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KIMP’s Picks 19th July: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

The social media realm can be overwhelming. New AI tools emerge, social media algorithms shift, and trends come and go in the blink of an eye. So, staying up-to-date on the latest developments can feel like a full-time job. But who has the time anyway? But that should not leave you with FOMO. Well, that’s why we do our social media roundup every week. 

Welcome to the KIMP’s Picks 19th July Edition. We have curated a list of trending posts and shareworthy content from brands and industry experts from around the world. So, are you ready for some quick social media catchup? Let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Have you invested in Video View Campaigns yet? 

YouTube recently spoke about one of their recently popular campaign types – Video View Campaign. Given that one of the most crucial engagement metrics on YouTube is “Views” on videos, campaigns built around this parameter can be fruitful. 

For an overview, Video View Campaigns were introduced last year to allow advertisers to target customers more relevantly. And as the name indicates, the idea is to increase the number of views. One of the major benefits is that these campaigns are known to be about 40% more effective than CPV view campaigns. The below post delves into several such quick details and some tips on launching a Video View Campaign as well. 

Add your shipping & return info through Search Console 

Convenience is one of the main reasons that customers choose to shop online. And part of this also depends on how the brand ships the product and how easy it is to return the product in case of any issue. Consequently, shipping and return information can be valuable details to include in marketing. Accordingly, Google recently announced that merchants can now easily add this info through Search Console. 

Once these details are up-to-date the information appears on Merchant Center which further helps improve the effectiveness of your product listings in Google Ads. 

Brands jump on the Deadpool & Wolverine trend

With Deadpool & Wolverine being the next biggest anticipated movies several brands are jumping on the buzz the movie is creating. These partnerships can be a great source of inspiration for brands looking for ideas and strategies for their future collaborations. 

Ads of the World, a renowned online library of ads from various media shared the below post summarizing some of the recent ads from brands chiming in on the trend. 

The list includes the effortless positioning of Heinz Yellow Mustard and Tomato Ketchup as Wolverine and Deadpool respectively: an effective play of color. Next is the campaign featuring Deadpool in a Jack in the Box and 

These campaigns show how the simplest tweaks to your existing marketing strategy can come in handy when you are trying to jump on the bandwagon and join popular discussions relevant to your target customers. 

Audible taps into the future of billboard advertising 

Billboard advertising might sound like a thing of the past in the marketing landscape but it has proven to be a timeless tool. The only difference is that brands today are incorporating the best of technological advancements to enhance billboard advertising. From programmatic digital billboards to 3D billboards, the options are endless. 

And now The Drum magazine featured a new billboard placement from Audible which incorporates augmented reality into it. 

As the first of its kind to use WinDOOH, this is also cited to be the largest-ever AR billboard used by a brand. Using cameras to create real-time feeds, the billboard creates a truly immersive experience. Campaigns like these are proof that brands need to always be on their toes to look out for innovative ways to revamp their advertising strategies. 

Relevant targeting through Customer Match 

The next post is also from Google and this one talks about one of the recent innovations that Google AI has brought into the world of advertising. In this insightful post, Google delves into one of the most effective advertising tools, Customer Match. It uses Google AI to help advertisers make the most of their first-party data by connecting with customers on Google’s platforms in a targeted and effective way.

To summarize, Customer Match helps improve the relevance of the ad by delivering the right content to the right people at the right time. Therefore, it can help improve the ROI of your ads in the long run. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Google unveils new Emojis for World Emoji Day 

World Emoji Day is celebrated on July 17th and Google shared the below post on this account. The post announced their launch of new emojis for the occasion and also packed in some fun facts about emojis. This is a great example of creating content that users value and frequently use in digital communication.

Moreover, the theme here also aligns with Google’s image as an innovative and fun tech company. This is your reminder to create content that aligns with the theme and with your brand in order to win new leads and strengthen your existing customer relationships. 

Similarly, digital products like stickers or even ebooks and other content can help your brand stand out in a crowded market. 

Keyword trends shift with Google AI Overviews 

Google’s AI Overviews in search has been the hottest topic of discussion in the world of SEO. So, the Search Engine Journal, a popular authority in SEO shared an intriguing discussion on Google AI Overviews and how they have brought changes to keyword trends. 

According to the article, keywords triggering these AI-powered summaries are changing rapidly, with a significant increase in “best,” “what is,” “how to,” “symptoms,” and “treatment” queries.

One other notable trend they captured is that ecommerce sites are seeing a boost from AI Overviews, with a nearly 20% increase in relevant keywords and a significant uptick in product searches with pros and cons. 

In addition to changes coming to Google Search, there are some changes coming to the search engine segment as such with Perplexity gaining traction with a monthly growth rate of 31%. For more such thought-provoking insights check out the featured article in this post. 

In the Design Realm 

Microsoft takes a bigger stride in the world of design with updates to Designer 

Microsoft has announced the general availability of the Microsoft Designer app, a powerful tool powered by AI that helps users create and edit images and designs. This also comes with other updates to Designer that bring improved integration with other Microsoft products.

Designer conveniently integrates with Word, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Photos for a smooth creative workflow. And some upgrades include the prompt templates option to help you get a jumpstart on your projects with pre-populated ideas and styles.

Additionally, you can also create personalized stickers and emojis to express yourself in messaging apps and social media and transform your photos into works of art with a variety of styles.

Currently, Designer offers 15 free daily boosts for AI-powered creations. And 100 daily boosts with a Copilot Pro subscription.

A quirky brand identity 

Looking for brand design inspiration? Then The Brand Identity page has plenty of it. They recently featured a brand identity design project created by Jens Nilsson for a Swedish restaurant, Dirty Vegan. 

This design ditches the expected green and clean aesthetic of vegan branding. Instead, the design embraces a “questionable nightclub vibe” with a bold, “risqué lip-licking symbol”. Their contemporary sans serif typography adds a modern touch, further distancing them from the traditional health-focused vegan image.

According to Jens Nilsson, the restaurant is temporarily closed. However, the design created for the restaurant is truly an inspiration for creatives looking to break the rules and create a brand that makes a statement. 

Have you tried Canva Work Kits? 

A few weeks ago, Canva announced Work Kits to allow convenient use of the platform by different teams in an organization. They recently shared a post spotlighting this feature for those who have not yet explored it. 

Canva Work Kits are a new set of features designed to make visual content creation accessible to everyone in your organization, regardless of design experience. 

These come with templates, tutorials, and tools tailored to specific teams like Sales, Marketing, HR, and Creative. Along with easy-to-use resources they also bring real-time collaboration features to streamline workflows and save time. This makes it easier for organizations to create high-quality, on-brand visuals without needing design expertise.

Do you use the background remover on Adobe Express? 

Adobe has been simplifying Adobe Express making it a suitable space for non-designers and beginners as much as it is for experienced professionals. From a fully loaded mobile app to powerful AI features, there have been several updates launched in the past few months. 

One such is the background remover function in the tool. Adobe shared a post highlighting this feature. The best thing about this tool is that it is free to use and even users with no design experience can instantly remove backgrounds from their photos using this. Upload the photo and clear the background – it’s as simple as that. 

In the AI Realm 

OpenAI makes AI solutions clearer for humans through Prover-Verifier games 

OpenAI wishes to ensure that large language models (LLMs) generate not only accurate outputs but also understandable ones. For this, they announced the introduction of a novel training method called “prover-verifier games”.

The idea is that LLMs optimized for just getting the right answer often produce solutions that are hard for humans to understand. This lack of clarity can lead to errors and hinder trust in AI systems.

In simple words, the prover generates solutions to problems whereas the verifier looks for updates. Thus their models have a training loop that encourages the prover to produce clear and well-explained solutions.

Read more about this new announcement in the post featured here. 

OpenAI’s secret project “Strawberry” 

Recently there has been a lot of buzz about a secret project that OpenAI is working on a secret project. And Reuters shared the below post discussing the same. 

OpenAI is reportedly working on a groundbreaking project codenamed “Strawberry.” This project aims to significantly improve the reasoning capabilities of their AI models.

According to Reuters, Strawberry tackles a major challenge in AI – limited reasoning skills. Current models struggle with common-sense problems and lack the ability to plan ahead. Additionally, this project will possibly bring AI models that can autonomously browse the internet and conduct research (“deep research”) using information they find.

While several such speculations are floating around, specific details about Strawberry’s progress and timelines remain a closely guarded secret within OpenAI.

Microsoft’s SpreadsheetLLM to boost enterprise productivity 

According to the below post shared by the technology news website, VentureBeat, Microsoft has unveiled a new AI system called SpreadsheetLLM. This system is designed to understand and analyze data within spreadsheets. This development holds significant potential for boosting productivity and data-driven decision-making in businesses.

It’s a well-known fact that spreadsheets of various kinds are used in organizations from simple tasks to complex ones. However, most of the current AI tools struggle to understand spreadsheets due to their structured format with formulas and references. 

Therefore, SpreadsheetLLM bridges the gap by encoding spreadsheet data into a format interpretable by large language models (LLMs). It can eventually allow users to process and analyze data using simple language prompts instead of complex formulas.

Moreover, it can also help automate tedious tasks like data cleaning, formatting, and aggregation, saving time and resources. 

The Claude Android app is here

Anthropic’s Claude is a next-generation AI assistant built for work and productivity. Anthropic recently announced the launch of the free Claude Android app. It brings the power of Claude’s most powerful model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, right to your fingertips. Given the seamless integration, the app also lets you pick up from wherever you left on your web interface. 

The iOS version of the app was launched earlier and now the Android version joins the ecosystem. It comes with capabilities similar to those on the iOS version of the app like multi-lingual processing, Vision capabilities to process images and so on. 

Users in the US can now access Amazon’s Rufus

There have been talks about an AI chatbot as a shopping buddy on Amazon. And it’s finally here. Engadget shared the below posting giving an overview of this announcement. 

Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is reportedly now available to users in the US in beta testing. It can be accessed exclusively through the Amazon mobile app.

The chatbot has been released with a few basic features to assist shoppers. This includes asking for product suggestions or browsing curated lists based on your preferences. You can also get details and reviews about specific products. Finally, the chatbot also lets you stay informed about your upcoming deliveries and manage your account within the app.

Since the feature is still in its beta stage, there seem to be some inaccuracies, and not all users have reviewed it positively so far. 

Google Vids can now be tested on Workspace Labs and Gemini Alpha

Google announced that their AI-powered video creation tool, Google Vids is now in testing through Workspace Labs and Gemini Alpha. This means a select group of users can experience this innovative tool firsthand.

Google Vids eliminates the need for complex editing software! It leverages AI to streamline the video creation process, making it easier than ever to craft engaging content.

With updates coming to this tool in the future, users will be able to create professional-looking videos without extensive editing expertise. There is a whole bunch of AI video tools lined up for release. We’ll have to wait and see the change they bring with them. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

YouTube elevates the YouTube Music experience 

YouTube Music is changing with the introduction of supercharged song recognition and an AI Radio feature similar to that on Spotify. 

Based on a recent post from 9to5Google, YouTube is bringing in a host of updates. The first one is their tool which allows users to identify songs not only by playing them but also by humming, singing, or even instrumental snippets. This feature is now available to all whereas this next one currently has limited access. 

The next one is AI-powered Radio. The idea is simple you describe your mood and YouTube Music curates a custom radio station just for you. This feature is a lot like Spotify’s Spotify’s AI-driven recommendations through their AI DJ feature. However, this exciting feature is being tested with select YouTube Music Premium users in the US. Stay tuned for a wider rollout!

Updates coming to X 

X Daily News, the page for X updates shared a couple of insider details recently based on rumors and posts about features being tested. One of them is the option to stop auto-play in videos on X. This can be done by toggling the Auto-Advance option in the video playback settings off. With videos becoming a big area of focus on the platform, all these updates coming to the video interface are to enhance the experience for users. 

The other is the feature that lets you sort replies on posts. The post here also has a snapshot that gives a preview of what this might look like. 

TikTok creators can now sell event tickets directly on the platform 

TikTok has joined forces with Eventbrite to streamline event promotion and ticket sales directly within the TikTok app. This means that Eventbrite creators and TikTok users can now seamlessly add Eventbrite links to their videos. This allows the TikTok community to discover event details and purchase tickets without ever leaving the app.

This lets creators use TikTok as a platform to promote their events. The only requirement currently is that the eligible events must be in-person, publicly listed on Eventbrite, have paid tickets, and take place within the next 90 days (or 180 days for music events).

Instagram will now let you add up to 20 audio tracks in Reels 

Instagram is introducing a new feature for Reels that allows users to add up to 20 music tracks to a single video. Social Media Today shared the below post detailing this update. This update means you can have multiple songs playing at the same time, or have them fade in and out at different points in your Reel. It can be very much like using external video editing tools to create creative audio tracks but within Instagram. 

Social Media Today also points out that this feature is similar to what you can do in TikTok’s video editor CapCut. But yes, Instagram’s version is designed specifically for Reels. This lets you mix up songs like a DJ or quickly change the music to match a shift in the Reel’s focus and more. 

LinkedIn launches their AI-powered Ad campaign tool 

There have been speculations about LinkedIn’s AI advertising tool. And Digiday shared the below post announcing that this feature is finally available. This AI advertising tool, Accelerate, is designed to streamline B2B campaign creation. Therefore it is meant to significantly reduce campaign build time from 15 hours to just 5 minutes. 

Accelerate analyzes the advertiser’s website, company LinkedIn page, and past ad data to recommend a full campaign strategy. Based on this analysis, the tool then generates creatives and targets relevant B2B audiences.

In summary, it seems to be the kind of development that helps marketers save a lot of time and effort. 

To Conclude…

With that, we would like to close the KIMP’s Picks 19th July Edition hoping that our handpicked list of posts gave you a quick recap of the latest social media buzz. Feeling inspired? Then stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with more updates shortlisted for you. 

Posted On

19 Jul, 2024

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