The World Cup's Going Viral, Tinder wants a Brand Match, Uber Stole the Black Cabs Thunder and Psy has lost his Moves

Hashtag with the hashflag

All eyes are on Brazil this week, as it hosts the FIFA World Cup. Love it or hate it, football banter is going to be a dominant force on social media for a while. To help you along with this social swell of football talk, Twitter has launched the hashflag. A hashtag where your country’s flag will pop up if you hashtag the country’s three letter abbreviation. This feature has been reintroduced after its success with the 2010 World Cup and was announced this year by the big footballing name, Shakira.

Paddy Power takes a gamble

Using the hashtag #HawkingTalking and @replying to your customers with “don’t get your hemp knickers in a twist” aren’t normally the best brand tactics. The betting shop Paddy Power however used these antics to really get the ball rolling for their World Cup campaign. Paddy Power partnered with Stephen Hawking to use maths and analytics as a talking point around betting on the World Cup, even securing a spot on Newsnight. They then released a image with a “C’MON ENGLAND” support message seemingly carved out of the Amazon rainforest before revealing this was in fact a hoax. Risky tactics from Paddy Power.

Social #WorldCup facts

Some extra-fun football social facts to slip into half-time conversation:

Wayne Rooney has the most Twitter followers among the England team (close to nine million), but is eclipsed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who at 26.6 million has the most followers in the tournament.

Twitter estimates that 90 per cent of UK users will be watching the World Cup, and there have already been more World Cup-related Tweets this year than during the entire 2010 competition.

England has a daily average of 17,729 retweets on Twitter as well as 57,661,191 views of YouTube videos, helping take the team to the top spot.

In second place is Brazil, with a starscore of 326,023, followed by USA (305,714), Germany (304,111) and France (302,182).

Rumoured Tinder ads

Native advertising to Tinder may be coming soon, as the brand tries to figure out the best road to monetising the app. The app, which offers a free matching service for singles, will have to consider the most effective way it will be able to make money without forcing its users to pay for the service. Partnerships with pubs and clubs could be considered or a premium account introduced for people who want to get more features out of the app. Some brands have already unofficially advertised on the app like The Mindy Project. The comedy show created fake accounts for key characters and when you matched offered exclusive content for the new series. This could be a great way for brands to reach out interactively to their audience, but brands will also need to be careful not to come across creepy.

Uber brings London to a standstill

In a blow to the black cab protests on Wednesday, the Uber taxi app saw an 850% rise in sign-ups, not the desired effect as the black cab drivers were protesting against the app. Uber did offer black cabs a deal on the morning of the strikes. With Uber’s new black cab service app, they would be able to work together, but the deal was not accepted and the strikes went ahead. Public support went in favour of Uber though, as they saw record sign-up growth during that one day, adding further unease to black cab drivers and their future on London streets.

In other news…

Internet sensation Psy is back with a new song, Hangover, featuring Snoop Dog. We suggest Snoop takes his own advice and drop it like it’s hot and then leave it well alone.