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KIMP’s Picks 5th April: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Ready to welcome the weekend after a long work week? Well, there’s just one last stop to make – a quick social media catch-up. How does that sound? A quick round-up of some of the most insightful discussions and updates that everyone seems to be talking about. After all, you do not want to feel left behind when the new week arrives, do you? 

Does an end-of-the-week social media round-up seem like a good idea to you? Then the KIMP’s Picks series is for you. This is where we bring bite-sized updates from social media from the realms of marketing, AI, design, and more. 

You could be an entrepreneur trying to keep up with the market updates or a marketer looking for inspirational campaigns or even a social media aficionado who doesn’t want to miss key updates from the social media chatter. In the KIMP’s Picks series, there’s something for everyone. Ready for this week’s dose of inspiration? Then let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

The connected TV advertising market is on a growth trajectory 

MarketWatch is a website that brings all the latest business and tech news. They recently shared a post about an emerging marketing trend that marketers need to look out for – connected TV (CTV) advertising. 

Reportedly, CTV advertising which stands at $29 billion in 2024 is estimated to reach about $44 billion by 2028. Only last week there was news about Disney launching DRAX Direct and focusing on programmatic advertising. And now this trend in the increase in CTV advertising – all of these indicate that it’s a good time for streaming services. Which is why Netflix and Amazon are supposedly poised for growth! 

A creative social media giveaway 

Heinz is a brand known for their brilliant marketing strategy. And now they have come up with a creative social media giveaway proving that social media is a big space to prioritize no matter the scale of the brand and the current brand image. 

In a recent post, Heinz UK announced a giveaway. What’s even more interesting is the prize itself. For this, the brand created a branded mobile case that includes a pocket for a tiny Heinz ketchup sachet. It’s a quirky collectible for Heinz lovers. 

The engagement on the post itself shows the effectiveness of social media contests for brands. And the structure of the giveaway shows how you can convert customers to fans! 

Campaign inspiration – Amazon and Nivea celebrating diversity 

Looking for some inspiration for campaign ideas or ad designs? Ads Of The World is a great place to find ideas. They shared the below post discussing a recent campaign launched by Amazon in collaboration with Nivea. 

Titled “Unboxing Skin” this campaign is designed to celebrate diversity. As a part of the campaign, Amazon revamped their packaging boxes and invited customers to celebrate skin positivity and engage in conversations about it. This is also a good example of a multichannel approach in marketing. From packaging boxes to social media conversations, this campaign seamlessly puts Amazon and Nivea in focus on diverse channels. 

Google talks about Account Structure 

Google has been extensively integrating AI into Search and Search Ads as well. If you are wondering how to make the most of these upgrades, then the below post from Google is for you. 

The post featured here outlines an introduction to Account Structure for advertisers and how to align it with AI. The post also gives a peek into the process of bringing match types together and consolidating and cleaning up campaigns to improve effectiveness. Overall this is a good read for advertisers looking to tap into the AI capabilities of Google Ads. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

SEO vs. CRO – an overview of the differences 

When it comes to content, there are various KPIs that marketers need to consider. SEO (search engine optimization) and CRO (conversion rate optimization) are terms that are discussed often. In a recent post, Semrush, a popular platform for keyword research and more, spoke about the differences between CRO and SEO. 

In a few words, SEO is about bringing people to your website and CRO is about convincing them to take the next step and move down the sales funnel. The post introduces both these concepts and then delves into some effective strategies to combine both. So, this can be a great read for brands and marketers looking to optimize their content marketing strategies. 

Talking about new threats to SE

Content Marketing Institute a leading authority in the content marketing realm shared the below post about new threats to SEO. With AI changing several aspects of the content marketing processes and with AI also being integrated into search, there are new challenges for marketers to look out for. This post delves into 3 such threats to SEO that marketers need to tackle. 

The first threat discussed here in Google’s Search Generative Experience and how it can affect Search referral traffic among other things. The post also discusses the surge in AI content farms and how they affect the Search space. Finally, the post also delves into how social media platforms are becoming productive alternatives to search engines in various applications. Along with the details about these challenges, the post also discusses some solutions for them. 

In the Design Realm 

Adobe Express GPT 

Adobe Express has become a go-to AI content creation app for creators of various experience levels. To ensure ease of access and to allow on-the-go content creation, Adobe has been adding all of their design and AI capabilities into their Adobe Express mobile app as well. And now giving portability a whole new meaning, they announced Adobe Express GPT for ChatGPT. 

You can access this custom GPT from Adobe from the GPT store in ChatGPT. It lets you generate designs and templates using simple text prompts. Within the ChatGPT interface, you can see the designs generated. Once you select the one you like to go with, you are directed to the Adobe Express app with the chosen template preloaded for you. 

This lets you use AI tools to lay the foundational blocks for your design so as to save time and effort in ideation. 

Ads focused on making emotional connections

There’s a British Airways billboard ad that a lot of creatives have been discussing. Ad Age, the one-stop shop for creative inspiration also shared the below post discussing this ad. 

As can be seen in the image, the ad features a very simple design with no copy and no complicated details. And yet the ad has made quite an impression on consumers as well as marketers around the world. 

The design works because it plays with perspectives and adds an emotional depth to the ad. It achieves this by focusing on the emotions of a passenger in a window seat. This is a good example of making a big impact using simple designs by playing with perspectives. 

Packaging design inspiration 

“It’s Nice That” shares creative design work from around the world. In a recent post, they shared the packaging design created for Matheson Food Company. The post delves into the power of simplicity that this packaging design communicates.

For this design, the idea was to go with something not too modern. Hence the brand drew inspiration from the 1930s food packaging trends where big and clear text and a prominent image of the food were the most crucial elements in the design. 

The packaging design here comes as a reminder that when it comes to food packaging clarity stumps extravagant details. 

What’s new on Canva 

The Canva you see today is drastically different from the Canva that was just about a year ago. Their AI-powered features are critical examples of all that has changed on the platform. Last week they announced the acquisition of Affinity to make Canva suitable for more professional design jobs. So yes, Canva is changing rapidly. 

In a recent post, they spoke about another new feature on Canva and that is the capability to apply multiple AI photo editing features in one design. They also shared a video that gives a sneak peek into what this looks like. So, if you haven’t already started using AI image editing features on Canva, now is a good time to start! 

In the AI Realm 

ChatGPT lets you edit DALL-E images 

OpenAI recently announced the addition of image editing tools to DALL-E within ChatGPT. So, if you have been creating images directly in ChatGPT, you will now be able to tweak these images before you download them. 

To access the image editing features within ChatGPT, click on the image generated. Within the editing interface, use the select tool to draw on the areas or elements you wish to tweak and add a text prompt to indicate what kinds of changes you would like. The edited version of the image is then ready for download or for further edits. However, at the moment there are only a limited number of editing capabilities added here. 

Stability AI announces an update in the AI audio generation segment  

Stability AI recently announced the launch of Stable Audio 2.0 which is touted to be a game-changer in AI audio generation. While there are a few audio generation tools out there, not many can tackle long audio tracks and high-quality output. However, Stable Audio 2.0 is a model designed to overcome these challenges and create high-quality audio tracks up to three minutes long at 44.1 kHz stereo. 

If you have been following the KIMP’s Picks series you perhaps remember that Stable Audio 1.0 was introduced back in September 2023. Version 2 of this tool builds on the capabilities of the initial version and allows you to create longer audio tracks. (earlier the tool could only create audio tracks up to 90 seconds long). 

Apple’s next step in generative AI 

Popular news site BGR recently spoke about Apple’s progress in the generative AI segment. Reportedly, Apple’s AI model called ReALM has been performing really well, supposedly even surpassing OpenAI’s GPT4 in its performance. 

This post discusses some of the findings published in a recent research paper from Apple researchers. Apple has already published two other papers in the past few months about their progress in the AI space. Reportedly Apple might be using ReALM for various functionalities including onscreen entities, background entities and conversational entities. 

Copilot’s new features coming to Microsoft 365 users 

Microsoft is quickly expanding their Copilot features within their ecosystem. From adding Copilot buttons to laptops to bringing more capabilities to enterprise users they are making big strides. 

In a recent post, they announced more new Copilot updates coming to Microsoft 365 users. From introducing GPT-4 Turbo to allowing unlimited conversations, there are diverse changes introduced. Initially, they would be made available in the web version and later in the mobile app and Windows. 

More OpenAI updates 

In addition to the announcement about editing DALL-E images in ChatGPT, OpenAI also made 2 other announcements. 

The first one is the option to instantly start using ChatGPT without having to create an account first. This step will possibly bring in more users to the platform. 

The other announcement was about their observations from recent research on voice cloning. All it takes is for users to upload a 15-second audio sample and the model helps them clone their voice for future voiceover requirements. This clearly indicates that we could probably see a new voice cloning tool from OpenAI. Sounds both intimidating and intriguing! 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

New creative tools on Snapchat 

Social Media Today discussed some new updates coming to Snapchat. These are creative tools meant to make the Snapchat experience more fun and engaging for creators. And they are designed to enhance content creation and personalization within the app.

Some of them include the option to create custom AI-powered lenses, as well as longer video options for chats, Stories, and Spotlight. The other features include convenient templates for videos and the option to create custom Bitmojis and more. 

Facebook’s video player undergoes a major revamp

Video is one of the most popular post types on social media especially on Facebook. In a recent post, they spoke about some big changes coming to the video player on the platform. This is meant to bring a unified video viewing experience to users. 

Reels, Live Videos, and long videos will all now play in a fullscreen player for an immersive viewing experience. From sliders to navigate through long videos to additional controls on fullscreen mode and improved video recommendations, there are several exciting updates coming to the video player on Facebook. 

Audio is now a big part of X 

X has been changing rapidly. And in a recent post they spoke about Audio on the platform and how Audio is getting to be a bigger component of the platform. Whether it is in the form of Spaces or in the form of Audio calls, the format seems to be growing significantly on X. 

To reiterate this with statistics, about 3 million calls have been made on the platform within the past month and nearly 2 million Spaces were created. 

Europe gets a dedicated STEM feed on TikTok

TikTok recently announced that they are introducing a dedicated Feed for STEM content. And reportedly this will also be displayed by default to users under 18 and those older can turn on the Feed manually from settings. 

This is in response to various trends that indicate that several users use TikTok to gather information or even share scientific experiments and scientific news. #BookTok and #LearnonTikTok are popular tags on TikTok with a lot of educational content shared with these tags. 

WhatsApp now lets you send video notes

WhatsApp has recently seen a lot of refreshing changes. From pinning posts to sending HD photos, there have been several useful updates on the platform. And in a recent post, they shared another convenient feature coming to the platform. You can now video notes on WhatsApp. These are very much like voice notes and can be created instantly. The process of creating video notes is also similar to the process of creating voice notes. Press and hold the camera icon to record video notes instantly! 

On a Final Note 

That was a quick recap of how the week went! We hope that these AI updates and marketing discussions sparked your curiosity. For more such exciting updates in a jiffy and to ensure that you do not miss any big AI news, stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with another KIMP’s Picks edition! 

Posted On

05 Apr, 2024

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