As we look forward to the new innovations that 2016 will bring, it’s important we take a look back at the year that was. 2015 will be a year remembered for a number of things, the year of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the return of Star Wars and the real emergence of Virtual Reality. But what else made headlines and what else tickled people’s curiosity?
We take a look back through the year and look at what made headlines and what people were talking about.
The Dress
Undoubtedly one of the most puzzling topics to go viral was the certain colour of a dress. Social media platforms went into meltdown after a photo was taken of a dress which was seemingly different colours depending on who was looking at it. In their very own way, a lot of brands jumped on the craze with some being very successful. For the record, I see white and gold…
#whiteandgold or #blackandblue? We found a way around science- you can have both! #TheDress #dressgate pic.twitter.com/5oj3ZTqOWk
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) February 27, 2015
Doesn't matter if it’s blue/black or white/gold, they still taste delicious. #thedress pic.twitter.com/Oq8srrAKnd
— Dunkin' (@dunkindonuts) February 27, 2015
So do you think this is #whiteandgold too? pic.twitter.com/C829igRjVq
— Xbox (@Xbox) February 27, 2015
Brand emojis
To kick off the start of the Barclays Premier League, Twitter introduced hash flags or ‘brand emojis’ enabling fans to show their support for their team through emojis.
Fan of a #BPL club?
Picking your #FPL team?
It's time to show your colours… pic.twitter.com/dQiQvY0hKz
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 7, 2015
Following on from this innovation, brands seized the opportunity to improve their presence on Twitter with the introduction of their very own brand emojis. From Coke to Starbucks, many now have their brand reflected in emojis and they’re only going to become more popular in 2016.
It's the cheers heard around the world! Tweet with #ShareaCoke to set a record for World’s Largest Twitter "Cheers!” pic.twitter.com/liGFMGofpJ
— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) September 17, 2015
Only three more days until 🎁🎅🎄🎉😁 #RedCups pic.twitter.com/W6WZ00wU0O
— Starbucks UK (@StarbucksUK) December 22, 2015
Facebook Down
2015 was a year of growing pains for the world’s most popular social media channel which experienced a number of crashes, completely blocking people from accessing the website. With so many people using the platform each day, the outages were met with hilarity and ridicule across social media.
Currently at Facebook. #FacebookDown pic.twitter.com/fGJusNzpum
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) September 28, 2015
#facebookdown https://t.co/nEaqUKW4Xu
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) September 28, 2015
So Facebook is down AND #NASA has found water on Mars you say? #facebookdown http://t.co/P9T57TuZci pic.twitter.com/6su3BdS1gE
— Daily Star (@dailystar) September 28, 2015
When Facebook goes down and you're at a fancy dinner pic.twitter.com/68oo2nk0Sx
— Mashable (@mashable) September 28, 2015
Making names but for all the wrong reasons, luckily Facebook has experience an excellent year outside the outages including notching up 1.55 billion active monthly users.
The time for Moments
Twitter unveiled it’s Snapchat-like feature called Moments earlier in the year in the US before recently rolling it out all around the world. Giving users an idea of the events happening around the world, it is definitely something to look forward to in 2016. Don’t be too surprised if other social media platforms go with this kind of snapshot feature in 2016.
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/651382235162001409
Virtual Reality
VR is the new big thing in digital media in 2015 and it has received backing from a number of big brands including Google (and YouTube) and Samsung. In addition to the backing it’s received, it’s also becoming a new method for brands and sports organisations to engage with their fans. The NBA has already live streamed matches in VR with the International Champions Cup live streaming all its matches in North America, China and Australia in VR in summer 2016.
As it’s received a lot of support by companies, it is already enabled for desktop. Watch the video below for a spectacular demonstration.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup came and went in 7 action-filled weeks but not before giving the social world a great chuckle. Some of the best memes and video content was produced as the world took to social media to log their reactions.
These chopsticks are #StrongerThanTheBoks pic.twitter.com/Vc0HBjxANU
— 🇿🇦Makenzi🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩🌍Kenzo (@MakenziKenzo) September 19, 2015
England preparing for the next stage of their world cup journey #rwc pic.twitter.com/XHS7n4dZuR
— Daire Humphries (@Official_Daire) October 9, 2015
Sibling rivalry at tonight's #RWC. Prince Harry gives William the look for cheering on Wales (via @TelegraphRugby) pic.twitter.com/wXPmYOVZfl
— British Royals (@britishroyals) September 26, 2015
Star Wars
With the 7th film released last week, social media has been buzzing with Star Wars The Force Awakens content. In addition to our blog about social media reaction to the release last week, the content has just kept on coming and doesn’t look like slowing up until the new year at least.
https://twitter.com/9GAGTweets/status/679907380906323969
https://twitter.com/TweetLlkeAGuy/status/679884203371134977
The year of Snapchat
Snapchat has experienced the best year of it’s short life after introducing a number of new features throughout the year. After rejecting a bid for the platform from social media giants Facebook, Snapchat has spent 2015 teaming up with the likes of the NFL and Real Madrid. 2015 was a great year for Snapchat and with its features already being mimicked by big boys Facebook and Twitter, you can expect it to only get bigger in 2016.
That’s our social year in review! Have a very Happy Christmas, a great New Year and we will see you in 2016!
