KIMP’s Picks 18th October: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Another week has flown by, leaving behind a trail of exciting developments. From groundbreaking AI advancements to social media algorithm tweaks, the digital landscape has been buzzing with activity.

If you’ve been too busy to keep up with the latest news, don’t worry. We’ve curated a comprehensive roundup of the most noteworthy stories of the week. Welcome to the KIMP’s Picks 18th October edition. This is where we delve into some of the best share-worthy social media posts and discussions. 

In the Marketing Realm 

Google Shopping gets an AI-powered makeover 

Google Shopping is getting some major AI-powered upgrades designed to make online shopping faster, easier, and more personalized. Using Gemini models, Google aims to simplify shopping research for consumers. 

This includes the presentation of AI-generated summaries when you search for products, more dynamic filters to narrow down your choices and a more personalized feed to discover products more easily. 

The new AI-powered Google Shopping is rolling out across the U.S. over the coming weeks and can be accessed through the Shopping Tab on Google Search or at shopping.google.com.

A Demand Gen success story

A lot of businesses are already seeing success with Demand Gen. For the ones that are still contemplating the effectiveness of this AI-powered campaign type, Google recently shared a post discussing ServiceTitan’s results with Demand Gen campaigns. 

Reportedly, ServiceTitan saw a 94% boost to their CVR with Demand Gen campaigns when compared to paid social media ads. And the cost-per-subscriber was also 50% lower. On the whole, the data shared here discusses some of the holistic benefits that Demand Gen campaigns bring to businesses. 

Burger King Brazil’s unique campaign 

Reactive marketing brings a host of benefits to brands. It is about analyzing current trends and topics and creating campaigns that feel relevant at that moment. Burger King Brazil came up with one such campaign during the election time there. The popular advertising company Oglivy shared the below post highlighting this campaign. 

This campaign was designed to boost the voter turnout during the 2022 elections. Despite mandatory voting in Brazil, 31 million people abstained, marking a record high. To address this, the campaign offered voters a free order of fries or onion rings at Burger King restaurants on October 7, the day after the elections. All customers had to do was show proof of voting.

To raise awareness and encourage participation, Burger King Brazil aired a special television spot during prime time on major networks. Additionally, out-of-home advertisements and in-store activations were implemented nationwide.

Google talks about investing in high-value consumers 

Google recently shared some valuable consumer insights on the Think With Google page. This post delves into the significance of investing in high-value consumers. 

The post discusses the highlights from their monthly brief, The Insighter. 

The research highlights the fact that consumers are more selective and invest significant time and effort in making informed purchase decisions. Additionally, the article also emphasizes that while consumers may narrow their options, they are also open to discovering new brands that align with their needs.

The post delves into the need for placing extra focus on high value customers. Because high-value customers exhibit greater confidence in their purchases, leading to repeat business and brand advocacy. Therefore these customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend the brand, contributing to long-term growth and profitability.

CTR in marketing: an overview 

Search Engine Journal, a renowned source of search and marketing related news and insights shared an insightful post that digs deep into the concept of CTR and why it matters to brands and marketers. 

Th post begins with with a brief introduction to click-through-rate (CTR) and what it means to have a high or low CTR. 

It then highlights the impact of CTR on ad rank, quality score and other metrics. The post also provides some fresh perspectives on how high CTR is not always a good thing and the scenarios where low CTR might actually be fine. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

All about restaurant SEO 

The popular online marketing tool Semrush shared a resourceful discussion on restaurant SEO. This post is all about search engine optimization particularly for restaurant businesses. 

From some quick tips on what makes SEO particularly important for restaurants in the current digital landscape. Increased visibility, cost-effectiveness and the ability to allow customers find restaurants even after closing time are a few benefits of restaurant SEO discussed in the post. 

The post also ventures into 10 useful tips to optimize a restaurant business’s strategies to boots their SEO. From identifying the target audience to choosing the right keywords, and setting up a Google Business Profile with all the essential details, the post discusses some esential strategies. 

In the Design Realm 

Adobe Firefly gets a video generation upgrade with Generate Video (beta)

Earlier in September, Adobe announced their Firefly Video Model. Last week, they announced that the beta version of Generate Video is coming soon to the web app version of Firefly. 

This innovative tool empowers creators to generate high-quality videos with unprecedented ease and efficiency. The tool is designed to allow creators to use simple text prompts with details about camera controls and references images to fine tune the generated video content. 

Video editing update in Adobe Premier Pro 

Adobe announced Generative Extend, a groundbreaking new feature in Premiere Pro (beta) powered by the Firefly Video model. This innovative tool allows users to seamlessly extend video and audio clips, filling gaps, smoothing transitions, and crafting more polished edits.

Additionally, Generative Extend is designed to be commercially safe, allowing you to create and use content without copyright concerns. 

Adobe revolutionizes 3D design with Project Neo

Adobe has announced a bunch of exciting updates at Adobe MAX 2024 like the ones we discussed previously. Another major update is Project Neo in the beta version. 

Adobe’s Project Neo is a groundbreaking web-based design tool that empowers creators to effortlessly design and manipulate three-dimensional graphics. By combining the familiarity of Adobe Illustrator with innovative 3D capabilities, Project Neo streamlines the design process and opens up new creative possibilities.

In short, this tool is designed for creators who do not want to be constrained by the limitations of 2D and wish to add more dimension to their design without spending too much time on it. 

Adobe Lightroom updates 

The next post we have is also about some announcements made at Adobe MAX and this one is a set of updates coming to Adobe’s popular photo editing app for mobile devices, Lightroom. 

There will be a Quick Actions button with all the essential editing tools that most users need. And then there is the Generative Remove option which helps eliminating unwanted elements in any photo in seconds. Moreover, there will also be Adaptive Presets to allow users to apply their favorite effects to photos in just a few simple steps. 

Besides these updates, Adobe Lightroom will also support Frame.io integration, Ai Denoise file type support and more. 

Filtering fonts on Google Fonts just got better 

Google Fonts is currently one of the most popular online font libraries. To make it easier to find and shortlist fonts there Google has announced new filtering parameters like “Feeling” and “Appearance”. Each category comes with a set of options to make it easier for creatives to find the exact font for their requirements. 

So, once you know what mood and aesthetic you need in your design, finding the best options on Google Fonts is now easier than ever before. 

In the AI Realm 

Can usernames affect ChatGPT responses? 

OpenAI recently conducted a comprehensive study to assess the fairness of ChatGPT’s responses based on user names. 

The research aimed to understand how subtle cues about a user’s identity might influence the model’s output. 

The findings showed that ChatGPT generally maintains response quality regardless of the name but still occasionally reflects subtle biases. While some instances of harmful stereotypes were identified, they were not very frequent. More precisely, such instances were seen to occur in less than 1% of cases. 

Stable Assistant has a new feature: Replace Background

Stability AI has introduced a powerful new feature to its Stable Assistant tool: Replace Background. This innovative tool enables users to effortlessly swap out the background of an image while preserving the integrity of the main subject.

The process is simple and you can still use simple text prompts. This lets you remove the existing background in any photo and replace it with an AI generated background of your choice. 

Dropbox Dash for business users 

Dropbox is revolutionizing how teams find and manage information with the introduction of Dash for Business. This innovation leverages AI to deliver a universal search experience to find and access content within Dropbox folders. 

This lets you search and find all your work files in one place – this includes Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive and more. You can use simple keywords and descriptions for a more intuitive search experience. Dash will then provide AI-powered personalization in the form of document summaries, direct answers to your questions based on the document content and so on. 

AI Tab Management: a new feature in Opera One

Opera has introduced a new AI-powered feature for tab management on the browser. This innovative tool allows users to interact with their browser tabs using natural language commands. The idea is to simplify the process of working with multiple tabs and streamline your browsing experience.

Additionally users can now converse with Aria, Opera One’s AI assistant, to close, group, pin, or add tabs to bookmarks using simple voice commands. A few months ago, Opera announced upgrades like image generation with Aria and now there are more refinements coming to the browser. 

AI Tab Management is currently available for testing in the developer version of Opera One. 

The other big announcement is that image understanding capabilities through Aria is now available through Opera One on iOS. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Reddit announces enhancements for advertisers

Search encoding Engine Land, a leading authority in search related updates recently shared a post discussing some updates coming to Reddit. 

Reddit is improving advertising on the platform with new keyword targeting features. These updates are designed to enhance ad relevance and performance for advertisers. 

By leveraging their community-driven structure, Reddit aims to provide contextual advertising opportunities that could rival other social media platforms.

As a part of this the platform will be placing ads strategically within conversations that are relevant to the campaign making them more native and useful to users and thus leading to a 30% increase in conversion volumes, according to Reddit’s internal data.

This gives you one more good reason to start prioritizing keyword research and using more relevant keywords in your ads on social media. 

YouTube announces exciting updates for their mobile and TV apps 

YouTube is rolling out several new enhancements designed to enrich the experience for both viewers and creators. These updates, driven by user feedback, are now live across web, mobile, TVs, and YouTube Music.

These updates range from minor tweaks like fine-tuning on playback speed, to improved miniplayer for multitasking, collaborative playlists, badges for supporters, sleep timer, and an upgraded TV experience. 

LinkedIn announces new updates for B2B advertising 

Social Media Today recently shared post discussing some new updates coming to LinkedIn advertising. LinkedIn is expanding its advertising capabilities to help B2B marketers reach and engage their target audiences more effectively. 

The updates include Live Event Ads and some major enhancements to Accelerate. These are targeted to help businesses tap into influencer marketing and make the most of videos for increased reach and engagement via LinkedIn. 

Instagram introduces shareable Profile Cards 

Instagram has launched a new feature called Profile Cards. Profile Cards allow users to share their account details in a more interactive and engaging way. 

Therefore, rather than just giving out your Instagram handle, you can now send a digital profile card that showcases your picture, bio, and other key details from your profile. Have you tried sharing Profile Cards yet? 

A Final Word…

So, yes, a lot happened this week. And things are changing as we speak. But fear not, do not let FOMO get the best of you. Staying updated with the latest social media buzz is now easier than ever. All you have to do is to watch this space and we’ll be back soon with another quick social media recap curated just for you. Stay tuned!