. She warned that “we run the risk of becoming a tech security laggard among free and open nations.”

The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith called on the prime minister to “take control of China policy,” adding that “it’s a critical time to do so.” In 2020, the parliament’s TikTok account was closed amid concerns about links to China.

Head to The Guardian to learn more.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's edition of the Friday Five! We hope you found these digital marketing stories both informative and entertaining. If you have any suggestions or feedback on what you'd like to see covered in future editions, feel free to drop us a line.

As always, don't forget to take a break from your screens and enjoy the weekend ahead. We'll be back next week with five new stories to keep you up-to-date on the latest trends in the world of marketing. Until then, have a great one!