Let’s be honest, not everyone enjoys having ads flood their social media spaces. Instagram’s new Carousel feature, however, may be a tolerable alternative to traditional social advertising.

As a social media platform deeply rooted in visual authentic experiences, Instagram knows far too well that if there is going to be an advertising feature added to its interface, it needs to be mutually beneficial for both the business and the user. So with Carousel (which is essentially “Instagram for Businesses”), ads mimic designs of multi-print campaigns, making them less interruptive to a user’s overall experience.

This new Carousel format provides users with the ability to donate, learn a recipe, or scan a look book, all within one post. As Instagram’s advertisers learn to breathe better stories into each of their posts, users’ experiences with each ad will become more meaningful. Talk about a win-win.

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Last month, the biggest debate to date about a dress went down – largely via social media. Was the infamous dress, whose picture was trending online, blue and black or white and gold? The dispute, which boiled down to perception, ended in a verdict assuring the dress was in fact blue and black. In the end, the hashtag  #thedress generated more than 10 million tweets, and in return it was not just clothing brand Roman Originals that was the forefront of our attentions.

South Africa’s The Salvation Army  connected with audiences on another level, transforming the viral content to raise awareness about domestic violence. Using a shock factor tactic to migrate a frivolous debate to the platform of a much more serious issue, their anti-abuse ad (below) was definitely effective; the campaign’s hashtag, #StopAbuseAgainstWomen, became quite the digital media sensation in its own right.

On The Salvation Army’s homepage, you can find the advertisement as well as an opportunity to donate to the campaign against domestic violence.

How effective do you think The Salvation Army’s campaign has been?

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The most important awards show of the year took place last week. No… not the Oscars. The 2015 58th Annual Adrian Awards!

The Adrian Awards, presented by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, honor the greatest of achievements in travel advertising, digital marketing, and public relations excellence.

In partnership with fellow Boston ad firm The Fantastical, CBC took home an Adrian Award for our integrated brand campaign for Row NYC (formerly The Milford Plaza): The Row NYC – “More New York Than New York.”

The work of Ron Galella, the infamous paparazzo, served as inspiration for the campaign, which starred model Lizzy Jagger. Check out the campaign video below!

And to document this joyous occasion, we do what we always do in these situations: we take a selfie.

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