KIMP’s Picks 16th May: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Friday’s here, and that means it’s time for another round of KIMP’s Picks. If you are new here, KIMP’s Picks is our weekly social media recap. Your go-to for the week’s highlights in terms of AI news, social media algorithm updates, marketing inspiration, and more. In short, this is your end-of-the-week dose of inspiration. Ready for the KIMP’s Picks 16th May Edition? Let’s get the ball rolling. 

In the Marketing Realm 

Google’s Tag Gateway enhances ad measurement

Google is rolling out a new tool called Google Tag Gateway for advertisers. This tool is designed to help marketers enhance ad performance and conversion measurement. The gateway enables advertisers to run Google tags, both client-side and server-side, directly through their own website infrastructure.

This setup improves the accuracy of first-party data collection, a cornerstone for effective AI-driven ad strategies. According to Google, early adopters have seen an 11% increase in measurement signals, leading to stronger campaign performance and return on ad spend.

Google introduces the “What’s Happening” feature for restaurants & bars 

Google has been adding more features and phasing out redundant ones on the Google Business Profile section. Now they are adding a new “What’s Happening” feature for Google Business Profiles, specifically for bars and restaurants. This feature allows businesses to prominently display events, deals, and specials at the top of their profile in Google Search, such as “Today’s Special” or “Live Music on Saturday.”

Businesses can populate this section through Google Posts or by automatically syncing updates from their Facebook, Instagram, and/or X profiles. This new tool aims to drive immediate customer engagement by highlighting timely information.

The “What’s Happening” feature is currently launching for single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand on mobile devices.

The power of linking social media profiles to Google Business Profile 

Google shared a case study highlighting the effectiveness of using diverse signals, including social media profile linking to Google Business Profile, to improve engagement. 

Reportedly, Painting with a Twist saw a measurable increase in customer engagement and visibility after linking local social media profiles to its Google Business Profiles (GBPs). The brand saw a 9% increase in GBP impressions and over 10% more customer actions, including website clicks and phone calls. 

The results indicate that integrating social media with GBPs not only enhances discoverability in local search but also leads to measurable gains in digital and real-world engagement.

Making the most of Google’s Predictive Audiences 

If you are working on increasing the ROAS for your Google Ad spend, tapping into the predictive audiences feature on Google Analytics is one way to do it. 

Google shared a post discussing this feature and how it helped Turkish retailer Boyner increase their ROAS to 11.5. They started with a clear goal of improving brand awareness with Google Ads. The insights helped them craft effective Video Action Campaigns and consequently increase their store visits by 3x. 

Balancing Google Ads and Meta Ads for optimal results 

Where should your ad spend go? Google Ads or Meta Ads? This is probably a question many advertisers have, and Search Engine Journal answers this question in the post below. 

The gist is that choosing between Google Ads and Meta Ads depends on specific goals, target audience, and budget, rather than one platform being inherently superior. 

For instance, Google Ads excels at capturing user intent, converting those actively searching for solutions, making it ideal for services, B2B, and e-commerce for high-intent searches. On the other hand, Meta Ads thrives on discovery, influencing user interest and proving effective for brand awareness, lifestyle products, and visually-driven, impulse purchases.

The post delves into such nuances to help advertisers choose between the platforms, or rather, achieve a good balance between advertising expenses on both. 

In short, you need a good mix of ads placed on social media platforms, Search as well as on retail media networks to reach the right audience at the right time and thus drive conversions. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Master your Google Reviews strategy to elevate your local SEO 

When it comes to local SEO, Google Reviews is an underrated detail. Did you know that a robust Google review strategy is a highly effective and accessible method to enhance local SEO? The post here from Search Engine Land explores this connection between Google Reviews and local SEO. 

Unlike some ranking factors, businesses can actively influence their reviews, which significantly impact map pack rankings. Additionally, consistently acquiring new, high-quality reviews is crucial for improving local visibility and staying competitive.

For optimal SEO benefit, businesses should encourage customers to leave detailed text reviews mentioning specific services, experiences, problem resolution, employee names, and even photos. 

Leveraging social media content to connect with the audience 

ADWEEK shared an insightful post exploring how social media content can be effective tools to boost customer engagement. Audible is actively engaging with social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, particularly the #BookTok community, to foster brand affinity and connect with audiobook enthusiasts. 

The company leverages immersive audio storytelling through authentic and humorous content. Given that a significant portion of Gen Z discovers content, including audiobooks, via social media, Audible delves into platforms like Reddit and TikTok to understand fan interests and engagement. 

In the Design Realm 

Google unveils significant UI upgrades with Material 3 Expressive 

Google is bringing a deeper layer of personalization to Android devices with the introduction of Material 3 Expressive. This major design update is set to launch with Android 16 and Wear OS 6. 

Building on the foundation of Material You, this update offers more fluid animations, expanded customization options, and dynamic color themes that stretch across apps like Gmail, Fitbit, and Google Photos. These updates will first be available on Pixel devices later this year.

This announcement demonstrates the power of keeping up with trends and adopting a flexible, user-focused UI design that evolves with the changing needs of the users. 

IKEA’s new OOH campaign is built around the FRAKTA bag 

To commemorate the opening of its new flagship store on Oxford Street, IKEA has launched a striking out-of-home (OOH) and street-level campaign. 

The campaign humorously positions IKEA’s iconic blue FRAKTA bag as the ultimate shopping bag for navigating Oxford Street’s diverse retail offerings, proclaiming it “one bag to rule them all.”

This campaign demonstrates the power of brand consistency and how that helps create powerful elements that represent your brand, like the FRAKTA bag for IKEA. 

A creative approach to brand identity 

The Brand Identity is a great place for some creative inspiration. Their post here explores the brand identity of the popular interior design practice Studio Marie. 

The brand identity design reflects the brand’s dual spirit through two distinct, hand-drawn custom marks. Inspired by a rich array of historical references and the founder Jamie Perez’s clear design vision, the identity intentionally deviates from typical minimalist architecture branding.

The project’s core is the adoption of two marks – a primary wordmark and a signature – allowing for a more fluid and bespoke brand expression. Additionally, the visual language complements this duality with a color palette derived from scanned paper textures, evoking emotion and tactility. 

This design project demonstrates the power of creating a brand identity that reflects the true spirit of the brand. 

In the AI Realm 

Deep Research on Qwen Chat – now available for everyone 

Qwen has been testing the Deep Research feature, similar to that available on other AI chatbots in a phased manner. Now they are making this feature available to all users. 

This new feature allows users to ask open-ended questions. Qwen will then prompt the user to refine their query with options like “history, theory, or real-world applications”, or offer a “Surprise me!” option. Qwen will then craft a detailed report tailored to your question. 

Gemini is coming to watches, cars, and TVs too! 

Google recently announced that Gemini AI is coming to more devices in the Android ecosystem. Gemini will soon be accessible on phones via a button press for assistance across the entire device. 

Gemini Live’s camera and screen sharing are now available to all Android users without requiring an Advanced subscription. 

Additionally, expanding beyond phones, Gemini will be coming to Wear OS smartwatches in the coming months, enabling natural voice commands for tasks. 

Gemini will also upgrade the Android Auto experience, allowing for more natural conversations for finding routes and summarizing messages or even translating replies. This functionality will first arrive on Android Auto and then on cars with Google built-in.

AlphaEvolve – Google’s new Gemini-powered coding agent 

Google has introduced AlphaEvolve, an AI coding agent that combines the creative abilities of large language models (LLMs) with automated evaluators to discover and optimize algorithms for both mathematics and practical computing applications. 

This evolutionary coding agent utilizes Gemini models to generate algorithmic solutions as code and then verifies their accuracy and quality using automated metrics. Reportedly, the system has already delivered measurable gains across Google’s infrastructure. 

Notion integrates AI for work 

Notion has launched Notion AI for Work, an all-in-one AI toolkit integrated directly into the Notion workspace. 

The new features include AI Meeting Notes, which transcribes, summarizes, and identifies action items from meetings. Enterprise Search allows users to find information across all connected work apps like Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub. Research Mode auto-drafts detailed documents by analyzing sources and the web.

Users will also have access to top AI models within their workspace without separate subscriptions. Notion is offering all these capabilities with simplified, all-in-one pricing, starting at $20 per user per month. 

Perplexity teams up with PayPal for in-chat shopping

Perplexity has announced a partnership with PayPal to integrate agentic commerce into its Perplexity Pro platform. Starting this summer in the U.S., users will be able to make purchases directly within Perplexity’s chat interface using PayPal or Venmo for products, travel bookings, and tickets. 

The collaboration aims to provide a seamless and secure shopping experience driven by conversational AI. PayPal’s account linking, secure tokenized wallet, and passkey checkout flows will handle payment, shipping, tracking, and invoicing behind the scenes, potentially eliminating passwords.

OpenAI brings GPT-4.1 & GPT-4.1 Mini to ChatGPT 

OpenAI has launched its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini AI models within ChatGPT for paying subscribers (Plus, Pro, and Team) and free users. GPT-4.1 is known for its impressive capabilities in coding and instruction following. It is also known to offer faster reasoning compared to the GPT-4o series, making it particularly useful for software engineers. 

As part of this update, OpenAI is removing the older GPT-4.0 mini model from ChatGPT. This release comes amid growing interest in AI coding tools. 

ChatGPT now lets you export Deep Research reports to PDFs

Deep Research is one of the most popular features on ChatGPT. It comes in handy when it comes to detailed analysis on complicated topics. But have you ever felt that the option to export the report to a PDF file would be good? OpenAI listened, and the feature is finally here. 

You can now download reports as professionally formatted PDFs, including tables, images, linked citations, and sources. It’s currently available to Plus, Team, and Pro users, and support for Enterprise and Edu accounts is rolling out soon.

Lovart AI unveils the first of its kind design agent 

Lovart AI has announced the launch of what looks like the world’s first “Design Agent”, an AI tool that automates the entire design workflow from task decomposition to final output using natural language prompts. This innovative tool integrates image, video, and music models for seamless cross-media content creation. 

Lovart’s Beta testing has reportedly generated significant global interest from designers, marketing teams, and startups. According to Lovart, early adopters have lauded the tool for its efficiency and convenience. Amidst the growing popularity of AI in creativity delivered through tools like Canva, Figma, and others, innovative developments like Lovart are sure to shake things up. 

Tencent unveils an open-source video generator HunyuanCustom

Tencent has introduced HunyuanCustom, an open-source architecture for customized video generation. Powered by its HunyuanVideo-13B model, this system is designed to match the capabilities of top closed-source solutions, delivering high-quality, multimodal video content.

HunyuanCustom supports a range of inputs, including text, images, audio, and video, allowing users to generate content with precise control. Reportedly, it also excels in maintaining subject consistency across both single and multi-subject videos. This helps generate realistic outputs with detailed motion, smooth transitions, and accurate lighting. 

Microsoft’s Copilot Assistant comes to Android  

Microsoft has launched its Copilot Assistant on Android devices. With this update, users will be able to initiate voice sessions by long-pressing the power button or swiping. This integration allows for contextual assistance within any ongoing activity.

Users can set alarms, send text messages, order rides, make calls, and even ask questions related to the content they are currently viewing. Copilot Assistant handles these tasks via voice commands.

To enable Copilot Assistant, users need to navigate to Settings and select “Set Copilot as your Assistant.” 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes 

TikTok’s AI Alive feature for animating photos 

TikTok has launched AI Alive, a new feature that allows users to bring their static photos to life within TikTok Stories. This first-of-its-kind tool uses AI-powered editing to transform photos into dynamic, short-form videos with movement.

AI Alive is accessible via the Story Camera and includes built-in safety protocols, such as content moderation and AI-generated labels. 

Threads introduces “Account Status” for post and profile transparency

Threads is launching a new “Account Status” feature within the app to provide users with more clarity regarding their posts and profiles. This feature allows users to see any actions taken by Threads on their posts or replies that violate Community Standards.

The Account Status section, found in Settings > Account > Account status, will display violations or restrictions, including removed posts, non-recommended content, and even feature limitations. 

Users who disagree with a decision will have the option to request a review, and they will receive a notification once their report has been reviewed. This aims to provide greater transparency and control over account standing.

View on Threads

Fresh updates coming to the Edits app 

Ever since its launch, Meta has been adding useful updates to the Edits app. This week there were a bunch of upgrades added to the app. To begin with, there are Beat Markers to help you synchronize your video with the chosen audio. Then there is Inspiration – to inspire creators to create content based on the audio they wish to use. 

There are also a few new video effects added to allow creators to optimize their video content to share on socials. 

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A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

Updates coming to YouTube 

YouTube has announced a set of updates to some of their existing features based on popular demand and to make the experience more wholesome. 

First, there is the voting option coming to Playlists in YouTube Music. This option builds on the collaborative playlist feature already on the platform. 

📣 We’re introducing even more updates to playlists! Now we’re gradually rolling out voting on playlists

You can try this out yourself by voting for your favorite song on this playlist we made from Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “The Grand National” Tour setlist: https://t.co/JEoSoEfoxX https://t.co/gCES0MxQfS

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) May 14, 2025

Secondly, there are changes coming to the interface of YouTube’s miniplayer. Building on the modern look that was introduced last year, these new updates pause the video when you hide the miniplayer, and the video plays from where you left off when you open the miniplayer again. 

YouTube’s announcements at Brandcast 

At its 20th-anniversary Brandcast event, YouTube announced several new advertising solutions designed to help brands connect with audiences effectively. 

Cultural Moments Sponsorships will allow advertisers to make the most of significant events like the PGA Championship and awards season through high visibility and content integrations. In a first, YouTube will host the NFL’s Friday night game in Brazil during Kickoff Weekend. This makes the game globally accessible to fans without extra fees or subscriptions. 

Peak Points, a new product powered by Gemini, will identify key engagement moments within popular YouTube content for strategic ad placement. Additionally, YouTube is introducing an immersive edge-to-edge design for Masthead ads on Connected TV (CTV) and Shoppable CTV, enabling viewers to directly browse and engage with products on their TVs.

A Final Word…

As you can see, this has been a busy week in the world of AI. Evidently, keeping up with such a volume of updates on social media can be overwhelming. But KIMP’s Picks has got you covered. This is your weekly recap of all the shareworthy posts to help understand the week’s social media buzz in a few minutes. So, stay tuned and we’ll be back with the next round of updates soon.