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KIMP’s Picks 7th June: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

FOMO is real. Especially if you are a marketer trying to stay on top of every tech-related news or an entrepreneur overwhelmed by the wave of AI updates we encounter each week. If this sounds relatable to you, then you are in the right place. This is the KIMP’s Picks 7th June Edition. 

KIMP’s Picks is our weekly social media recap series where we bring to you a curated list of social media posts – both trending ones and the hidden gems. The buzz in the marketing world, AI news, updates about social media algorithms, and features – we have them all right here! Ready for a quick preview of the social media chatter from the week? Let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Google Analytics gets enhanced real-time reporting features 

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) just upgraded its Realtime report. This offers a more detailed view of user activity on your website or app. Now you can see not only how many users are currently engaged, but also a minute-by-minute breakdown for the past 5 minutes with a handy bar graph.

This enhanced view lets you track user behavior with greater precision, giving you valuable insights into campaign effectiveness, content performance, and overall user engagement. Google shared the below post announcing this update and a preview of the report you can now see. 

Google announces an AI crash course for marketers 

Google Ads have changed tremendously with AI now being part of the ad creation and ad tracking processes on the platform. However, not all advertisers are on track when it comes to relevant AI knowledge to make the most of these tools. To address this and to make it easier for marketers to make the most of the AI features for Google advertising, Google recently announced an insightful series titled Summer of AI Essentials. 

This is where they will regularly talk about leveraging AI to personalize campaigns, craft stunning visuals, and make insight-driven decisions. So, if you are a marketer who actively invests in Google Ads, keep an eye out for the content shared in this series. 

KFC’s creative use of AI in marketing 

Looking for campaign ideas? Then the Ads of the World is one of the best online reserves to find inspiration. They recently shared a post celebrating the creativity in a recent campaign by KFC Ecuador. For this campaign, KFC is embracing innovation by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to measure customer satisfaction.

As a part of this campaign, KFC created something called the “Good O.Meter.”  Here’s how it works: Customers dine on their favorite KFC meals at a designated kiosk, while the Good O.Meter captures and analyzes their reactions.  With the customer’s consent, their image is then used to create engaging content showcasing their enjoyment.

This creative campaign provides valuable data for KFC. By analyzing customer reactions, KFC gains insights into how well their menu items are received.  Additionally, the positive customer experiences captured by the Good O.Meter serve as powerful social proof.

Pepsi’s effective use of creator marketing 

Creator marketing has been one of the most anticipated social media trends of 2024. And several brands have invested heavily in it. One such brand is Pepsi. And their investment has also proven to be successful based on the below post shared by YouTube which is the social media platform that Pepsi actively utilized for this campaign. 

Pepsi is known to be an active player in the YouTube space. They capitalize on trending topics to spark new product interest and consumption. And the campaign in the picture is Pepsi’s celebration of their 125th anniversary. For this, they collaborated with popular YouTube creator Airrack to create custom content which then ended up driving $4.50 ROAS for the brand. 

Results like these are proof that it’s worth investing in creator marketing. 

Sephora celebrates inclusivity in an award-winning campaign 

Sephora Canada’s Colour iQ campaign has been awarded at The Drum Awards for Marketing Americas. The Drum, a leading authority when it comes to marketing news, shared the below post highlighting this campaign. 

This innovative campaign centered around Sephora’s proprietary shade-matching tool, Colour iQ, and its mission to ensure inclusivity for all. This is because Colour iQ goes beyond traditional shade-matching methods that often neglect the complexities of darker skin tones. 

Sephora’s Colour iQ campaign exemplifies how to leverage innovation and inclusivity to achieve marketing success. By celebrating diversity and creating a truly immersive experience, Sephora was able to connect with a wide audience and thus secure their place as a leader in the beauty industry.

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Understanding social media hooks 

Popular social media marketing and management tool Hootsuite shared the below insightful post. This is the post where they discussed social media hooks at length. The post begins with an overview of what social media hooks are and how they work. This is a great guide for those looking to use hooks to instantly attract attention on social media. 

The post also has an extensive list of hooks examples for Instagram and TikTok. This is valuable info to help optimize your social media content. 

Consumers use social media for discovery 

Social media has become an indispensable component of marketing in the digital age. But where exactly does it fit in? Data shows that product discovery is one of the crucial stages where consumers rely on social media. 

Social Media Today, one of the most popular sources of social media news, shared the below post discussing this. The post delves into the fact that a majority of social media users go to social apps to search for businesses. Gen Z leads the crowd by using platforms like TikTok and Instagram for business discovery. 

Now would therefore be a good time to strengthen your social media content game and also prioritize social media SEO for better reach and visibility. 

In the Design Realm 

Canva shares the Visual Economy Report 2024

Canva has slowly grown into a design powerhouse, a must-have for designers and marketers around the world. With their reputation for being a leading authority in the creative realm, they shared the below post with a few highlights from their Visual Economy Report 2024. 

The report discusses the rise and evolution of the visual economy, the growth of design literacy, the current trends in creative tools, and the role of AI in creativity. The report also gives a glimpse of how visuals have become core components in internal communication within organizations and how about 90% of the surveyed professionals find AI to be a great boost to the quality of visuals used in communication. 

Freepik announces Designer to enhance design workflows 

Freepik, a popular platform for design resources, recently launched Freepik Designer, a new online design editor. This tool aims to streamline the design process for users of all skill levels. Based on their below post, Freepik Designer can help you:

  • Create images directly from text prompts. 
  • Translate text into various languages.
  • Combat writer’s block with AI-generated text suggestions to jumpstart your design’s messaging.
Brand identity design inspiration 

For those times when you are looking for designs that can ignite your creative spark, The Brand Identity is a great place to check out. They recently shared the below post highlighting a brand identity design project for Rogo, an AI-powered financial tool.  

Here, the brand identity revolves around a central concept called “The Frame.” 

Drawing inspiration from camera viewfinders, The Frame is more than just a logo. It’s meant to serve as the foundation of Rogo’s user interface (UI) as well. This dynamic element actively displays essential information and data, mimicking the act of “typing” on screen. 

This is an example of the effectiveness of concept-driven identities for brands. Besides, it also shows how brilliant design can help integrate your identity seamlessly into your branding. 

In the AI Realm 

Stability AI advances in audio generation with Stable Audio Open 

Stability AI has taken a huge step toward democratizing audio creation with the release of Stable Audio Open. This open-source model is meant to help sound designers, musicians, and anyone interested in exploring AI-generated audio with a powerful tool for creating short audio samples, sound effects, and production elements.

From simple instrumental snippets to realistic foley recordings, this tool is designed to tackle diverse design needs in the commercial space. This open-source model is meant to complement the company’s generative AI audio tool Stable Audio. Currently, the Stable Audio Open model is available for download on Hugging Face.

Microsoft expands its AI capabilities through Aurora for weather forecasting

Microsoft has introduced Aurora, a groundbreaking AI model expected to revolutionize weather forecasting. Developed to address the limitations of current weather prediction models, Aurora tackles challenges like extreme weather event prediction with great accuracy and efficiency. 

Based on Microsoft’s research, Aurora reportedly surpasses current state-of-the-art models in terms of accuracy across a wide range of weather phenomena. AI advancements like these are reminders that AI is quickly branching into various industries. 

Google’s Gemini expands to Europe

Google’s Gemini is one of the most popular AI assistants available today. The launch of the Gemini mobile app made news a few weeks ago. Following its initial launch in select regions, Gemini is expanding to the UK and other European countries.

European Android users can now download Gemini from the Google Play Store.  An iOS integration within the Google app is expected in the coming weeks. However, users can only have one primary assistant at a time, requiring them to choose between Gemini and Google Assistant.

Wix launches AI-powered app builder

Wix recently announced a bunch of updates including several AI tools. Wix Photo Studio now comes with AI image editing features that let you tweak your images with simple text prompts. 

The other big AI-powered update is their app-builder. This tool promises to allow users to generate basic iOS and Android apps simply by describing their desired features in plain English. 

This app builder utilizes a chatbot-like interface to understand the user’s goals, the purpose of the app, and the desired aesthetic. Based on this information, the AI tool generates a foundational app. This can further be customized within the app editor. Users can personalize branding, app layout, and features, and also integrate third-party functionalities.

Major AI tools experience outages 

In an unusual event, several major AI providers including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Perplexity all experienced outages on Tuesday morning. While Google’s Gemini seemed to be fine, some users reported brief abruption there as well 

There has been no official statement about the cause of these simultaneous outages as of now but some sources cite that this could have been possibly due to some internet infrastructure issues. TechCrunch shared the below post detailing some of the cited reasons behind this issue and how it had affected users around the world. 

This event highlights that even AI systems are prone to vulnerabilities and it also highlights the need for robust infrastructure to ensure their reliable operation.

Asana introduces AI Teammates 

Asana, the renowned project management platform, is taking a novel approach to AI with the introduction of “AI teammates.”  This beta feature aims to revolutionize teamwork by offering AI assistants that collaborate alongside human employees. 

One of the notable aspects of this update is that Asana prioritizes transparency in its AI implementation. The system allows businesses to define and customize AI assistants to handle specific workflow tasks. This ensures a clear understanding of what the AI is doing and how it contributes.

While still in beta, “AI teammates” looks promising as a tool to streamline workflows and reduce administrative tasks. Additionally, Asana’s understanding of organizational workflows positions them well to develop a powerful and adaptable AI collaboration tool.

Perplexity announces Pages – to create articles from your research 

Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, is introducing a new feature, Perplexity Pages. This tool allows users to transform their research findings into visually appealing and informative articles.

Perplexity Pages lets you take your research beyond basic exploration. You can now seamlessly create well-structured and formatted articles directly from your Perplexity searches. Perplexity Pages is currently rolling out to Pro users only. It might soon be made available to all users.

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Instagram is testing unskippable ads 

Endless scrolling is one of the signature experiences on Instagram but that’s about to change. If you are used to encountering ads and skipping them by just scrolling past them, then you probably will not like this update. According to The Verge, Instagram is reportedly testing an unskippable ad format. 

In simple words, these are forced ad breaks that users cannot skip similar to the unskippable ads on YouTube. Some users on Reddit and other platforms have expressed frustration with this disruptive and time-consuming format. There’s no official news about the widespread implementation of this feature nor about the feature becoming a permanent inclusion in the platform. 

TikTok unveils UK General Election Centre

Ahead of the UK General Election, TikTok is prioritizing reliable information access for its users through a dedicated in-app General Election Center. This is particularly to combat the circulation of fake news, AI-generated content, and deepfakes circulating on social media. 

According to TikTok, the UK General Election Center provides users with trustworthy election and voting information from the Electoral Commission. To achieve this TikTok has partnered with fact-checking partner Logically Facts.

Overall, TikTok’s initiative is a proactive approach to combating misinformation and fostering informed participation in the upcoming UK General Election. In short, it’s about the responsible use of the platform for political discussions. 

X might soon make Analytics a premium feature 

When it comes to shining on social media, you cannot simply set and forget. It takes continuous monitoring of your posts to understand how they are performing and to identify any gaps. While there are several social media analysis tools available in the market, built-in analytics are often considered some of the most dependable options. Besides, they are free! Or are they? X might soon change this trend. 

X Daily News, a page that brings all the latest X-related updates shared the below post that states that X might soon make Analytics a feature exclusive to Premium users. This means that free users on the platform might not really be able to gauge the performance of their posts without opting for a paid plan. 

Given that free users might then be seeing a black box with respect to their X profiles, we’re not sure about the kind of response this update might get. 

Meta adds customizability to the Threads web experience 

Meta announced that there are some changes coming to the web experience of Threads. According to Meta, the Threads web version will now be customizable. Therefore the interface you see can be fine-tuned to your liking, to enhance your experience. Based on this you can now personalize your feed on the web. For this Meta introduces customizable columns for a more tailored Threads experience.

YouTube expands Community Posts to more users

Earlier, Community Post on YouTube was reserved for larger accounts but then a few weeks ago, the feature was made available to users irrespective of their subscriber count. If you have not been able to access this feature on your channel, there’s good news. Google announced that this feature is now coming to more accounts. 

Final Words…

Time for parting words. We hope you enjoyed our list of social media posts from this week and got a quick update on what’s been buzzing in the tech world. If you liked this article and would like to see more like this one week after week, stay tuned! 

Posted On

07 Jun, 2024

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