KIMP’s Picks 11th October: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More
Do you find social media to be your go-to spot to get all the instant industry updates, tech news, AI buzz, and more? But then find the space overwhelming with the constant updates streaming in? Then you are in the right place. Welcome to KIMP’s Picks – our weekly social media roundup curated for you. For you, the tech enthusiast looking out for AI industry news. For you, the marketer looking for some quick inspiration and updates about changes coming to your favorite social media platforms.
Are you ready to catch up on all the social media chatter from this past week? Then let’s get the ball rolling.
In the Marketing Realm
Google expands store ratings to more countries
The Store Ratings feature on Google is now expanding to more countries. Initially available only in the U.S. this feature is now rolling out to Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom as well.
Features like this one are handy in increasing customer confidence when comparing stores and making purchase decisions. Therefore, merchants in more countries can now collect feedback from independent review sites and get their store ratings to appear in the search results.
Amazon MCF on Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is getting better by the day both for sellers to display their details and for consumers to understand merchants before making purchase decisions. In another interesting move, Google is reportedly integrating Amazon MCF (Multi-Channel Fulfillment) service into the Merchant Center.
Therefore, when customers search for product-related information, they also get to see shipping information directly on Google Shopping.
Search Engine Journal, a leading authority on search-related news shared the below post discussing this upcoming update.
The integration is part of a broader effort to boost transparency and reduce cart abandonment. Google suggests that retailers offering fast, free shipping could see increased click-through rates (1.5% to 7.6%) and conversion rates (1.9% to 7.2%) on shopping ads.
Changes to Google Business Profile
In addition to the above-discussed changes for small businesses relying on Google Business Profile for their digital presence, there’s more news. In a recent post, Google announced that restaurant owners can now upload their menus in a PDF format directly from their profiles.
The post here also gives a preview of the steps involved. This update makes it easier for restaurant owners to upload a high-quality menu document to give consumers a better preview before they choose their restaurant.
The need for mobile marketing
Semrush, a popular online marketing platform, recently shared an insightful post that discusses the need for mobile marketing in the competitive digital space. The graph shared in the post also highlights how about 76% of all U.S. adults who shop online shop from their smartphones.
The post also discusses some more crucial ecommerce statistics that businesses need to know about in 2024. From general ecommerce trends to mobile ecommerce statistics to know, the post delves into several fresh perspectives for retailers.
For some design secrets for mobile marketing success, check out our blog here.
In the Content Marketing Realm
Evolving SEO in the era of AI search engines
AI-powered search engines are changing the search game. From the way search results are displayed to the types of content that take precedence, several things are changing. Therefore, in the blog here, Search Marketing Expo discusses some useful strategies for businesses and content creators to start evolving their strategies.
The post discusses diverse aspects of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) like the need for crafting conversational content that is recognized and ranked well by AI engines with natural language processing capabilities.
The post also recommends working toward being cited by credible sources and the use of structured data.
So, if you are looking to optimize your content strategy for the GEO trends, then this is a great post.
In the Design Realm
Packaging design inspiration
Having spoken about trends and marketing news, let’s take a quick break with some design inspiration. This one was shared by one of the most popular reserves of packaging design inspiration, Packaging Of The World. On their X page, they recently discussed a unique packaging created for Amura.
The creative agency artfully blended Mayan mythology with chic and modern elements to capture the allure of this luxury chocolate range.
One of the most important details here is the use of a strong and relevant storyline to add more value to the design. The packaging presents “monkey warriors” as protectors of cacao, drawing a deep connection between nature, mysticism, and the sacred role of monkeys in Mayan culture.
By infusing a sense of history and highlighting the design with elements of sophistication, the design team has created a truly tasteful design that stands out.
Brand identity design
A candy brand targeting adults? Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? Therefore the brand identity design should be as intriguing as the brand itself. Creative Boom, a popular art and design magazine, highlighted a recent project for a candy brand for adults, Chilli Bomba.
This gourmet candy brand is known particularly for its chilli-infused sweets. Therefore, the brand identity is a blend of sweet and spicy. Accordingly, the design incorporates bold, interactive elements into the brand’s custom e-commerce platform, featuring colorful product pages and interactive moments that reflect the brand’s playful and daring spirit.
On the other hand, the packaging and branding combine vibrant visuals with a sense of heat, enticing customers to explore the unconventional mix of flavors. From unique typography to playful illustrated characters, the design combines various elements to create something unique and memorable.
Fiverr’s creative Halloween ad
Creating ads for Halloween can be an interesting task. From spooky symbols to fonts that set the theme and colors that capture the vibe, there are many ways to preserve the Halloween aesthetic in your marketing graphics. Ads of the World recently spotlighted a Fiverr campaign for Halloween.
This campaign is a visual treat and a great source of inspiration for those looking to add some finishing touches to their Halloween designs.
The Retail Graveyard campaign uses eerie text, light effects, transitions, and a suitable audio track to accurately represent the theme.
In the AI Realm
OpenAI unveils Canvas
OpenAI has launched a new feature called Canvas, designed to enhance collaboration on writing and coding projects using ChatGPT. This interface goes beyond traditional chat, allowing users to work side by side with the AI to create, refine, and edit content more efficiently. Canvas opens in a separate window and is now available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users, with plans to roll it out to all free users once it exits beta.
Canvas is reportedly built with GPT-4o and it offers a way to handle more complex tasks that require nuanced revisions and multiple iterations. To accommodate this, Canvas allows users to provide inline suggestions and acquire debugging assistance as well. In short, this new update changes the way users interact with AI, ChatGPT in particular.
Meta’s Movie Gen – a new step in audio and video generation
Meta has unveiled Movie Gen, their most advanced media foundation models to date. This model is touted to open up new creative possibilities for both casual creators and professionals. Developed by Meta’s AI research teams, Movie Gen combines cutting-edge AI technology to deliver high-quality video and audio generation capabilities.
To generate videos Movie Gen uses their 30B parameter transformer model and can instantly generate videos and images from simple text prompts. And a 13B parameter transformer model for audio generation. Moreover, the model is also trained to tackle precise video editing.
Google expands the availability of Imagen 3 to Gemini users
Google has announced that Imagen 3, its advanced image generation model, is now accessible to all Gemini users. This powerful tool offers enhanced photorealism, improved prompt understanding, higher image quality, and superior text rendering capabilities.
To access this feature within Gemini, ensure that you start your prompt with “draw,” “generate,” or “create,” and then go on to specify your preferred style and other details. This will result in an image that carries a SynthID watermark.
This feature which was initially introduced during early access in May is now available to more users. Free users can generate generic images while those with people are currently restricted to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users.
Stability AI brings more new features to Stable AI Assistant
Stable AI Assistant makes it easier for users to access the AI features on the Stability AI ecosystem. Recently, they have been adding several useful features to the tool so that users can conveniently access the interface and get their job done.
In a recent post, they announced a couple more updates. This includes Reinvent and Batch. Reinvent helps reapply creative treatments to images and combine existing tools. So users can easily replicate their desired styles in a few clicks.
On the other hand, Batch allows users to quickly generate multiple versions of a design and also easily apply the intended effects and edits to all the images.
These updates further enhance Stable Assistant’s capabilities, providing users with more efficient and effective tools for image manipulation and creative exploration.
OpenAI partners with Hearst to enhance content offerings
OpenAI has announced a strategic partnership with Hearst, a leading media company, to integrate Hearst’s extensive lifestyle and local news content into its AI products. This collaboration enriches ChatGPT’s capabilities by adding curated content from Hearst’s vast portfolio of over 20 magazine brands and 40+ newspapers.
Therefore the 200 million weekly users of ChatGPt will now have access to a more diverse and extensive pool of lifestyle content.
Amazon announces AI Shopping Guides
Amazon has been actively introducing AI-powered upgrades across their ecosystem. This includes Rufus shopping assistant for shoppers and Project Amelia for sellers. And now the next AI innovation from the company comes in the form of AI Shopping Guides for shoppers to quickly grasp all the essential information when they are comparing products and trying to make a well-informed purchase decision.
The feature will initially be available on Amazon’s U.S.-based iOS and Android apps, as well as the Amazon.com website. This feature will likely reduce the time taken to research products by summarizing the key details along with product listings.
Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes
YouTube brings some big updates to Shorts
With the rising popularity of short-form videos, Shorts has become an important format on YouTube for creators and brands alike. Keeping up with the growing popularity, YouTube is bringing more new updates to this format to enhance the experience for creators.
Firstly, YouTube will soon support longer Shorts (up to 3 minutes long). This is in accordance with the expanding support for short-form content on other platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Then comes the Streamlined Player update. The player interface has been updated for a cleaner look, allowing creators’ content to take center stage and viewers to focus on the videos they love.
In addition to these, one of the key updates is the Shorts Templates option that allows users to instantly jump on trends. All you have to do is to click on the Remix option and then select the “Use this template” option to start creating your own version of the video.
There will also be a Shorts Trends Page where users can easily find what’s trending and this helps creators grab ideas for their content as well. On the whole, there is a lot changing for both creators and viewers alike.
TikTok brings more updates to advertising on the platform
TikTok recently announced Smart+, their new AI platform designed to enhance the experience and improve productivity for advertisers. The changes are meant to streamline ad creation and deployment.
The whole campaign journey on the platform is set to change due to these updates. This includes Smart+ Web campaigns for bring more website traffic and shortening the funnel. The other is Smart+ Catalog Ads which creates relevant recommendations for users based on their interests.
Additionally, Smart+ App Campaigns will tap into TikTok’s discovery mechanism to help improve app installs and conversions. Finally, Smart+ Lead Generation Campaigns are meant to help advertisers convert interested leads into customers through native lead generation solutions.
In short, the changes are meant to bring holistic updates to advertising on TikTok.
Big announcements from the Facebook IRL event
The Facebook IRL event in Austin introduced several useful Messenger and Facebook updates. One of them includes the Local tab to let users discover local communities and local content all in one place.
Secondly, the Explore Tab will show content based on user interests. Thirdly, the video experiences are also set to change. Also, Facebook Group AI will act as a virtual assistant within groups allowing members to find answers from what’s already been discussed in the group.
Additionally, they also announced the Matchmaker feature to allow users to find potential matches and thus this one sets the stage for Facebook Dating.
Finally, there are a few Messenger updates like upgraded Notes with the option for users to add mentions and music, Memories feature and Messenger Communities.
To Conclude…
That brings us to the end of the KIMP’s Picks 11th October Edition. We hope that our curated recap for you gave you a snapshot of the week that was. For more such updates and to be sure that you are always in the loop about what’s buzzing in the social media realm, stay tuned. We’ll be back next week with another social media round-up with posts handpicked for you.