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KIMP’s Picks 13th October: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Welcome back to our weekly social media roundup, where we dive into the share-worthy posts from businesses and creators across the globe. Whether you’re a marketer looking for inspiration, or an AI enthusiast exploring what’s new, or a designer hunting for new design ideas from brands, the KIMP’s Picks 13th October edition has all the posts you might like. 

So, are you ready to get a quick recap of what people were discussing in the marketing, AI, and design niches? Let’s go!

In the Marketing Realm 

Demand Gen to boost your social strategy 

When it comes to paid advertising, Google Ads have a special place. In a previous KIMP’s Picks post we had spoken about Google moving Discovery Ads to Demand Gen soon. And the time is here. In the below post, Google announced the introduction of Demand Gen for all Google Ads customers. Additionally, they also shared a blog post highlighting how Demand Gen can help enhance a brand’s social strategy eventually increasing the discovery through Google and YouTube.  

From advanced targeting to the increased ease of creating audience-focused ads, Demand Gen is reportedly bringing a lot of new features to Google Ads users. 

A quick guide to revisit your holiday marketing strategy 

The holiday season is fast approaching and brands are already busy with their holiday marketing efforts. At such a crucial time for marketers, Sprout Social, a renowned social media management platform, shared the below resourceful post on holiday marketing on social media. 

According to the post, about 89% of marketers launch their holiday campaigns on social media by the end of November. From starting early to accommodate early shoppers to leveraging AI-powered customer care for better experiences and tapping into micro-influencer marketing, the post covers a variety of useful marketing trends for the season. 

Google Ads Data Manager – a tool that advertisers should look out for 

With the data constraints increasing and the focus shifting away from cookies, the digital ad landscape is rapidly changing. To tackle this Google recently announced a new ad measurement tool that allows advertisers to monitor and measure their ads better. 

Ad Age, a media brand that brings advertising news talks about this tool in the blog post featured in the post below. The goal is to allow marketers to access insightful data from various sources for their campaigns even when cookies are not an option. 

Top fast-food brands in America 

Visual Capitalist is a fast-growing online publisher focused on markets, tech, energy, and the global economy. They shared the below infographic on their X page highlighting the most popular fast-food brands in America. 

As can be seen, McDonald’s leads the list with Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell falling next on the list. The sheer volume of market share held by these brands shows the power of good branding in a competitive and crowded market. 

To delve deeper into the McDonald’s brand check out our blog here. And to understand a little about the second most popular brand from this list, Starbucks, the below post from Insider Business is a good one. 

Why do customers keep going back to Starbucks? 

Insider Business shared the below post that answers this question in a clear and crisp fashion. 

From diversification to the lure of limited-time offers, aesthetic and functional store layouts to exciting packaging updates, omnichannel marketing, loyalty programs and strategic pricing, the video covers a lot of unique aspects of the Starbucks marketing mix. 

In the Content Marketing Realm

An overview of critical content marketing metrics 

Content is an indispensable asset in marketing. However several brands struggle with understanding how their content is performing and where they need to improve. That’s where understanding content marketing metrics can be a huge help. 

The below post from Content Marketing Institute discusses critical content marketing metrics that every brand should pay attention to. 

From understanding what builds trust to leveraging Google Analytics 4, clearly documenting goals to evaluating the buyer’s journey the post talks about a lot of tips that content marketers would benefit from. 

Now that you know what metrics to track, let’s talk about some strategies for content planning. 

About content planning 

Semrush is an online platform for keyword research, site audits, and more. They shared the below post on their LinkedIn page detailing some of the essential steps in creating a content marketing strategy for a brand. 

The post delves into the foundational steps like understanding the audience. Additionally, it also covers the need for periodic content audits to understand content performance and plan better content distribution. In short, this is a resourceful post for anyone looking to fine-tune their content marketing strategy. 

In the Design Realm 

An overview of Canva Magic Studio 

Magic Studio has been one of the biggest announcements from Canva in recent times. And it has already excited designers around the world. If you haven’t explored Canva Magic Studio already and if you are wondering where to start, then the below sneak peek from Canva helps. 

The post gives a glimpse into some of the much-talked-about features like Magic Animate, Magic Grab, and Magic Morph. 

If you are looking for more details about the features of Canva Magic Studio, check out our blog here. Or if you are looking to collaborate with designers who can help you make the most of these Canva features, get a KIMP for Canva subscription. 

Design inspiration from the rebranding campaign for WeWork 

The shared working spaces company WeWork underwent a brand refresh introducing a revamped visual identity. The below post from The Brand Identity, a credible online source of design inspiration from brands, highlights this rebranding project. 

The core objective of the rebranding was to put customers first and also to throw the spotlight on the design DNA of the brand. The new illustrated characters and visual identity capture this accurately. This rebranding emphasizes the strength in customized illustrations in branding. 

Packaging design inspiration from KFC 

Another great place to find the latest designs and inspiration from brands around the globe is Creative Campaigns. On their LinkedIn page they shared the below post discussing a recent campaign from KFC India for the International Day of Sign Languages. 

The post features the refreshed packaging that KFC had introduced to celebrate the occasion and to spread awareness for Indian Sign Language. There are multiple marketing lessons to take away from KFC’s campaign. 

  • It shows how KFC has mastered the art of globalization by prioritizing the local sign language. 
  • Additionally, the campaign is a reminder of the need for seasonal campaigns to build stronger customer relationships. 
  • And finally, it shows how a simple brand design like packaging can be revamped to suit the occasion and to tell a story. 
What’s new in Adobe Creative Cloud? 

The creativity conference Adobe Max has been the talk of the town in the design community. Designers everywhere are excited about the announcements coming from Adobe at the conference. Adobe shared the below post highlighting some of the announcements made for Creative Cloud. 

The video gives a snapshot of some of the upcoming features like Generative Match and Photo Settings, Text-to-Vector Graphic beta version, enhancements to text-based editing, Adobe After Effects new AI-powered brushes, and more. So, if you use any of the Adobe products, then there are several cool features to look out for. 

That’s not all in the world of Adobe. The below post highlights the updates coming to Lightroom. 

The new features coming to Adobe Lightroom 

The below post shared on the Adobe Lightroom page highlights some of the feature updates coming to Adobe’s popular photo editing tool, Lightroom. 

Some of the features announced at Adobe Max 2023 include lens blur to manipulate the depth of focus in an image. Another major update anticipated is the HDR optimization option which leverages some of the most advanced display technologies. So, besides design, even with editing on the Adobe ecosystem is changing rapidly. 

In the AI Realm 

Dropbox Dash – an overview 

The Verge brings all the latest tech news and the below post is one such. The delves into the new AI features coming to Dropbox, the popular file-hosting company. 

Dropbox’s web interface has been changing drastically in recent times. And one of the most notable changes in recent times is the introduction of Dropbox Dash, an AI-powered search interface. If you have been following the KIMP’s Picks series, you might recall that we spoke about the announcement of Dash that came in June. The post from The Verge digs deeper into this feature and also gives a quick overview of Dropbox Studio, an AI tool for video creators. 

How does ChatGPT influence productivity? 

The Generative AI LinkedIn page is filled with all the latest AI news and tips. They shared the below post this past week discussing how ChatGPT influences workplace productivity. The post summarizes the observations from a recent Harvard Business School research. 

According to the post, about 43% performance boost was seen in low-performing employees resulting in a skill-leveling effect. The post also analyzes the ways in which employees utilize AI and some of the downsides of relying on AI. A truly thought-provoking post! 

Tapping into generative AI in Google Search 

Google has continuously been bringing refinements to Search, especially with the introduction of generative AI features to make the Search experience better for users. In the below post, Google talks about leveraging generative AI effectively in Search. 

The post gives an overview of the kind of Search experience to anticipate in the future. This includes directly generating images with AI on image search and other capabilities. 

Talking about image generation with generative AI, the next post compares two of the top players in this segment, Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E. 

Comparing DALL.E 3 and Midjourney 

There are several AI image generators out there in the market. But DALL.E 3 and Midjourney continue to be among the most popular ones used by creators around the world. This is because of their regular updates and powerful image-generation capabilities. When you compare the features, you might see that both these tools are nearly on par with each other. But have you ever wondered which one is better in terms of the results? 

The below post shared on the AI & ChatGPT Use Cases LinkedIn page compares the tools by comparing the designs generated on both. It goes on to compare the results based on a variety of prompts to test which one generates more detailed images and which one keeps it more realistic. 

If you observe closer you’ll notice that Midjourney performs better with most short prompts whereas with detailed prompts DALL.E 3 does slightly better at times. And there are some instances where both are equally good. So, it’s tough to come to a conclusion about which is a better AI image generator. It has more to do with what parameters of the design weigh more to you.  

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

A quick look at LinkedIn’s Top Voices program 

Popular social media toolkit company, Buffer, shared the below post discussing LinkedIn’s Top Voices program. The thread talks about LinkedIn’s Top Voice and Community Top Voice badges. It goes on to give an overview of what these badges on LinkedIn mean and when each badge is relevant. 

The featured post in the thread delves deeper into the perks of these badges for LinkedIn creators and how they can help boost their reach and engagement on LinkedIn. So, if you are a LinkedIn creator or a brand looking to strengthen your LinkedIn performance, this is a resourceful post to check out. 

Facebook udpates that marketers should know about 

Michael A. Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, shared the below post discussing some of the most critical Facebook updates that marketers should understand. 

Recently, Meta has been bringing in a lot of changes to its platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Some of these are to keep up with the competition from X and some are to adapt to the AI-driven social media landscape. The post featured here delves into all these updates that affect marketers in particular. From the ad-free subscriptions on Meta platforms to the changes in Meta ads and the many AI experiences, the post covers a lot of recent updates on Facebook. So, if you are looking to revamp your Facebook marketing game, then this is a post you cannot miss. 

X brings more new features to Premium users 

By the end of September, X announced a new feature that allows users to permit only subscribers to send messages. This was a step to allow Premium users to increase their subscriptions on the platform. The next update also comes in favor of X Premium users and this time it has got to do with post replies. 

In the below post, X announced that Premium users can now limit their post replies to verified users only. This can be a handy feature to prevent spamming in the replies section and to prevent bot comments. 

New features on Meta Reels ads 

Reels ads are some of the most popular ad formats on social media. Meta recently announced some cool new features to Meta Reels ads. The below post from Search Engine Land summarizes some of these new updates. 

The post covers some of the most useful features like multi-destination CTAs. This allows advertisers to add multiple links within the same post. This comes in handy when the advertiser has to tag multiple products in a Reels ad. The other feature discussed is the Collection Ads format available to a select few marketers at the moment. It also briefly discusses Advantage+ creative suite. So, if you are working on your Reels campaigns, this post can give you a brief idea of what to anticipate in the coming weeks. 

On a final note 

As a social media user, you know well that trends evolve at the speed of a click. Therefore, staying updated is as difficult as it is important. But that’s why we carefully sift through social media to bring you a collection of noteworthy posts every week. We hope that the KIMP’s Picks 13th October edition gave you a useful recap of this past week. Stay tuned and we’ll be back with another round of social media posts next week. 

Posted On

13 Oct, 2023

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