Disney released a new content update for Disney Crossy Road on mobile, bringing The Jungle Book to the game. In addition, Disney announced that the game has surpassed 10 million downloads since its release April 7.
Created in partnership with Hipster Whale, Disney Crossy Road challenges players to survive as long as possible by tapping to advance across lanes while avoiding obstacles like cars, animals and more. The game features worlds based on The Lion King, Disney Pixar’s Inside Out and more.
With this update, players can unlock the Jungle Book world instantly by purchasing one of its characters via in-app purchase. Players can also unlock the world for free by winning one of its characters in the game’s prize machine.
While playing in the Jungle Book world, players must avoid forest fires, which are triggered by lightning strikes. Once lightning strikes a square and causes a fire, the fire will spread to nearby squares, sometimes blocking areas of the path.
The Jungle Book update includes 15 characters such as Mowgli, Kaa, Baloo and Shere Khan, among others. The set includes four secret characters, which are not available to purchase. In total, the game’s latest update includes 25 new characters, but 14 of these are secret.
NBC reached its first-ever deal to share video from the Olympic Games, reaching a deal with Snapchat.
Bloomberg reported that Snapchat will establish a dedicated channel for video from the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janiero, and it will create daily Live Stories with content from NBC, athletes and fans.
BuzzFeed will also populate that channel, Discover, with short clips and behind-the-scenes content, according to Bloomberg, which added that the agreement is exclusive to the U.S., while BuzzFeed’s content will be available on other outlets besides Snapchat.
NBC told Re/code it has a revenue-sharing deal with Snapchat for whatever ads it sells, not providing further details, and the network added that its partnership with Snapchat is non-exclusive.
Snapchat director of partnerships Ben Schwerin told Bloomberg:
It’s as much about what’s going on on the field as what’s going on in the Olympic village and Rio and really feeling like you’re there–seeing it through the fans’ eyes and the athletes’ eyes. Billions of people watch the Olympics on TV but a small fraction actually get to attend them in person.
We have never allowed the distribution of any game highlights off NBC’s own platforms, (but Snapchat) really effectively reaches a very important demographic in the U.S. and is very important to our efforts to assemble the large, massive audience that will show up to watch the Olympic Games.
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If you’re looking for a new mobile game to try this weekend, you have plenty of new options available, including Disney Magical Dice from Netmarble Games. The Monopoly-style board game allows up to four players to travel around a Disney-themed game board and spend coins to purchase properties.
In addition, Rovio and Tag Games released Angry Birds Action on mobile. The game was inspired by pinball, and it challenges players to help the Angry Birds rescue eggs by flinging the birds around the playing field.
Are you looking for something different to play? Here’s a look at some of the additional mobile games released this week.
Spellbinders (Free on iOS, Android) – This multiplayer strategy game from Kiloo and Funday Factory combines elements from tower defense and multiplayer online battle arena games. The game allows players to select a Titan and control an army in battles, with the goal of destroying the enemy’s base on the far side of the screen. The battlefield is split into lanes, and players can spend mana (which they earn automatically over time) to deploy their minions or cast spells onto the battlefield. If minions from either team reach the cannons in the center of the screen, they can capture them for their team. Cannons will automatically attack the enemy base over time. Minions, meanwhile, will continue to walk across the battlefield, automatically attacking enemies in the same lane, or attacking the base if they’re allowed to reach it. Games end when one base runs out of hit points.
Apestorm: Full Bananas ($0.99 on iOS, Android) – From Snowbound and Channel 4’s All 4 Games, Apestorm: Full Bananas is a side-scrolling zeppelin-bombing game, which asks players to help apes defeat humans who have destroyed the planet. In each of the game’s 20 levels, players can drop bombs on buildings and other man-made objects to earn points. However, if they hit a natural object, like a tree, they lose points. While the zeppelin flies automatically, players can control its speed and altitude to avoid obstacles and aim at targets. Users also have access to nine different power-ups, which can help them complete levels.
Dino Bash (Free on iOS, Android) – From pokoko Studio and Tilting Point, this tower-defense game challenges players to help dinosaurs protect their eggs from hungry cavemen. During each level, players can deploy dinosaurs using apples, which recharge automatically over time. Dinosaurs will automatically attack approaching cavemen. Players can also help the dinosaurs by using weapons like bombs and traps to attack enemies. Gamers will unlock new kinds of dinosaurs over time, and they can upgrade them to make them stronger. Dino Bash includes 75 levels to complete.
Tome of the Sun (Free on iOS, Android) – This action RPG from NetEase Games challenges players to protect the Sun Kingdom from evil forces. Players can choose to become a knight, mage, duelist or archer, and they can collect more than 1,000 gear, costume and accessory items for their hero. During battle, players tap on the ground to move, and their hero will automatically attack nearby enemies. Gamers can also tap buttons to trigger their hero’s special abilities. In addition to single-player battles, Tome of the Sun offers player vs. player modes, including an arena, clan wars and more.
The Walking Dead: Michonne Episode 3: What We Deserve ($4.99 on iOS, Android, Amazon) – This final episode in a three-part series from Telltale Games follows Michonne as she tries to protect an innocent family. While playing, gamers can make choices impacting the story. Specifically, Telltale said players’ choices will determine who lives and who dies. This episode is available as an in-app purchase for players who already own the first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne on mobile. Players have the option to purchase Episode 2 and Episode 3 in a bundle for $7.99.
The Interactive Adventures of Dog Mendonça & PizzaBoy ($4.99 on iOS) – From Deep Silver Fishlabs and OKAM Studio, this adventure game is based on the graphic novel trilogy published by Dark Horse Comics. The game stars Eurico, a former pizza delivery boy, who now works as the apprentice of an occult investigator named Dog Mendonça. Gamers will help Eurico solve a crime in Lisbon, which is filled with a variety of monsters.
Tomb of the Golems ($4.99 on Samsung Gear VR) – This virtual reality action adventure game from GREE VR Studio places players in the role of Sydney, a girl searching for her brother who went missing on an archeological research trip. Players will investigate a sanctuary under Egyptian ruins, and will work with Sydney’s monkey, Luca, to fight enemies like Anubis and Horus, among others. The game is controlled using both head movements and the touch pad on the Samsung Gear VR headset.
Pathfinder Adventures (Free on iPad, Android tablet) – From Obsidian Entertainment and Paizo, Pathfinder Adventures is a mobile adaptation of Paizo’s Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The card game allows players to build a team of heroes and choose each character’s class, and it allows players to add new gear and magic to their characters’ decks to make them stronger over time. In addition to single-player game play, Pathfinder Adventures supports pass-and-play multiplayer on a single device. The game is coming soon to iPhone and Android phones.
Risky Road (Free on iOS, Android) – This endless driving game from Ketchapp and Sanposuru challenges players to drive as long as possible along a hilly road while protecting the egg in their vehicle. Gamers hold on the screen to accelerate, and they can let go to slow down. Players will need to watch out for hills and gaps in the road, and they will earn points as they pass progress flags on the path. Games end when players allow the egg to be destroyed. Users can collect coins as they play, and spend these on new vehicles and eggs. Players can also watch video ads to receive free coins.
The Game Quantum (Free on iOS) – This multiplayer game from Pixel Drop asks players to claim nuclei spaces on a game board by placing electrons on the spaces. Each nuclei can only hold a limited number of electrons before it explodes and spreads the electrons to nearby squares. The game utilizes Game Center for online multiplayer matches. Players can also unlock a local multiplayer mode for $0.99, which allows multiple users to play offline on a single device.
Astro Lords Mobile (Free on iOS, Android) – This base-building combat game from Tartezal Holdings and Aratog Games allows players to build a base on an asteroid and compete against aliens, boss characters and other players. As players progress, they can conquer other asteroids and expand their territory. Users can also trade with other players.
War Tortoise (Free on iOS) – From Foursaken Media, War Tortoise combines elements from shooters, tower defense and idle games. The game challenges players to defeat enemies by taking control of the War Tortoise, a powerful tank armed with turrets. While playing, gamers drag their finger on the screen to aim the tank’s turrets, which automatically fire at enemies. Players must defeat waves of enemies approaching their tank, and will earn money as they progress. Gamers can spend money on upgrades for their tank, and can also purchase support units, which automatically attack nearby enemies.
Just before the NFL Draft kicked off Thursday night, at 7:47 p.m. ET, a video appeared on Tunsil’s since-deleted Twitter account, @KingTunsil78, which appeared to show him smoking marijuana through a bong while wearing a gas mask.
According to social media optimization platform SocialFlow, by 7:55 p.m., just eight minutes after going live, Tunsil’s tweet was retweeted 3,148 times and liked 2,488 times.
The @KingTunsil78 account was deleted at 8:26 p.m., and the Dolphins selected Tunsil at 9:43 p.m.
According to SocialFlow, there were more than 800,000 Twitter mentions of Tunsil Thursday night.
SocialFlow also shared projections from NFL experts about the salaries earned by draft picks:
No. 1: $28.65 million over four years.
No. 6: $21.02 million over four years.
No. 13: $12.76 million over four years.
Readers: What are your thoughts on Tunsil’s slide down the NFL Draft?
Twitter has discontinued Magic Recs, its bot that alerted users via DM about trending posts and popular accounts. In a written statement to TechCrunch, a Twitter spokesperson had the following to say about the company’s new direction with regard to bots: @MagicRecs is no longer regularly sending recommendations through Direct Message. Recommendations that were previously shared via Direct Message are now delivered via push notification. Magic Recs (which Twitter always tagged as an ‘experiment’) was one of the few useful bots around, but required you to follow the account (you know, DMs and all that). It also didn’t have many followers: 112,000.…
Facebook received 55,827 requests from governments to restrict content that violated local laws in the second half of 2015, up a staggering 271.4 percent from 20,568 in the first half of 2015.
The social network also said in its Global Government Requests Report for July through December 2015 that government requests for account data rose 13 percent, to 46,763 in the second half of 2015 from 41,214 in the first half.
The top 10 countries in terms of requests for content restrictions were:
France, 37,695
India, 14,971
Turkey, 2,078
Germany, 366
Israel, 236
Austria, 231
U.K., 97
Russia, 56
Brazil, 34
Kazakhstan, 25
And the top 10 countries in terms of requests for account data were:
U.S., 19,235 from 30,041 accounts
India, 5,561 from 7,018 accounts
U.K., 4,190 from 5,478 accounts
Germany, 3,140 from 3,628 accounts
France, 2,711 from 2,894 accounts
Brazil, 1,655 from 2,673 accounts
Italy, 1,525 from 2,598 accounts
Argentina, 892 from 1,047 accounts
Australia, 802 from 846 accounts
Poland, 611 from 627 accounts
Facebook deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said in a Newsroom post announcing the availability of the new Global Government Requests Report:
We’ve added several case studies to give people actual examples of government requests to restrict content and the resulting actions taken by Facebook. For instance, one of the case studies explains that the increase in restricted content in this half is almost entirely due to one photo related to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The photo was alleged to violate French laws related to protecting human dignity. We restricted access to more than 32,000 copies of the photo, in France only, in response to a legal request from the French government.
For the first time, we are also reporting information about nondisclosure orders: approximately 60 percent of the requests we received for user data from authorities in the U.S. contained nondisclosure orders that prohibited us from notifying the user. Finally, consistent with legal changes in the U.S., we’ve updated our reporting on national security requests to bands of 500 (instead of bands of 1,000) for both the current and previous reports.
As we have emphasized many times, Facebook does not provide any government with “back doors” or direct access to people’s data. We scrutinize each request for user data we receive for legal sufficiency, no matter which country is making the request. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary.
Readers: What did you think of the latest Global Government Requests Report from Facebook?
You’re getting lots of retweets, clicks and eyeballs on your tweets. You know your Twitter account is doing great things for your brand … but you just can’t exactly explain how.
If you’ve been struggling to explain the value of Twitter to the higher-ups, you’re probably not measuring results well (or at all). In order to know what’s working and what’s not when it comes to all of that tweeting you’re doing, you’ve got to set objectives and define the metrics that you will measure to see how close you are to hitting them.
Here is a list of what you can measure on Twitter, and what each one will tell you about your successes–and where you need to improve.
Account growth: How many new followers you are adding each day/week/month. Useful for objectives like brand awareness.
Retweets: The number of retweets each of your tweets receives. Useful for objectives like reach, brand awareness, engagement with customers.
Favorites: The number of favorites each of your tweets receives. Useful for objectives like brand awareness, engagement with customers.
Replies: Who is replying to your tweets? What are they saying to/about your brand? Useful for objectives like engagement with customers, brand sentiment.
Mentions: The number of times your account is mentioned by others. Useful for objectives like brand awareness, engagement with customers.
Clicks on URLs: The number of clicks on a website you shared. Useful for objectives like website traffic from social media, customer acquisition.
Clicks to your profile: The number of clicks to your profile you see on each tweet. Useful for objectives like brand awareness, customer engagement.
Clicks on hashtags: The number of clicks on the hashtag(s) you share. Useful for objectives like brand (or event) awareness, customer engagement.
For most marketers, it isn’t possible–nor is it desirable–to try to measure and validate each one of the above metrics. Instead, choose the one(s) that will show you how close you are to achieving your objectives.
For instance, if you are exhibiting at a conference in two weeks and your goal is to use Twitter to raise awareness among attendees, you might want to measure hashtag clicks (How many people are engaging with the event hashtag?), retweets (How many people are sharing your tweets about the conference with their network?) and replies or mentions (Who is talking to you about the conference?). Alternatively, if you were the host of this conference, you might want to measure everything that an exhibitor would measure, plus clicks on the URLs you’re tweeting (Who is visiting your event page? Who is converting to a sale and buying a ticket?).
If you can zoom in on the metrics that matter most, you will be able to whip up impressive reports that showcase your big wins on Twitter, without being bogged down by irrelevant statistics. Plus, you’ll learn what worked–and what didn’t work–in the past so that you can improve going forward.
Readers: Which Twitter metrics have you focused on?
Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are still trailing in the polls, but they made big engagement moves on Facebook and Twitter, respectively.
Data, analytics and insights provider Engagement Labs released its eValue social media measurement tool data for the presidential candidates in April, and its findings included:
Cruz bypassed front-runner Donald Trump in Facebook engagement, but Trump added the most likes in April, more than 347,000.
Sanders also added some 315,000 new Facebook likes.
On Twitter, Sanders generated the most retweets, likes and mentions per 1,000 followers.
Hillary Clinton topped Sanders in new followers, with some 209,500.
Trump added the most followers in April, about 412,500.
As the U.S. presidential race inches closer to naming an official nominee for each party, the candidates’ social media performances are reflecting the changes seen on the campaign trail. The Democratic Party saw Bernie Sanders gain extensive ground with younger voters, while Republican candidate Donald Trump continues to gain the most followers month-after-month, even with increased competition from Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich. With a decrease in debates and an increased focus on the primaries, candidates are moving to social media to engage voters in their campaigns for upcoming electoral events.
Trump has consistently used his social media platforms to voice his opinions on hot-topic issues, which has solidified his high engagement scores throughout the race. As the competition heats up and other candidates rise in popularity, using social channels simply for this purpose won’t be enough. Cruz’s election momentum is being translated online, enabling him to surpass Trump on Facebook. In addition, Kasich is doing extremely well on Twitter, using the platform to engage directly with citizens. Voters are looking for relatable candidates who post relevant content addressing their concerns and also take the time to communicate with their voters.
With his platform resonating well with younger voters, who are known to be active users on social media, Sanders is seeing his brand soar online. Clinton’s campaign must focus on the content it is posting to expand its connection with audiences. While Clinton has a robust following, the content she’s sharing is not as engaging and relevant as Sanders’ content, causing her to lag on social media.
Readers: Do you follow any of the presidential candidates on Facebook or Twitter?
When it comes to sharing content related to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, age group tends to dictate the platforms being used.
A new study from “people-powered marketing platform” Crowdtap analyzed the Olympics viewing habits of 500 U.S. men and women, and it found that younger millennials favor emerging platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram, far more than older millennials and adults over 35 do.
32 percent of younger millennials (18 through 24) said they will share Olympics content on Snapchat, compared with 19 percent of older millennials (25 through 34) and 12 percent of those 35 and older.
18 percent of respondents said they will discuss the Olympics on Snapchat.
Millennials are twice as interested in the “cultural chatter” surrounding the Games than non-millennials.
57 percent of respondents plan to host Olympics viewing parties at their homes.
84 percent plan to view the Games on television, with males twice as likely as females to watch on computers, tablets and smartphones.
Gymnastics was the most popular event, at 78 percent, followed by swimming (68 percent) and diving (54 percent).
Crowdtap vice president of platform growth and creator partnerships Claudia Page said in a release introducing the study:
The evolution of media consumption habits has had a dramatic impact on the way people experience major cultural events. The goal of our study was to help brands understand the preferences of Olympics viewers as they plan their content strategy ahead of Rio. Whether brands are signed on as official sponsors or simply want to actively participate in the conversation, the key to success will be identifying the distribution channels and topics that are most relevant for your brand and your audience.
Readers: How did the findings by Crowdtap match up with your plans for Rio 2016?
Search marketers, are you prepared for a mobile world? Columnist Amy Bishop discusses trends and opportunities to help guide your optimization effort and make the most of your mobile experience. The post Maximizing your mobile impact appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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