Lifestyle apparel retailer PacSun teamed up with Snap Inc. on an augmented reality lens that features its new back-to-school denim collection set in a desert landscape.

The companies said the AR world design was inspired by Morocco, the location of PacSun’s latest marketing campaign.

Opening the Snapchat application in selfie mode gives users two options: world view brings up a desert featuring three of PacSun’s back-to-school looks in an AR setting, and the app’s shoppable AR tech lets Snapchatters purchase items directly via the retailer’s website.

The lens is available to Snapchatters in the U.S. via Lens Carousel.

Snap cited research earlier this year, which found that 27% of college students on Snapchat plan to spend at least $700 on back-to-school shopping in 2020, while families in the U.S. with one student in high school are projected to spend more than $8.5 billion.

Influencer and PacSun brand ambassador Andrea Russett used the lens to browse the denim collection and posted her experience.

PacSun chief marketing officer Kristen D’Arcy said in a statement, “We wanted to surprise and delight our customers on Snapchat, enhancing their shopping experience using AR. So, we partnered with Snapchat to launch our back-to-school lens, giving them new options for trying on our latest styles from home. The lens has already proven to be a good source of high-impact impressions and engagements.”

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/pacsun-goes-back-to-school-with-snapchat-ar-lens/

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media revealed early Wednesday morning that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube agreed to adopt a common set of definitions covering hate speech and other harmful content, as well as to work together in monitoring industry efforts.

GARM is a cross-industry initiative founded and led by the World Federation of Advertisers and supported by other trade bodies including the 4A’s, the Association of National Advertisers and ISBA.

The announcement Wednesday follows 15 months of “intensive talks” within GARM between major advertisers, agencies and key global platforms.

Four key areas for action were identified.

• Common definitions for hateful content: GARM said these currently vary by platform, making it difficult for brand owners to make informed decisions on where their ads are placed and to hold platforms accountable. It has been working on crafting common definitions since last November, and more depth and breadth on specific types of harmful content—hate speech, aggression, bullying—has been added.
• Reporting standards: Each platform has its own methodologies for measuring the occurrence of harmful content, and GARM said having a harmonized reporting framework was a key step toward ensuring the policies are enforced effectively. Metrics on issues such as advertiser safety, consumer safety and platform effectiveness in addressing harmful content have been agreed upon, and the system is slated to be rolled out in the second half of next year.
• Independent oversight: GARM said agencies, brands and platforms need an independent view on how harmful content is being categorized, eliminated and reported, and the goal is to have all major platforms at least in the auditing process, if not fully audited, by year-end.
• Advertising adjacency solutions: GARM stressed that brands must have the ability to see when their ads appear next to harmful or unsuitable content and to quickly take corrective measures when that occurs, adding that it expects platforms that don’t already have adjacency solutions in place to provide development roadmaps during the fourth quarter. Pinterest, Snap Inc. and TikTok joined Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in issuing firm commitments on this front.

WFA CEO Stephan Loerke said in a statement, “The issue of harmful content online has become one of the challenges of our generation. As funders of the online ecosystem, advertisers have a critical role to play in driving positive change, and we are pleased to have reached agreement with the platforms on an action plan and timeline in order to make the necessary improvements. A safer social media environment will provide huge benefits not just for advertisers and society, but also to the platforms themselves.”

Mastercard chief marketing officer and WFA president Raja Rajamannar added, “We are delighted that GARM has made such significant progress in such a short period of time. I know these discussions have not been easy, but these solutions, when implemented, will offer more choice and control for advertisers and their agencies by supporting content that aligns with their values.”

Unilever executive vice president of global media Luis Di Como said, “This is a significant milestone in the journey to rebuild trust online. Unilever has long championed a responsible and safe online environment through Unilever’s responsibility framework and, as founding members of GARM, we are encouraged by the acceleration and focus to come together as an industry and agree on these four key areas of action. The issues within the online ecosystem are complicated, and whilst change doesn’t happen overnight, today marks an important step in the right direction.”

And Mars global responsible marketing officer Jacqui Stephenson added, “This is a meaningful milestone in our work with GARM and part of a longer journey that started over 18 months ago. Thanks to the uncommon collaboration of GARM’s diverse membership, we now have a time-bound roadmap for the development of foundational standards, definitions and reporting practices across social media platforms, which will help make social media an experience that is safer for everyone, consumers and brands alike. This is not a declaration of victory, as there is much work to be done, and we rely on all of our platform partners to follow through on their commitments with the pace and urgency these issues demand. Nevertheless, this is an important step in making social media a safer place for society and it’s important to recognize the progress and build further momentum as a result.”

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/facebook-twitter-youtube-make-commitments-to-the-global-alliance-for-responsible-media/

Roughly 3.6 million Hispanics in the U.S. will turn 18 during this election season and become eligible to vote, and Telemundo is marking National Voter Registration Day Tuesday with a national, multiplatform campaign aimed at giving them all the necessary information and motivation to do so.

Telemundo said 2020 marks the first general election in the U.S. where Latinos will be the largest ethnic group eligible to vote, accounting for a projected 13% of the electorate, or approximately 32 million Hispanic voters.

The Hispanic-focused media company added that its National Voter Registration Day efforts are the culmination of its ongoing, nonpartisan Decisión 2020 campaign, under the banner of its El Poder En Ti (The Power in You) corporate social responsibility initiative.

Telemundo and the Hispanic Federation have been running a sequence of bilingual phone banks to encourage Latinos to register to vote, and a national phone bank will run Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET to ensure that callers have all the information they need both to register and to navigate the rules and restrictions associated with voting during a pandemic.

The company said over 11,000 calls have been received by these phone banks nationwide since July.

Telemundo also rolled out Planifica Tu Voto, a Spanish-language version of sister company NBC News’ Plan Your Vote tool, offering a state-by-state guide of the voting process, including the most up-to-date information as procedures and regulations are announced in real-time.

On Tuesday, there will be daylong integrations and speaker panels across news and entertainment shows including Un Nuevo Día Morning Show, Noticias Mediodía, En Casa Con Telemundo and Edición Noticias Telemundo.

A webinar moderated by Noticias Telemundo correspondent Nicole Suarez and featuring representatives from the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, the Hispanic Federation, the NALEO Educational Fund and Voto Latino will be livestreamed on the Facebook and YouTube accounts of Noticias Telemundo Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

Telemundo stars including Kate del Castillo of La Reina Del Sur will participate in public service announcements to be shared on-air and social and digital platforms, and they will also share voter registration calls to action across social media, with a focus on reaching younger voters.

NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises senior vice president of corporate and external affairs Christina Kolbjornsen said in a statement, “Latinos have enormous power to shape the outcome of the 2020 elections. At Telemundo, we are dedicating our platforms and resources to ensure that our community is empowered to vote and informed on how to do so safely during the pandemic. Together with our partners, we hope to inspire millions of Latinos to recognize and honor the importance of their vote on National Voter Registration Day and beyond.”

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/telemundo-gears-up-for-national-voter-registration-day/

The Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lighting begin their battle for one of sports’ most iconic trophies when the puck drops for game one of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Final Saturday night, and Twitter shared some data, along with details on related initiatives during the games.

The social network said there were 22% more mentions of @TBLightning than of @DallasStars during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but #GoStars was tweeted 64% more often than #GoBolts.

Both of those hashtags unlock team emojis when used in tweets, and they will do even more during the upcoming series.

The @NHL account and the two team accounts will encourage fans to use those hashtags during the first two periods of Stanley Cup Final games, and in-arena displays and screens at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, where the games are being held, will display team colors and top tweets from the most-mentioned club throughout the third period.

Twitter said the most mentioned Stars accounts during this year’s playoffs were:

The most-mentioned Lightning accounts during the 2020 playoffs were:

• Nikita Kucherov
• Brayden Point
• Anthony Cirelli

The games during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs that generated the highest tweet volumes were:

• Game four, Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets, Aug. 7 (Leafs win in overtime)
• Game five, Stars at Vegas Golden Knights, Sept. 14 (Stars advance)
• Game seven, Vancouver Canucks at Golden Knights, Sept. 4 (Golden Knights advance)
• Game one, Blue Jackets at Lightning, Aug. 11 (five overtimes)
• Game five, Blue Jackets at Maple Leafs, Aug. 9 (Blue Jackets advance)

Finally, for U.S. audiences only, the first two minutes of each game’s first and third periods will be livestreamed on @NHL.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/twitter-hits-the-ice-for-the-nhl-stanley-cup-final/

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[unable to retrieve full-text content] https://www.adweek.com/digital/kansas-city-chiefs-tom-brady-top-nfl-twitter-in-week-1/

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[unable to retrieve full-text content] https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-buys-washington-corporate-campus-originally-intended-for-rei/

Instagram Tuesday began adding artificial-intelligence-powered automatic captions to videos on its IGTV long-form video destination.

The feature will start off in 16 languages worldwide.

People watching IGTV videos with the volume on zero will automatically see the captions, and they can go to their settings to control how and when they see them, or they can do so via an on/off toggle in the video drop-down menu.

Instagram said in an email, “Audio within Instagram videos is unique in that there are a variety of different languages, topics, acoustic conditions, cultural slang and accents. Auto-captioning videos requires cutting-edge research and engineering to power the AI that we use in the process.”

In November 2018, the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network took steps to help the visually impaired, introducing automatic alternative text and custom alternative text for photos.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/instagram-adds-ai-powered-automatic-captions-to-igtv-videos/