Messi, a Waterloo flashmob and All You Need Is Love

Qatar Airways unveiled its latest advert this week, marking the beginning of a three-year marketing deal with FC Barcelona. The ad stars footballing heroes from the Spanish club and shows the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Gerard Piqué travelling the globe and showing off their impressive ball skills in a variety of situations. Uploaded to the official FC Barcelona YouTube channel on Wednesday, the advert has already had more than a quarter of a million views to-date.

The flashmob has become exceedingly popular in recent years, with members of the public stumbling upon impromptu theatre, dances and singing in places you would not expect. So far in 2015, the baton has not been dropped and flashmobs seem to be here for a while longer., Last Sunday, Waterloo station in London came to standstill, with commuters freezing in their tracks – running for the train, mid-snack or embracing. We love how a place which can be so frantic became a place of serenity.

Snapchat seems to be on the fast track to success with no sign of stopping anytime soon. This Saturday will see the first ever Snap Series, Snapchat’s first ever original series entitled, Literally Can’t Even, starring Stephen Spielberg’s daughters, Sasha Spielberg and Emily Goldwyn. This is part of Snapchat’s new ‘discover feature’ launched on Tuesday, where Snapchat partnered with 11 media outlets including National Geographic and CNN. This added feature will see the two actors play fabricated versions of themselves. As with Snapchat’s usual procedure, each episode of the weekly show (which lasts five minutes and features split screens) will only be available to view for 24 hours.

In an attempt to clean up social media for the more impressionable youngsters around, Twitter has launched a child-friendly version of its video sharing app, Vine, ‘Vine Kids’. The new services features child-friendly six second videos to keep little ones entertained. Kids are guided through videos by animated characters who instruct them to swipe left or right to access new Vines. Perfect for those with limited attention spans – we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next to come for child-friendly social media.

This year during the Super Bowl, more than 28m tweets were sent out using game-related hashtags and Facebook reported that 65m of its users were chatting about the game. And, as ever, the ads in between the action generated a huge amount of interest online. In the world of travel, Carnival Corporation aired its first-ever advert during the Super Bowl, featuring a speech by John F Kennedy and the tag line ‘Come Back to Sea’.

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism’s advertisement pushed the tag #AllYouNeedIsEcuador to the rousing Beatles tune "All You Need is Love" to promote the destination’s unique appeal with its many beaches, colonial architecture, and tropical forests. Whilst it may have garnered some negative criticism on social media, it’s certainly got the Siren team planning their next trip away.