The company originally patented its brand suitability technology in 2012. Earlier this year, it was one of six companies certified by Google to run brand-suitable campaigns for YouTube, and it was the only one also certified as a leader in YouTube content insights.

Pixability said the double certification enables it to gather deep details on YouTube videos or channels—including IAB category, 4As brand safety floor taxonomies, past performance and recency—and then score those videos or channels for brand suitability.

BrandShield is compatible with any YouTube advertising platform, including Google Ads, Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) and PixabilityONE.

Actions enabled by BrandShield include:

• The ability to access self-serve lists through PixabilityONE and a Chrome extension that appears in DV360 and Google Ads.
• Downloadable and customizable inclusion and exclusion lists that power brand suitable strategies.
• Visibility into performance metrics for each channel in Inclusion lists.
• A streamlined dashboard providing a detailed look at channel data.
• A way to easily preview channels and videos from the dashboard.
• Detailed channel stats for each channel in inclusion lists, including number of views and subscribers.

iProspect CEO Jeremy Cornfeldt said in a statement, “We’ve leveraged Pixability in the past for YouTube brand suitability with our most brand-conscious clients and value the control and performance their platform delivers. The added capabilities BrandShield provides allow us to more easily ensure that our clients’ ads run adjacent to the best content, while maximizing the performance of their spend on YouTube.”

Pixability CEO David George added, “For more than eight years, Pixability’s technology has ensured that every YouTube campaign we’ve powered has been both safe and brand suitable for advertisers. We’re excited to announce our platform’s expanded capabilities and to share this technology with agencies and brands who are running their own self-serve campaigns on DV360 and Google Ads.”

The five most popular categories that brands built campaigns around, according to the Shorty Awards, were:

• Environment and Sustainability (second consecutive year as the top category)
• Public Health (new to the top five, likely driven by the pandemic)
• LTBTQ+ (also new to the top five)
• Nonprofit (second year in the top five)
• Video Series (new to the top five)

Five new categories were added this year: Healthcare and Pharma and Fitness and Wellness under Industry; TikTok under platform; and Community or Employee Engagement and Podcast under Content & Strategy.

The Shorty Awards said the Community or Employee Engagement and Healthcare and Pharma categories stood out in terms of traction among the new categories.

Shorty Awards co-founder and Muck Rack CEO Gregory Galant said in a statement, “It’s more important than ever to keep important conversations going about the social good brands can create. The Shorty Social Good Awards offer an opportunity to take a look at the meaningful work brands have produced in this unprecedented past year, and they provide insight as to how they have used their platforms to highlight issues and causes. Despite being physically distanced right now, this show will succeed in bringing many leading industry minds together.”

The finalists for the Fifth Annual Shorty Social Good Awards are:

Best Global Campaign

Best Integrated Campaign

Best Mobile Campaign

Best Multiplatform Campaign

Best on a Shoestring Campaign

Best Pro Bono Campaign

Best Social Movement Campaign

Best in Accessibility

Best in Animal and Wildlife

Best in Arts and Culture

Best in Civic Engagement

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The business directory and crowdsourced review forum shared details Wednesday on its five most popular flavors for fall 2020:

• Pumpkin and pumpkin spice: Yelp said searches for pumpkin spice lattes were up 72% year-over-year in late September, while pumpkin pie was up 66% and pumpkin cheesecake up a whopping 242%.
• Brown sugar boba: Searches for this new decadent drink flavor were up 200% year-over-year.
• Mochi: Searches for mochi were up 96% year-over-year, while searches for mochi donuts were up 458%.
• Apple: Apple cider donuts saw a 117% year-over-year search spike, while the quest for socially distanced outdoor activities drove apple picking up 55%.
• Suadero tacos: Searches for suadero tacos skyrocketed 6,218% year-over-year.

On the Oktoberfest front, Yelp noted that while searches for beer types and breweries were down, the opposite was true for craft beer stores (up 26%).

Yelp trend expert Tara Lewis said in a statement, “At Yelp, we’re seeing people return to the comforting flavors of apple, brown sugar and pumpkin this fall, opting to enjoy the flavors in their favorite drinks and desserts. Whether they’re dining in or out, people are also eager to try suadero tacos, a delicious beef taco, making waves this season.”

Curator Pro, which Flipboard debuted in June for roughly 3,200 verified users on its platform, is now available to all Magazine curators.

It features a redesigned collection of tools for editing and organizing content in Magazines, including the ability to invite others to co-curate.

Magazine titles, descriptions and cover images can be added, and curators can perform other tasks including rearranging the order of links, such as to move timely articles to the top, as well as deleting broken links.

The new analytics dashboard in Curator Pro provides access to data on impressions, open rate and time spent, along with a 30-day overview of most opened articles, most shared articles, new followers and other metrics.

The new tools are accessible via the pencil icon on Flipboard Magazines by curators logged into their Flipboard account on the web.

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said in an interview that the company is “continuing to invest in the creator ecosystem,” adding that by providing “all curators with access to Curator Pro, they can see how their curation is being received by others.”

On the end-user side, Flipboard recently rolled out three features aimed at helping readers sort through the 30 million-plus Magazines on its platform, created by organizations, people and publishers:

• Today’s Picks: A daily selection of editorially chosen Magazines and Storyboards on timely or inspiring topics.
• Recommended Magazines: The For You feed now includes relevant magazines and Storyboards curated by the community.
• Featured Magazines Carousel: Thousands of topic feeds now surface Magazines and Storyboards specific to the topic.

Flipboard vice president of engineering Troy Brant said in an interview, “We wanted to make the best curation on the platform much more central, easier to access and discoverable.”

Brant added in a statement “The curation by our community is essential to the content experience on Flipboard—publishers, businesses and individuals are sharing articles and videos on every topic imaginable in Flipboard Magazines. Previously, only publishers could see traffic from Flipboard through their own analytics, and other curators had very limited insights. This is our first step toward illuminating the value people get from curators’ thoughtful and insightful Magazines.”

A dedicated playlist featuring 11 of Lennon’s most legendry solo tracks is now available to TikTok users worldwide:

• “Beautiful Boy”
• “Gimme Some Truth”
• “Give Peace a Chance”
• “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
• “Imagine”
• “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)”
• “Mind Games”
• “Nobody Told Me”
• “Remember”
• “Stand By Me”
• “Woman”

TikTok also kicked off global hashtag challenge #GimmeSomeTruth in recognition of the 1971 protest song Lennon co-produced with Phil Spector, featuring former Beatles bandmate George Harrison on guitar.

Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, said in a TikTok blog post Friday, “We’re super-excited to launch my dad’s official TikTok account and cannot wait to see what his fans all over the world create using his music and his message of peace and love.”

In interactive game Supermoji Sweep, available only on Twitter, people can reply to this tweet from the @SuperSweepABC account with a combination of the food emojis included in the tweet.

Each emoji is mapped to a specific price, so when players tweet a combination of emojis that equals at least $20 in groceries, they will receive a receipt from @SuperSweepABC, as well as a celebratory video message from Supermarket Sweep host Leslie Jones.

Twitter said it built a custom reply engine to handle the tasks of listening for emoji combinations, mapping them to real grocery store prices, determining winning combinations and delivering receipt-style tweets.

Twitter Next head of media and entertainment strategy Bridget Harvey said in an email, “Twitter and TV have always been the perfect pair. It’s exciting to work with ABC on such an innovative activation that meets fans where they are on Twitter and complements their viewing experience with this interactive experience. It’s a fun, modern way to bring this classic show back to the forefront of conversation.”

Microsoft corporate vice president Liat Ben-Zur wrote in a blog post, “To get started, just add items to your collection. When enabled, you will see suggested Pins related to your collection at the bottom of the Collections pane. You can easily add these suggestions to your existing collection, or export your collection to a new board on Pinterest.”

She added in a Pinterest blog post, “We believe people should expect more from their browser. I love using Pinterest suggestions in Microsoft Edge to discover content that inspires me for the holidays. From holiday party planning, to collecting meal recipes, to creating my gift-giving shopping list, Microsoft Edge + Pinterest can help everyone find fun and creative projects to help you stand out.”

The event will be livestreamed Saturday at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, and viewers will be able to donate to The Jed Foundation, which empowers teens and young adults with skills and support.

Donations are powered by charitable fundraising platform Tiltify.

In addition to The Jed Foundation, TikTok is also teaming up with mental health advocacy organizations Providence Health, Seize the Awkward and The Trevor Project to share tips, resources and conversation starters on its platform.

Diplo said in a TikTok blog post Friday, “Mental health is something we don’t speak enough about, but it’s something we all need to get better at. This year is hard. We’re more isolated than ever, due to social distancing. If you are struggling or have a friend or family member who is, you may not know how to begin a conversation, but there are great resources to help you make a difference.”

Head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher provided some color in a Newsroom post, writing, “Two of the networks we’re sharing today engaged primarily in commenting on content—relying on real people, not automation—to create the perception of widespread support of their narratives by leaving comments on posts by media entities and public figures. Other campaigns—like the ones from Russia (that we removed in late September)—focused on tricking unwitting freelance journalists into writing on behalf of these operations.”

He added. “Deceptive campaigns like these raise a particularly complex challenge by blurring the line between healthy public debate and manipulation. Our teams will continue to find, remove and expose these coordinated manipulation campaigns, but we know that these threats extend beyond our platform, and no single organization can tackle them alone. That’s why it’s critical that we, as a society, have a broader discussion about what is acceptable political advocacy and take steps to deter people from crossing the line.”

In early October, Facebook removed 200 accounts, 55 pages and 76 Instagram accounts that originated in the U.S. and focused on domestic audiences, as well as Botswana and Kenya.

Fake accounts were used to comment on other people’s content, with people posing as individuals on both sides of the political spectrum in the U.S.

Gleicher wrote, “We began our investigation after public reporting about some elements of this activity by The Washington Post. Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation linked this activity to Rally Forge, a U.S. marketing firm working on behalf of Turning Point USA and Inclusive Conservation Group. Rally Forge is now banned from Facebook. We are continuing to investigate all linked networks, and we will take action as appropriate if we determine that they are engaged in deceptive behavior.”

About 373,000 accounts followed one or more of the pages, and some 22,000 people followed at least one of the Instagram accounts. This network spent around $973,000 on ads on the two platforms, paid for in dollars.

Examples of content from the removed pages and accounts follow:

Another network removed early this month consisted of 17 pages, 50 accounts and six Instagram accounts engaged in domestic-focused activity from the country where they originated, Myanmar.

The individuals behind this network posted primarily in Burmese about local news and current events, and Facebook’s investigation found links to members of the Myanmar military.

Some 538,000 accounts followed at least one of the pages, while around 800 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts. About $1,850 was spent on Facebook ads, paid for in dollars.

Examples of content from the removed pages and accounts follow:

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