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KIMP’s Picks 19th January: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Happy Friday everyone! As we gear up for another weekend, it’s time to take a look back at the week that was. For this, we’ll be discussing some of the big updates from big brands, insightful discussions from brands and creators around the world and so much more. So, if you’re worried that a busy work week kept you away from all the major updates in marketing, AI, and design, discussed on social media then this post is for you! 

Are you ready for a quick weekly recap? Let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Leverage the Super Bowl frenzy 

A good marketing strategy is about seizing the moment. It’s about staying updated with what’s trending among your target customers! One such topic that you should know about is the Super Bowl. Yes, the Super Bowl season is fast approaching and people are already discussing it on social media. So, now is a good time to start planning your campaigns and social media posts on this theme if you haven’t already! 

X shared insightful data to support this in the below post. Based on the current hype about the game on the platform, this is reportedly the most anticipated season since 2021. There are more posts about the game and more users are talking about it! 

Tapping into the power of nostalgia in marketing 

Brands strive to foster meaningful connections and campaigns with a strong emotional value help achieve this. Nostalgia is one of the most popular emotions that brands leverage. If you are looking for inspiration on tapping into this emotion, you will love the Cadbury campaign highlighted in the below post from Mad Over Marketing, a popular online publication that brings marketing and advertising news. 

Reportedly, Cadbury is celebrating its 200th year anniversary by bringing back some of the iconic packaging designs used in the period between 1915 and 2024. This is one way to celebrate the brand’s heritage while also making its customers feel nostalgic. 

Ocado’s growth brings valuable lessons in marketing 

Online supermarket brand Ocado attributes its recent growth to a strategic shift in marketing focus on customer acquisition and retention. The below post from Marketing Week dissects this shift in marketing strategy and discusses some valuable insights for brands based on this example. 

Among the many changes, one of the crucial ones is the brand’s decision on its pricing strategy. Instead of heavy discounts, Ocado opted for a price-matching strategy, aligning basket prices with Tesco. As a result of all these changes to its marketing strategy, the brand has reported a significant increase in active customers 

This is what an engaging campaign looks like

Creating a campaign is easy but creating an engaging one is what gets you the results you anticipate. And Ad Age Creativity highlighted one such campaign. The campaign is from Saucony, the brand known particularly for its running shoes. 

The campaign takes cues from the endless scrolling that consumers are very familiar with in the digital age and invites them to “run farther than they scroll”. The campaign is also meant to create anticipation around a new product Saucony Ride 17 running shoe! 

There are two key takeaways for brands from this campaign. One is the effectiveness of campaigns that involve consumers rather than merely focusing on the promotional aspect. The other is the idea of creating buzz before a product launch! 

An insightful discussion on digital presence 

When we talk about establishing a digital presence for a brand, creating a website is perhaps the first thing you think of. But the below post from Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Brand at Wix, challenges that perspective. The insightful discussion delves into the relevance of social media dominance for brands and how a strong social media presence also counts for a digital presence in addition to having a high-ranking website. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Plural keywords and search intent 

When creating content for your website, understanding user intent is one way to boost the effectiveness of your content. Did you know that the use of plural keywords can also influence this? Search Engine Journal, a leading source of search-related news and insights shared the below post discussing this idea. And it’s a pretty intriguing read! 

The post goes on to discuss how singular keywords are often used by users looking for information whereas plural keywords are more commonly used by buyers in their commercial journey. With plenty of examples and observations based on a study, the post provides useful insights to incorporate into your content creation process. 

Meme trends to hop on to 

In content creation, finding ideas is perhaps one of the most challenging steps! Hopping on to meme trends is an idea that works for most brands. Because meme marketing is a great way to engage customers. Want to explore this but don’t know where to start? Then the below post from the leading social media management software provider Later is a good one! 

The post lists some of the most popular meme trends that social media has recently been obsessing about! Check it out to find one that resonates well with your brand. 

Is guest blogging still relevant? 

With the content marketing realm changing constantly and with AI shifting various aspects of SEO, there are still several questions about traditional content marketing practices. That brings us to the question – is guest blogging still an effective tool in SEO? Search Engine Land delves into this discussion through their post featured here. 

The post talks about some best practices to tackle guest blogging, as well as the pros and cons of this approach in the current age. 

Types of content to post on different social media platforms 

When it comes to social media, what works on one platform might not work on another. This applies to the type of content you post as well. So, while reusing your content across channels is a good idea, optimizing your strategy for each channel is pivotal. 

That’s where the below post from Buffer comes in handy. The thread discusses the most effective content types on each platform. To sum it up, Video seems to be the best-performing format across platforms like X, Facebook & LinkedIn whereas Carousel Posts take the lead on Instagram. And Links appear to be the least-performing types across most platforms. Use these insights when you work on your social media content calendar for the coming months. 

In the Design Realm 

Audio updates coming to Premiere Pro

Adobe Premier Pro is one of the most popular video editing software used even by the pros in the movie business. In the below post, Adobe announced a host of new updates to the audio workflow in Premier Pro. These include the instant creation of audio fades, dynamic resizing of waveforms, AI-powered audio category tagging, and more. All of these are set to simplify the process of sound mixing on the platform. 

Creating a LinkedIn banner image on Canva 

Do you use Canva in your design workflow? Then here’s a quick post to inspire you. The below post shared by Canva gives a peek into the process of creating a LinkedIn banner image. From traditional image editing features to some of the recent AI-powered add-ons, the process takes you through some useful tips. 

Outdoor ad design inspiration 

Outdoor advertising still holds its relevance even in the digital age. Nothing better than a good outdoor campaign, like a captivating billboard, to boost your local marketing efforts. Besides, a unique and well-designed billboard with a creative idea at its core gets a lot of social media coverage as well! Amazon Prime’s outdoor campaign featured by advertising and marketing news site The Drum is a good example of this. 

This post throws the spotlight on a recent OOH campaign for Amazon Prime. From the effective use of puns in its copy to the intuitively simple and memorable visuals, the ad shines in many ways. But yes, the intriguing designs in it are what make passers-by stop and take a second look! 

In the AI Realm 

Google Search gets major upgrades 

With the advent of AI, Google Search has changed drastically. And now Google brings more updates according to their post below. 

Based on this announcement, Search is getting more generative AI capabilities. One of them is Circle to Search on Android phones. This feature allows users to circle, highlight, scribble or tap on objects in images and videos to instantly search without navigating to another app. The other big improvement is AI multisearch. 

Samsung Unpacked: the power of Google AI in Galaxy S24 smartphones 

Google shared the below post summarizing all the Google AI features coming to the Galaxy S24 series smartphones. This gives a glimpse of the big announcements made at the much anticipated Samsung Unpacked event. 

Gemini Pro is all set to amplify the Samsung app experience including voice recording, note taking and more. This includes the Circle to Search feature we discussed previously and generative AI features within messaging including the option to create custom emojis from photos. 

Microsoft Copilot Pro unleashed 

In our KIMP’s Picks 5th January Edition we discussed Microsoft’s decision to introduce a dedicated physical key in future Windows computers. This is just one of the many progresses that indicate the explosive growth of Copilot in recent times. 

Another big news now is the Copilot Pro upgrade. Microsoft shared the below post announcing this upgrade to its generative AI assistant. 

Copilot Pro is bringing streamlined AI experience across devices, Copilot capabilities in Microsft tools like Word, improved image generation, and the option to build custom Copilot GPTs. 

Stability AI’s new language model 

Stability AI shared an announcement for developers in the below post. This is about the introduction of their new language model Stable Code 3B, a revolutionary new step in code completion. Trained on 18 different programming languages and 4 trillion tokens of natural language data, this language model comes with intuitive features for developers like Fill in the Middle capabilities and more. 

Users with Stability AI Membership will be able to access this model both for non-commercial & commercial applications. 

Amazon brings AI art features to Fire TVs 

The below post introduces a new AI feature coming to Ambient Experience on Fire TVs. Powered by Titan Image Generator this feature allows users to give voice commands to Alexa and create beautiful AI art in seconds. You can also customize your art based on your preferred visual styles and then use the generated art as your Fire TV background. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Exciting updates on WhatsApp Channels 

A few weeks ago, WhatsApp introduced Broadcast Channels to allow creators and businesses to build strong communities on the platform and to keep their audience informed and engaged. Now the team has announced more exciting updates on Channels. The update came from Mark Zuckerberg on his WhatsApp channel and the below thread breaks down these updates. 

Adding voice notes is one of the big announcements in addition to the feature that lets Channel admins share polls. Moreover, users can now share updates from a Channel on their Story. 

X is pushing video format 

Did you notice that a lot of people on X have been talking about a video shared by renowned YouTuber Mr Beast? That’s because the platform has been strengthening its focus on video content and the video that MrBeast posted directly on X has set the ball rolling. 

The below post from X is a quick discussion on this. It also comes as a reminder that you can now cast your videos from X onto your TV using AirPlay! 

Announcements about TikTok Tailgate 2024 

The TikTok Super Bowl partnership has been a bit hit and hence for the 4th year, these brands will be collaborating during the big game. As a part of this partnership, TikTok recently made some big announcements about its Tailgate event that happens before the big game. 

According to the announcement, Grammy Award winner Gwen Stefani will be performing at the event and there will be more TikTok Creators joining as well! 

YouTube Channel Membership updates 

Several social media channels have been prioritizing paid subscriptions and memberships. Adding new exclusive features and restricting content to members are a few steps some of these platforms have taken. YouTube is reportedly the next one to join the league. Based on the below post from Social Media Examiner, YouTube is bringing an option that allows creators to allow only members to view a particular video. This way paying channel members will have exclusive access to some videos thus encouraging more membership! 

Farewell! 

That’s it for now! We hope our social media roundup gave you an insightful close for the week! Remember – we do this every week. So no more FOMO! Stay tuned for another weekly recap and stay assured that you do not miss any big announcements in the worlds of marketing, design, and AI. 

Posted On

19 Jan, 2024

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