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KIMP’s Picks 28th February: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

And just like that another week flew by. Worried that you missed all the buzz on social media? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Whether you are a marketer struggling to keep up with trends or an entrepreneur wondering about the next big AI news you need to know, you’re in the right place. KIMP’s Picks is your go-to end-of-the-week social media recap. 

So, what have we got for you this week? A round of AI updates, some marketing insights and social media algorithm news among other things. Without further ado, let’s get started.

In the Marketing Realm 

Growth of in-house e-commerce on TikTok 

TikTok has released findings detailing the increasing traction of its in-app shopping features. A study of user behavior, conducted by Ipsos, reveals that TikTok’s “interest graph” algorithm, which prioritizes user interests over social connections, is a key driver of e-commerce success on the platform. 

Users report finding product discovery more authentic and aligned with their interests, due to creator-driven demonstrations.  Additionally, shoppers seem to be happy with the in-stream shopping experience on TikTok. 

In short, this report highlights the fact that TikTok can be a crucial platform for small businesses looking to boost their sales via social media. 

Leveraging AI for enhanced buyer engagement 

Search Engine Journal discusses a few key strategies for B2B companies to start using AI to enhance buyer engagement. 

With global AI investments soaring companies are now capitalizing on AI to analyze vast data sets, personalize AI outreach and to streamline complex buying processes. 

AI-driven marketing enables businesses to optimize buyer interactions by refining personalization, automating nurturing sequences, and improving performance analysis. 

The article shared by Search Engine Journal explores more such perspectives of AI in B2B marketing. 

Streamlining your campaigns 

With the digital landscaping expanding explosively, businesses now need to be present on multiple platforms. There needs to be a seamless omnichannel experience for customers to recognize and connect with a brand. 

Therefore, the post here from Google discusses the need for brands to combine web and app campaigns to maximize their paid advertising efforts and budgets. According to Google, this simple step leads to a 21% boost in their ROI. This streamlined approach is all about meeting customers where they are. 

For more quick tips, check out our blog on paid advertising platforms. 

Tapping into YouTube for creator marketing 

So you know that creator marketing is crucial and you are wondering where to begin with? Then this post from YouTube is for you. The post delves into the success of the popular beauty brand Urban Decay in leveraging creator marketing through YouTube. 

Reportedly, collaborating with YouTube creators helped Urban Decay increase purchase intent by about 3% and Search Lift by about 278%. Numbers like these indicate that YouTube can be a great place for brands to partner with creators to boost engagement and stand out in a crowded market. 

Marketing metrics for brands to track 

Creating a robust marketing strategy is important. But what’s even more important is to understand how this strategy performs. And for this, you need to know what metrics to track.

In the post below, the popular online marketing platform Semrush discusses some of the crucial marketing KPIs that brands big and small need to pay attention to. 

It categorizes these into KPIs for multi-channel marketing, SEO, paid advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing. So, if you think that your marketing strategy needs a boost, this is a great post to read. 

Ad Age discusses 7 Brew’s marketing approach

How would you like some quick marketing inspiration? This post from Ad Age is just what you need. The post delves into the marketing strategies of popular drive-thru coffee chain 7 Brew which has expanded rapidly, growing from seven locations in 2021 to 343 across 32 states. 

A key driver of its success is its emphasis on customer experience, particularly through a highly effective loyalty program and personalized service. Reportedly, more than 95% of transactions come from loyalty members, who are rewarded with a free drink after every ten purchases. In just three months, the brand has gained one million new sign-ups.

7 Brew’s success underscores the power of personalization and community-driven marketing in building customer loyalty. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Declining organic traffic? Focus on SEO

Are you worried about the sudden drop in organic traffic? You are not alone. Search Marketing Expo discusses this concern and how SEO is going to be your best defense against this issue that most marketers are worried about right now. 

Neglecting SEO can lead to significant traffic declines as competitors advance and algorithms change. Therefore, ongoing SEO efforts are crucial for preventative maintenance. 

SEO also plays a key role in mitigating branded traffic declines by boosting non-branded traffic. Businesses must recognize SEO’s defensive value to ensure long-term online presence and avoid costly recovery efforts.

Time for an SEO strategy check-up

Okay, so the previous post discussed the need for SEO in today’s age. Now the next question is – how do you know if your SEO strategy will actually work? 

Content Marketing Institute discusses 5 interesting questions to ask yourself in order to evaluate your SEO strategy. 

From changes in audience behavior to the effectiveness of referral traffic, the use of the right metrics, the competition and other factors, this post digs deep into various intriguing details that marketers need to be aware of.

In the Design Realm

Design inspiration for OOH 

The recent the recent Audi UK campaign by BBH London exemplifies the power of creativity in outdoor advertising. The idea was to focus on the A6 e-tron’s form, emphasizing its aerodynamic efficiency and futuristic appeal.

To achieve this, the brand chose to go with a playful and engaging campaign that reinforces Audi’s tech-forward identity. The design also highlights how with the right design brands can highlight technical details in the simplest and easily digestible formats. Designs like these are what make a brand truly memorable. 

Packaging design inspiration 

This next post we have is for those who are looking for some packaging design inspiration. This post from Packaging of the World, a leading source of packaging design ideas discusses a vibrant packaging design project. 

Speed Max, a leading Colombian energy drink, launched a special edition can design to celebrate the 2025 Carnival of Barranquilla, a UNESCO-recognized cultural event. Each can features a design inspired by the event’s most beloved characters: La Marimonda, El Torito Ribeño, and La Negrita Puloy. 

This campaign demonstrates how brands can leverage regional traditions and draw inspiration from local culture to create unique and relatable designs. 

Brand identity design inspiration 

Finally, we have some brand identity design inspiration too. This is the brand identity designed for Romeo’s, Berlin’s first dedicated sandwich shop. The identity draws inspiration from vintage fast-food aesthetics of the 1970s-1990s and classic typography inspired by McDonald’s and Burger King.

The campaign features a bold, custom wordmark based on the Bueno typeface. As for the visual aspects, these chunky fonts are paired with juicy sandwich visuals. In short, the identity evokes nostalgia while keeping things modern and playful with nods to Romeo and Juliet.

In this case, the use of retro fast-food typography and 1970s-1990s vibes shows how tapping into familiar aesthetics can make a brand instantly relatable. Moreover, it shows how brands can revive timeless design cues to connect with audiences emotionally.

In the AI Realm

Perplexity’s new Voice Mode for iOS 

Perplexity AI has introduced a new voice mode for its iOS application. This mode allows users to engage in real-time spoken interactions with its AI chatbot. This feature enhances accessibility and usability, offering instant verbal responses to user queries. 

The feature currently introduced in the iOS app is coming soon to the Android and Mac versions as well. Audio interactions are becoming a crucial part of interaction with AI chatbots and these are simplifying the user experience making the interactions sound more natural too. 

Perplexity to soon launch a web browser 

Perplexity has already created ripples in the search sector challenging how users find answers on the internet. Their web and mobile applications have also been continuously evolving with several user-friendly features being introduced recently. Like the Voice Mode we discussed previously. 

Now building on this growth, Perplexity has also teased the launch of their new AI-powered web browser. According to Perplexity this browser is being developed as one that is fine-tuned for “agentic search”. The idea is to create a more proactive, intelligent browsing experience. 

ElevenLabs unveils Scribe 

ElevenLabs has launched “Scribe,” a new speech-to-text model claimed to be the most accurate available to date. Scribe reportedly surpasses existing models, including Gemini 2.0 and OpenAI Whisper v3, in accuracy benchmark tests and is available currently in over 99 languages.

ElevenLabs has been making big strides in the AI audio segment and their new AI transcription model is built to to handle real-world audio complexities. Scribe also includes a host of powerful features like word-level timestamps, speaker diarization, and non-speech event detection, such as laughter. All these are meant to help the model better understand the nuances of human speech thus resulting in more precise transcriptions. 

Alexa but with an AI twist 

Amazon’s Alexa is among the top used virtual assistants. Alexa is now getting an AI-boost and being launched as Alexa+ with a host of generative AI capabilities. This promises a more conversational, personalized, and helpful user experience. 

Alexa+ can engage in natural-sounding conversations, understand complex requests, and complete tasks across various domains. From enhanced conversations to an ever-expanding knowledge base, agentic capabilities and seamless integration, Alext+ brings with it an assortment of powerful AI features. 

Google offers free AI-powered coding assistance with Gemini Code Assist

Google has released a free version of its AI coding assistant, Gemini Code Assist. This aligns with the current trend of several tech firm going steadily toward their “open-source” label and allowing free access to AI tools making powerful AI tools accessible to individual developers, students, and hobbyists. 

Powered by Gemini 2.0, Gemini Code Assist supports all major programming languages and offers features like code completion, generation, and chat.

Supporting up to 180,000 code completions per month, a 128,000 context window, and custom style guides, this is one of the most powerful AI assistants that a developer can ask for. 

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is now generally available

Google has announced the general availability of Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, an enhanced model within the Gemini 2.0 Flash family, designed for production use in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. 

Flash-Lite offers improved performance over previous iterations across various benchmarks, including reasoning and multimodal tasks. It also features simplified pricing, particularly beneficial for projects requiring long context windows.

The speed and cost-effectiveness of Gemini 2.0 Flash models are particularly handy when developers have to build tools for voice AI, analytics and video editing. 

Two big updates from Anthropic – Claude 3.7 Sonnet & Claude Code 

Claude’s first announcement is a revolution in the AI reasoning models segment – Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This is reportedly their most intelligent model to date and also their first hybrid reasoning model. 

Available now across all Claude plans, the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, Claude 3.7 Sonnet offers a new “extended thinking mode”, enabling deeper reasoning for complex tasks like math, physics, and coding.

Additionally, this model offers near-instant responses or deeper, user-visible thinking, with API users having control over the thinking duration as well. 

Secondly, there is a new tool for developers – Claude Code. Claude Code is a new agentic coding tool that allows developers to delegate complex engineering tasks to Claude directly from the terminal.

Microsoft now allows free unlimited access to Copilot Voice 

Microsoft has announced that Copilot users will now have free, unlimited access to its Voice and Think Deeper features. 

Voice allows for extended conversational interactions, while Think Deeper, powered by OpenAI’s o1 model, enables Copilot to handle complex questions and tasks. This move aims to enhance the user experience by removing previous usage limits.

These upgrades mean that users can now engage in deeper and more natural conversations with Copilot and also gain access to in-depth analysis for complex topics. 

DeepSeek’s new model is coming soon

The AI realm is still recovering from the shockwaves that the introduction of DeepSeek’s open-source model R1 brought with it. But according to Reuters, DeepSeek is gearing up for the launch of their next model, R2. Initially scheduled for launch in May, this model is likely to hit the market sooner than that. 

OpenAI releases research preview of GPT-4.5

With things progressing rapidly in the world of AI, OpenAI has announced the release of a research preview of their next model GPT-4.5, their most advanced model to date.

The initial rollout is to Pro users followed by Plus and Team users and finally Enterprise and Edu users.

While lacking multi-modal capabilities at the moment, early testing suggests that GPT-4.5 offers a more natural interaction experience, with a broader knowledge base, improved user intent recognition, and higher emotional intelligence. In short, this sounds like a particularly useful model for writing, programming, and problem-solving.

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

YouTube hits 1 billion monthly podcast users

There are several platforms for people to listen to podcasts but now YouTube has become the number 1 platform for podcasts in the U.S. Reportedly, the platform now sees about 1 billion monthly podcast users. 

The milestone highlights YouTube’s growing dominance in the podcasting space and the success of its efforts to enhance the experience for both creators and audiences. This challenges the common perception of YouTube as a video platform and reiterates the fact that the platform has evolved into something much larger and more diverse. 

The company has integrated podcasts into YouTube Music and expanded revenue-sharing opportunities for podcasters through the YouTube Partner Program as well.

This news is also a reminder that audio content is growing. Now is a good time to invest in it if you haven’t already. 

Grok for advertisers 

A week ago, xAI created buzz with the launch of their newest and most advanced AI model, Grok 3 in its beta version. And now they are expanding their AI capabilities into advertising on X. 

From generating ads to helping advertisers fine tune their targeting strategies, these new upgrades bring a host of benefits. 

These changes are made possible with two main updates – Prefill With Grok and Analyze Campaign With Grok both of which bring Grok’s capabilities into the advertising module on X.

With social media advertising on the rise and with popular social media platforms now supporting AI-powered features for advertisers, X is also joining the league. 

Wrapping Up…

It’s time to bid adieu after exploring a whirlwind of updates from this past week. We hope this quick recap gave you a sneak-peek into the latest social media buzz. To stay in the loop and get such timely updates and say goodbye to FOMO, stay tuned and we’ll be back with the next edition of KIMP’s Picks. See you next Friday! 

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Posted On

28 Feb, 2025

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