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KIMP’s Picks 9th August: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Social media is moving fast – don’t get left behind! But if keeping up feels overwhelming, we don’t blame you! The tech world is moving fast after all! But that’s why you have the KIMP’s Picks. 

The KIMP’s Picks is our weekly social media roundup of all the social media chatter in the realms of AI, marketing, design, and more. So, are you ready for a quick recap? Then let’s get started with the KIMP’s Picks 9th August Edition. 

In the Marketing Realm

Adobe discusses buyer personas 

Adobe recently shared an informative post that delves into buyer personas – the need to know them and how to create them for a business. Given that personalization is key to marketing success in today’s competitive landscape, understanding buyer personas is crucial to creating campaigns and strategies that are aligned with your target audience. 

The post begins with an introduction to buyer personas and why they are important. It then delves into some examples of buyer personas and what they look like for brands to get inspired from. 

How AI can revolutionize marketing 

Advertising and marketing news site Ad Age shared a post discussing how AI is revolutionizing marketing. It particularly talks about Reckitt, the parent company of brands like Lysol and Mucinex, and how it is leading the charge in AI-driven marketing.

From automation of marketing tasks to the use of AI-powered tools in concept development, ad localization, and post-campaign analysis, the post talks about the various ways in which AI has tapped into the transformative potential of AI. This discussion is pretty resourceful for brands looking to make the most of AI in their marketing and other processes. 

The role of a brand’s history in its future 

Wondering where your brand’s future lies? Look back at your brand’s history. This is the intriguing concept that the below article from Marketing Week explores. 

Using John Lewis as a case study, the post emphasizes how the company’s rich heritage, characterized by a strong focus on employee welfare and customer satisfaction, has shaped their enduring brand identity. 

We found this discussion particularly interesting because it highlights the importance of looking beyond surface-level trends and instead delving into a brand’s core values and history to inform future strategies. 

Google ditches Smart Campaigns in Favor of Performance Max

MarTech, one of the well-known sources of marketing technology-related news and updates, recently shared a post about some changes coming to Google advertising. 

Reportedly, Google is bidding adieu to Smart Campaigns and prioritizing Performance Max. This strategic move emphasizes the company’s commitment to AI-driven, cross-platform advertising solutions. 

For a quick overview, Performance Max is Google’s advanced platform that leverages AI to optimize ad performance across multiple channels, including Search, YouTube, Display, and more. 

While Google hasn’t provided a specific timeline, advertisers will need to adapt to Performance Max to ensure uninterrupted campaigns.

Cracking the code for success with YouTube Shorts 

Short-form video continues to be among the most sought-after content types of brands looking to harness the power of social media. So, if you are planning to make the most of YouTube Shorts for your short-form videos, here’s a post you might like. This one particularly talks about using Shorts Ads. 

It gives an overview of some do’s and don’ts for brands focusing on Shorts Ads. it delves into the need for maintaining a casual tone that looks natural on the Shorts Feed rather than something too serious and out of place. Check out the post for more insights into using Shorts for your brand’s advertising. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

The Paris 2024 Olympics continues to be a hot topic of discussion on X 

The Olympic season is on and that’s one thing a lot of people seem to be discussing on social media. According to the below post from X’s Data page, the Olympic games witnessed over 62.5 billion impressions, 6.8 billion video views, and about 146 million posts. 

From Olympic memes to posts celebrating medal winners, the social media world is buzzing with Olympics-related content. So, it’s a good time to tap into this topic for your content. The article here from X discusses brands that received the most engagement and reminds brands that there’s still time to jump on the trend. 

In the Design Realm 

Creating seamless patterns on Adobe 

Seamless patterns are used in various applications however creating them can be a huge challenge for designers. Even the perfect design might not effectively translate into the intended output when you try to create a seamless pattern out of it. Adobe shared a post with a tutorial on how to tackle this issue with one of their built-in features. 

If you use Adobe tools in your design workflow you are aware of the many AI-powered features that have been introduced into a host of Adobe tools recently. And one of them is the Text-to-Pattern feature. This one lets you use simple text prompts to generate patterns for various applications. The video here gives a preview of this feature. 

Canva Magic Switch 

Canva also shared a tutorial and this one is about their AI tool as well. Canva has been investing heavily in AI-powered features that have made the platform a delight to work with. One of the popular AI features on the platform is Magic Switch. Their video here gives a preview of this feature. 

The video shows how you can easily and quickly turn any of your existing designs into a Doc without having to manually extract the text from the design. 

Coca-Cola’s Olympic packaging 

Coca-Cola’s ties with the Olympic games date back decades. One of the notable ways in which they customize their marketing strategies close to the Olympic games is the signature packaging design for the year. Year after year, these designs have been created so as to reflect the spirit of each era.

From the early, simple designs to the more complex and culturally inspired packaging of recent years, Coca-Cola has consistently evolved its Olympic offerings. 

The brand’s ability to blend its classic aesthetic with the unique characteristics of each host city has contributed to its enduring success in packaging design. This is a great example of optimizing brand packaging to make the design feel more relevant. 

Shapes and brand identity design 

When used accurately, shapes can be crucial brand elements. Therefore, a good understanding of shape psychology goes a long way in enhancing your brand identity. 

The post here from The Brand Identity, a creativity inspiration page, discusses one such brand for which shapes play a major role in branding. 

Clube de Criação, the Brazilian advertising festival has a brand identity where a star shape plays a big role. In the below design project, renowned advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy reimagined the star symbol of the Clube de Criação brand creatively. This project shows how even when working with the most common shapes you can still add your creative flair to enhance the memorability of your design. 

In the AI Realm 

Cool new AI features coming to Chrome 

Google recently announced the introduction of three new AI-powered features for Chrome. These features include a desktop version of Google Lens, a tool to compare products across multiple tabs, and an improved search function for browsing history.

With the new Google Lens integration, users can easily search and identify objects, text, or products directly from a webpage. The tab compare feature simplifies online shopping by providing a comprehensive overview of products from different websites. Additionally, the enhanced browsing history search allows users to find previously visited sites using natural language queries. These AI-driven enhancements aim to make Chrome more efficient, informative, and user-friendly.

OpenAI announces Structured Outputs in API 

OpenAI has announced a significant upgrade to its API with the introduction of Structured Outputs. This new feature ensures that model outputs adhere strictly to developer-specified JSON schemas, addressing a long-standing challenge in building reliable AI applications.

To summarize the announcement, by leveraging Structured Outputs, developers can now confidently extract structured data, create powerful AI assistants, and streamline complex workflows.

Anthropic is expanding to more locations 

Anthropic is making tremendous progress in the AI segment with their Claude tools. Only last month they announced the arrival of their mobile app. And now they are back with another announcement and this time is is about their expansion. Based on their post here, Claude is now available in Brazil. 

BMW tests humanoid robots in car production 

Brett Adcock, Founder of Figure shared the below post announcing BMW’s recent success with deploying humanoid robots in car production. 

While one segment of the world is still contemplating the pros and cons of AI, BMW is making a leap into the future with successful trials of humanoid robots for car assembly at its Spartanburg plant in South Carolina. The robots, developed by California-based Figure, are designed for tasks requiring dexterity and can handle repetitive or ergonomically challenging steps.

The trial saw the Figure 02 robot insert sheet metal parts into fixtures for chassis assembly. This demonstrates the robot’s potential to improve efficiency and worker safety in car manufacturing.

ByteDance announces a Sora rival 

Tiktok’s parent company ByteDance recently made waves in the AI segment by announcing their next generative video tool, Jimeng AI. This tool can generate videos from text prompts. Similar to OpenAI’s Sora, Jimeng AI allows users to create both images and videos based on their descriptions.

The tool offers features like image editing, video generation, sharing options, and a platform to explore other users’ creations. ByteDance aims to compete with other Chinese tech firms like Kuaishou and Zhipu AI, which have also launched their own AI video tools. Jimeng AI is currently available on Android and iOS in China with a subscription-based pricing model.

Rendernet introduces an AI-powered lip sync tool 

Lip-syncing in a video is no longer a challenge to worry about because Rendernet’s Narrator is here. In their recent post, they announced Narrator, a tool that allows users to create lifelike lip-synced videos of any character. By simply uploading a video and providing a script, Narrator can seamlessly synchronize the character’s lip movements to the spoken words.

The platform supports over 25 languages, making it accessible to a global audience. This new tool is expected to revolutionize video production and storytelling by offering a convenient and efficient way to create engaging content.

OpenAI now enhances the experience for free users

The AI capabilities of ChatGPT are impressive. However, most of the cool features introduced are for the paid users. But the good news is that they are slowly enhancing the experience for free users as well. For instance, GPTs were once available only to Plus users and now even free users can access them conveniently. 

Next in line is the tool’s image generation capability. OpenAI recently announced that free users will now be able to generate up to 2 free images per day on ChatGPT. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Instagram shifts focus from Followers to Views 

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram recently shared a post outlining some changes coming to the platform. According to this announcement, Instagram will soon start prioritizing “views” over traditional measures like likes and followers. This change reflects a broader shift in how users consume content on the platform. 

Plays on Reels will also now be Views and this will become the primary metric for all types of posts. This move is driven by the increasing reliance of users on Instagram’s algorithm to discover content rather than following specific accounts.

Reddit acquires Memorable AI to boost ad performance 

Reddit announced that ads on the platform are changing really soon. Only last week there was news about the introduction of lead gen ads on the platform. And now the next big step is their acquisition of Memorable AI, an ad creative optimization platform. 

The move aims to leverage Memorable AI’s advanced AI technology to improve campaign planning, creative effectiveness, and overall ad performance for Reddit advertisers. By integrating Memorable AI’s platform into its ad stack, Reddit seeks to provide actionable insights, optimize ad creative, and drive higher returns on ad spend.

Snapchat is growing 

About a year ago, Snapchat announced their monthly active users count to have hit 750 million. And in a recent post, they discussed their Q2 2024 highlights. One of the notable updates is that their current monthly active users count has surpassed 860 million. Moreover, their revenue was $1.24 billion with a 16% y-o-y growth. 

In addition to all these, their paid subscription, Snapchat+ is also doing well with over 11 million subscribers in Q2. 

A few more highlights include:

  • More than 80% of Snapchat users as of now are more than 18 years of age. 
  • The active advertisers on the platform have also doubled year after year.

All these numbers clearly indicate that now is a good time to start including Snapchat in your social media marketing strategy. 

LinkedIn announces company page verification 

One of the biggest problems across social media platforms is the fake accounts created to mimic popular brand accounts. These not only mislead users but also dampen a brand’s reputation in the long run. Account Verification is one way that most social media platforms tackle this issue. And now LinkedIn is reportedly joining the race, according to the below TechRadar post. 

The platform will now offer a verified badge to businesses that meet specific criteria, distinguishing official company pages from imposters. This move aims to bolster user confidence and improve the overall experience on LinkedIn.

Some companies have been pre-approved for verification and others can join the waitlist. 

YouTube is testing picture-in-picture ads to improve user experience 

There is news that YouTube is experimenting with a new ad format to make its platform more user-friendly. The video-sharing giant is testing a picture-in-picture (PiP) ad format for live streams, which will allow ads to play in a smaller window while the main video continues uninterrupted. 

This move is likely a response to user complaints about intrusive full-screen ads and the increasing popularity of ad-blocking software. By reducing ad disruptions, YouTube perhaps hopes to create a better viewing experience for users and potentially decrease the reliance on ad blockers.

A Final Word…

With that, we would like to wrap the KIMP’s Picks 9th August Edition. Did you enjoy the recap from the social media world? For more such updates and to be sure that you stay in the loop and not be daunted by FOMO, stay tuned and we’ll be back with the next round of updates next week. 

Posted On

09 Aug, 2024

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