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KIMP’s Picks 21st June: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

As the week comes to a close, it’s time to unwind. Time to unplug for the weekend. But what about all those updates you missed from the tech realm? The AI news, marketing insights, and design inspiration! We have them all right here so you do not have to scroll through a week’s worth of content to stay ahead of the curve. 

Welcome to KIMP’s Picks – our weekly social media roundup post. This is the answer to your FOMO. Because we have a curated list of trending posts and some rare ones that are totally share-worthy. Ready for a quick journey back in time to explore the buzz from this past week? Let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Making YouTube Ads work 

In a recent post, YouTube shared some insights from their recent study on well-performing ads from brands. The results shed light on what makes an ad successful on the platform. For this study, researchers used AI (Gemini 1.5 Pro) to analyze over 8,000 top-performing ads, revealing five key trends that resonate with viewers.

The analysis uncovered a shift towards more inclusive and diverse advertising. Brands are featuring diverse characters and inclusive representations thus celebrating a wider range of perspectives. Another trend is the focus on individuality and self-expression. There is also the power of community and the incorporation of creator marketing and YouTube Shorts. 

Amazon’s AI-powered cookie-less solution for ad targeting 

Mobile Marketing Magazine is known to bring all the latest digital marketing news and insights. They shared the below post recently delving into a recent AI-powered ad innovation by Amazon announced at Cannes Lion International Festival. 

To give a gist, Amazon has unveiled a groundbreaking ad-targeting solution called “Ad Relevance”. This tool eliminates dependence on cookies and other third-party identifiers for ad targeting. Given that there is currently a steady decline in third-party cookies this move from Amazon is a major shift in the advertising landscape. 

Ad Relevance harnesses the power of AI to analyze a massive dataset. It also draws on browsing behavior, purchasing history, and streaming activity within the vast Amazon ecosystem. This real-time analysis allows the tool to match relevant ads to the content a consumer is currently viewing.  

Is TikTok emerging as the new search engine? 

The social media news site, Social Media Today, shared the below post exploring the rise of TikTok as a discovery platform. Besides entertaining people with short videos, the platform also seems to simplify the discovery of brands, products, and answers. 

According to an Adobe study, more than 40% of Americans search for products on TikTok, particularly Gen Z (64%) and Millennials (49%). Additionally, nearly 10% of Gen Z prefer TikTok over traditional search engines like Google!

Therefore, depending on your target demographic, TikTok presents a valuable opportunity to reach potential customers who are actively searching for products and trends.

Ben & Jerry’s recent campaign 

Ben & Jerry’s is known for its socially conscious branding. The brand is now back with a bang in advertising after a long time. The post below from Marketing Dive is about the ice cream company’s recent ad campaign. This campaign is urging people to become activists for various causes.

The campaign is to run online, on social media platforms, and in select global markets throughout 2024. Out-of-home elements will be displayed in New York and Los Angeles. As always, Ben & Jerry’s is taking a bold stance at a time when many brands shy away from purpose-driven marketing for fear of backlash. This campaign reaffirms the company’s commitment to social activism, a core value since its inception.

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Is Google punishing good SEO? 

Cyrus Shepard, Founder of Zyppy SEO, shared a post exploring some recent changes in the way SEO works in recent times. The post dives in to finding out how conventional optimization strategies and over-optimization can harm SEO more than benefit it. 

The post discusses how Google prioritizes content designed to benefit users, not search engines. This aligns with their “Helpful Content” guidelines. Therefore, content that strictly focuses on SEO optimization strategies focused on the algorithm might not work after all. 

Additionally, the post also discusses some red flags in SEO including the use of excessive anchor text variations, clickbait titles, and regularly updating published dates of content without substantial changes. 

The post then digs deeper to understand some strategies commonly conceived to be useful for SEO but originally do not make much of a difference. 

Tackling declines in website traffic 

Identifying and fixing traffic declines in Google Search Console (GSC) is crucial for maintaining website performance. Therefore, Search Engine Journal explores how to troubleshoot these drops in the post here. 

The post discusses the need for understanding GSC metrics, the impact of algorithm updates, seasonality, and SERP feature changes. It emphasizes the importance of comprehending Google’s reporting methods to diagnose issues accurately. 

Additionally, the post also offers strategies for adjusting content and site structure to recover from broad core updates and other traffic-impacting changes. The post concludes that regular monitoring and proactive improvements are key to aligning with Google’s evolving criteria and maintaining steady organic traffic.

Ignite Visibility’s study about SEO strategies 

Search Engine Land, a leading authority in search-related news shared a post summarizing some insights from a study by Ignite Visibility about winning SEO strategies for 2024. 

Reportedly, about 82.5% of marketers are planning to invest more in SEO and a majority of them find content quality to be one of the most influential factors in SEO. The post also shares some insights on how content marketing helps bring new businesses, and the possible changes that AI is bringing into the world of content marketing. 

In the Design Realm 

What’s new on Canva 

Canva shared a preview of one of their recent features called Highlights. This one is relevant to video editing on Canva. 

The video shared here gives a peek into the Canva feature that lets you create short clips from your videos. The Highlights option lets you instantly generate short clips from any video capturing the best moments in it. Canva automatically trims specific portions and also labels them. You can further edit these clips or combine them to create more content. 

Given that there are more and more video editing options being added, Canva, once known for its image editing capabilities is evolving into a complete design suite.  

Need help with your Canva designs? Get KIMP for Canva! 

Getty Images x Picsart new partnership 

Peta Pixel is a website that brings all the latest news in photography. Recently they discussed a partnership between a popular photo editing tool Picsart and Getty Images. This partnership aims to develop a new AI image generator. This tool is to provide Picsart’s paying subscribers with a way to create “commercially safe” AI images.

Since the AI model is trained exclusively on Getty Images’ licensed content, it ensures that users can leverage the generated images for commercial purposes without copyright concerns.

TikTok content creation on Adobe Express 

Adobe shared a post discussing their recent partnership with TikTok which simplifies content creation for the platform simpler on Adobe Express. 

As a result of this partnership, the TikTok Commercial Music Library (CML) is now available within Adobe Express through the Symphony Assistant add-on. This means creators can directly search and add millions of pre-cleared songs and sounds to their videos, eliminating copyright concerns.

This also means that there is no more switching between platforms! Adobe Express offers creative templates, video/audio editing tools, and stock assets, allowing creators to develop and edit their entire video for TikTok within a single platform. 

Skittles comes up with a vibrant packaging design for Pride Month 

NERD Productions, a diversity-focused creative agency, partnered with Skittles to design its annual Pride Month packaging.

This campaign features customized packaging that features an “energetic gathering of limbs” inspired by Berlin’s Tempelhof Field. The design celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community with diverse, dynamic illustrations depicting various activities. 

Emphasizing inclusion and creativity, the design also includes a tagline: “When you find your community your colors shine.” Skittles pledges $1 per pack sold (up to $100k) to GLAAD, supporting LGBTQIA+ advocacy. The design also shows how to stay true to the cause while also aligning with the brand identity. 

Serious cause campaigns like this one need to be handled with care. And Skittles managed to tackle it well. 

Mascot design inspiration 

The Brand Identity is known to feature creative projects from brands around the world. They recently highlighted a mascot design project. 

This project is about a mascot designed for Underline, a friendly neighborhood fiber network. The mascot created for the brand is a playful illustration that ensures that the brand appears friendly and approachable. Additionally, the lively color palette emphasizes the lively personality of the brand. 

In the AI Realm 

New AI models from Meta 

Meta FAIR has been the buzz in the social media realm. And Meta has unleashed a bunch of new AI research artifacts to foster innovation and collaboration. The new resources include advanced models for image-to-text, text-to-music generation, multi-token prediction, and AI-generated speech detection.

This includes Meta Chameleon a tool that combines text and images for creative outputs with a unified architecture. There is also JASCO, a text-to-music model offering precise control over music generation. In addition to these tools, there are refinements introduced to datasets and processes. 

Notion AI to enhance workflows with AI Connectors 

Notion recently announced AI Connectors. They break down barriers between your favorite workplace apps, letting you access and search information from Notion and Slack seamlessly within Notion AI. This means you can ask questions that span both platforms, eliminating the need to jump between apps for context.

The feature is currently available in beta and to access this feature you must be a Notion workspace owner and a Slack workspace admin or an approved member. 

Google discusses progress in V2A tech 

Google has been working on multiple generative AI tools including Veo, their video model. In a recent post, they discussed their progress, particularly in video-to-audio technology. This tech generates synchronized soundtracks from video pixels and text prompts. And this advancement allows for the creation of realistic sound effects, dialogue, and music scores that match the on-screen action, significantly enhancing the experience of generated movies.

In summary, this method allows for the generation of highly synchronized and realistic audio that aligns with the video content. Users can define ‘positive prompts’ to encourage specific sounds or ‘negative prompts’ to avoid undesired sounds, offering enhanced creative control and flexibility. 

Runway announces Gen 3 Alpha 

Runway introduces Gen-3 Alpha, a new tool in the generative video landscape. This is reportedly the first in a series of models built on a new large-scale multimodal training infrastructure. This new model offers significant improvements in fidelity, consistency, and motion over its predecessor, Gen-2. It represents a step toward creating General World Models capable of high-quality video generation.

A collaborative effort by artists, engineers, and researchers, Gen-3 Alpha is built to understand various artistic styles and cinematic terminology.

To ensure that the new tool helps enhance other existing Runway tools, it has been trained on both videos and images. And it can be used alongside existing features like Motion Brush, Advanced Camera Controls, and Director Mode.

Adobe brings more AI features to Adobe Acrobat 

Gadgets 360, a popular technology news site recently shared a post detailing the updates coming to Adobe Acrobat. These updates include AI-powered features that enhance the experience. 

The first update is image generation within the platform. Users can now generate images using text-based prompts directly within Acrobat. Furthermore, these images can be integrated into documents, with the ability to adjust size and style to meet specific needs. This is in addition to the other Firefly features like generative fill, background removal, etc. 

Additionally, Adobe’s new Insights feature provides analytical insights into documents, helping users identify trends, answer queries, and synthesize information from multiple sources. There are features that can now summarize the content in documents which can be handy for virtual meetings. 

In short, these advancements are designed to streamline document editing and enhance productivity by integrating advanced AI capabilities directly into Acrobat. 

Spotify ventures into AI voiceover ads with Creative Lab 

TechCrunch discussed some recent updates from Spotify about voiceover ads. Spotify announced their first in-house creative agency, Creative Lab. Reportedly, this one aims to help brands create bespoke marketing campaigns. This move underscores Spotify’s intensified efforts to attract advertisers and leverage its vast user base. 

Moreover, Spotify is testing “Quick Audio,” a new AI tool for advertisers that facilitates the creation of scripts and voiceovers using generative AI. This tool is set to debut soon in Spotify Ads Managers. This reiterates the need to focus on audio marketing now more than ever. 

The Yahoo News app is getting an AI upgrade

Yahoo has launched a revamped version of its news app. This app leverages Artifact’s technology. Artifact is a news app startup founded by Instagram’s cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Acquired earlier this year by Yahoo, Artifact’s AI capabilities have been integrated into the new Yahoo News app, enhancing its ability to deliver personalized news experiences to users.

This infusion of AI aims to personalize the news experience for users. With these updates, users can choose topics of interest and customize their feed and an AI-curated “Top Stories” section within the app highlights important news.

Additionally, the app is also meant to combat clickbait with a user-flagging system. To achieve this, flagged headlines are rewritten using AI and human editors to provide clearer and more accurate representations of the stories.

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Snap announces Lens Studio 5.0

Snap is making significant strides in AR creation with the launch of Lens Studio 5.0. This update empowers developers with a range of new features.

This update introduces the GenAI Suite, a set of machine learning tools and 3D asset generation capabilities that streamline AR content creation through intuitive text or image prompts. 

Lens Studio 5.0 also comes with a new plugin system that allows developers to extend the Editor’s functionalities and customize workflows. The update leads to an increase in speed, significantly enhancing productivity and modularity. In addition to this, an AI Assistant is integrated to provide quick responses to user queries, ensuring a seamless creation process.

TikTok revolutionizes content creation with Symphony 

To simplify and streamline content creation, TikTok is introducing an AI assistant, Symphony. This new assistant is meant to replace the existing Creative Assistant with a more comprehensive set of features. Moreover, it can create short videos in no time either from imported assets or stock avatars with licensed footage. 

Finally, following a commitment to responsible AI use, TikTok automatically labels AI-generated content. Overall, Symphony assists with various creative tasks, saving time and effort. Therefore, even those with limited experience can produce high-quality content with AI generation.

There’s a new social media platform in town 

There’s a new social media platform you should know about and this is a place where AI and Humans coexist. Technology and business news website GeekWire shared a post giving a preview of a new social media platform, Butterflies. 

What’s different about this platform is that it allows users to create AI companions called “Butterflies.” These AI friends have profiles, and personalities, and can even generate content and interact with other users, both real and AI.

Building these virtual AI assistants is pretty easy and the interactions on the platform are meant to be more than simply chatbot interactions. The platform aims to create more meaningful interactions between users and AI personalities. Given that the idea sounds novel, we can’t wait to see the response this platform receives. 

X is working on supporting payments 

Rumor has it that X might soon be supporting payments. With videos taking prominence on the platform, audio and video calls growing in popularity and now this news about payments, X truly is moving closer to the “everything app” status that Elon Musk envisioned for it. 

The below post outlining some of the features anticipated with respect to payments on X was shared by X Daily News a one-stop destination for X-related news. 

Reportedly, with X Payments users will be able to store money in their X accounts, and also send and receive payments to other users and businesses on X. 

YouTube might soon introduce Community Notes 

Popular tech news site Gizmodo shared the below post summarizing a possible feature coming to YouTube, Community Notes. Like X, YouTube might also soon start supporting Community Notes to let users tackle the issue of misinformation. 

Community Notes on YouTube is also meant to help users flag inaccuracies or misinformation in content posted on the platform. There is no official news about the name of the feature or a release date. 

On a Final Note…

And with that, the KIMP’s Picks 21st June Edition comes to a close. We hope that these posts gave you a quick recap of the week that was. As you can see, there was a whirlwind of updates from around the world and from various industries. Finding it tough to stay in the loop? Worried that you might be missing out on all the social media discussions that matter? Then the KIMP’s Picks is for you. Stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with another edition. 

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Posted On

21 Jun, 2024

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