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KIMP’s Picks 20th October: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

It’s Friday which means that it’s time to take a quick social media recap. Wondering what the busy week brought in terms of marketing, AI, and design? Then you’ll love the KIMP’s Picks 20th October edition. We’ve handpicked some of the trending posts and some hidden gems from all these realms that every marketer and entrepreneur wishes to keep up with. 

So, are you ready to find out what you missed this week? Let’s go! 

In the Marketing Realm 

Customizing marketing for customers 

Oftentimes marketers think about their brand and their products and personalize their ads to capture them. The below post from Google comes as a reminder to personalize your marketing approach based on your customers’ needs. 

The featured post takes the success story of a clothing and socks brand, Smartwool as an example. The brand was able to boost its conversions by 28% by personalizing the messaging and designs in its campaigns and customer interactions. The post goes on to explain the perks of personalization in marketing. 

An influencer marketing guidebook

Renowned social media management tool Later shared the below resourceful post as an inspiration for marketers and brands looking to leverage influencer marketing. 

The featured post discusses the basics of influencer marketing as well as a rough estimation of the expenses involved in it. There are also useful tips on finding the right influencers and reaching out to them for a productive collaboration. 

Social media is a key platform for product discovery 

Market research company, Insider Intelligence shared the below infographic answering one of the common questions marketers might have – where do customers discover products? 

As can be seen from the graph, both for product discovery and purchase, social media is currently dominating the game. This gives marketers yet another reason to strengthen their social media marketing strategy so as to get their products across to the right audience at the right time. 

Adopting webinars in marketing 

Do you use webinars in marketing? Do you plan to? Then you will find this below post from Unbounce to be quite useful. 

The above thread discusses the key steps in getting started with webinars in marketing. From identifying the most relevant topic to inviting a guest who your audience will love engaging with, the thread talks about all the core aspects of leveraging webinars. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

The ultimate guide blog post template 

A guide blog post educates readers and helps brands establish their authority in the respective niche. Wondering how to create one for your website? The below template from Semrush is a good place to start. 

Semrush, a popular online marketing tool, talks about including a clear and powerful title, an engaging introduction, and other elements to craft a guide blog readers will love to engage with. The featured post also includes templates for other blog types like pillar blog posts and definition blog posts. This is a great article to check out if you are looking to refine the structure of your blog posts. 

The keyword cannibalization problem 

When we talk about keywords in content marketing, there’s one aspect that is often overlooked – keyword cannibalization. Keyword cannibalization is when you end up creating too much content for various platforms surrounding very similar or identical keywords. The below post from Search Engine Journal discusses this in detail. 

Search Engine Journal brings all the latest search news and trends. In the above post, they talk about the tools and metrics to identify keyword cannibalization. The post also gives an overview of the signs to look out for and some quick strategies to avoid this issue. Looking to refine your content strategy? Then give this article a read! 

Content marketing for local businesses 

Content marketing in itself is tricky business and then come the nuances in targeting local customers and a wider geographical reach. If the former is your worry, then the below post from the popular SEO software provider Moz is a must-read. 

The post talks about content marketing tips, particularly for local business owners struggling to boost their reach and engagement. The post covers the essential steps like crafting foundation content and off-site content for local reach. It also briefly covers the current state of Search and strategies based on that. 

Working on your Instagram caption 

Once you have the perfect Instagram post for your brand’s page, there is one further hurdle daunting you – the caption. Sounds relatable? Then this post from the social media-focused online publishing company, Social Media Examiner is just for you. 

The informative post talks about crafting Instagram captions, particularly about utilizing the 2200 characters effectively. The post lists 18 different ideas on the type of content to discuss in the caption and the CTAs to explore. 

In the Design Realm 

Ralph Lauren’s cancer-awareness campaign effectively leverages branding 

If you see the signature Ralph Lauren logo in pink, wouldn’t you be intrigued to find out what is being discussed? The below campaign highlighted on the Because Of Marketing LinkedIn page discusses one such instance. 

The post throws the spotlight on Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony Awareness Campaign, the brand’s initiative for cancer awareness. In addition to celebrating the cause-marketing in this, the post also stands as a reminder of the power of consistent branding. It shows how a unique logo can set your brand apart and simplify the process of delivering any kind of brand message.

In this case, as you can see, the outdoor ad design is simple and the logo takes center stage. Along with this the signature brand fonts ensure that the brand’s identity is preserved without distracting users from the core message. 

Creative visuals crafted for Discover LA 

Ad Age is an endless reserve of creativity inspiration for marketers and designers. On the Ad Age Creativity page, they highlighted the below campaign for Discover LA. 

What makes the design in this campaign particularly interesting is the team’s decision to go with movie title sequence-style visuals for the ads. Vibrant colors, geometric shapes, and an overall nostalgic vibe make these ads hard to ignore. Additionally, this also shows how creating a distinct visual style makes it easier to achieve consistency in advertising. Notice how easy it is to connect all the ads in the campaign. 

Talking about visual styles, occasion-inspired styles are the most common. This includes the incorporation of the season’s signature color and aesthetics. And since the Halloween season is here, we’re going to talk about a campaign that effectively incorporates a Halloween aesthetic. 

Brilliant use of Halloween aesthetic 

IKEA ads, both static and video, are unique in their design, simple and memorable too. And the below post from Ads Of The World highlights IKEA’s campaigns for Halloween. 

As you can see, the videos are simple and to the point. Yet they brilliantly capture the theme without any distraction. From the lighting to the placement of the product and the framing of the product, every little detail of the video design has been crafted to establish the Halloween theme. This shows how you can hop onto the trend of the season without losing on your brand’s unique visual style. 

Adobe adds another cool image editing feature 

Adobe’s creativity conference, Adobe MAX has been the buzz in the design community recently. One of the recent announcements from Adobe at Adobe MAX is Project Stardust. And a post shared by Adobe highlights a handy feature in this editing engine that lets you grab and move particular elements in a frame. 

This is perhaps Adobe’s answer to the Magic Grab feature that Canva introduced as a part of its Magic Studio announcement. So, if you are a designer or marketer who uses Adobe’s creative tools for your designs, then this is a super-useful feature to look out for. 

Contextually relevant design in a creative JBL ad 

Clio Awards are something that advertisers look forward to since they honor creativity in advertising and provide an infinite source of inspiration for advertisers. The below post shared by Clio highlights a recent Clio Health 2023 Award-winning ad from JBL in collaboration with UNICEF. 

There are two design aspects that add strength to the thoughtful message in the ad. First is the chalk-styled illustration like a child’s sketching. Since the message is centered around children, this style feels apt. Another is the minimalistic design which ensures that there are no distractions diverting the user away from the core message. 

In the AI Realm 

DALL.E 3 has arrived on ChatGPT 

In a previous KIMP’s Picks edition, we spoke about ChatGPT announcing DALL.E 3. And now a more concrete announcement is here. OpenAI shared the below post announcing the arrival of DALL.E 3 on ChatGPT for Plus and Enterprise users. Along with the announcement the post also featured a short video snippet giving a sneak peek into what to expect from this update. 

Similar to switching between web browsing and Plugins mode, you’ll now be able to switch to DALL.E 3 image generation mode on ChatGPT if you have a Plus or Enterprise subscription. Have you explored this update yet? 

Meta tests the power of AI in monitoring brain activity 

Meta has unveiled a groundbreaking AI system that deciphers visual representations in the human brain with unprecedented temporal precision using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Meta shared the below post announcing this upcoming AI venture. 

This AI system from Meta reconstructs real-time images from brain activity. This offers insights into how the brain processes images and the potential for several clinical applications. Evidently, this is a major step for Meta in the AI space.  

Adobe’s new AI editing features 

The Rundown AI is a popular AI newsletter that delivers instant updates in the AI realm. They shared the below post highlighting a recent AI-based video editing feature that Adobe announced. 

Replacing specific elements and playing with the subject’s outfit in a static image are features that have been around for a while now. But Adobe is bringing these features to video editing to let you tweak the subjects without changing anything else in the video. This is definitely a big leap in video editing. 

Baidu has announced its ChatGPT rival 

Insider Business shared the below post highlighting the latest announcement from Baidu, a leading AI-tech firm in China. According to the announcement, Baidu’s AI tool, Ernie has seen a lot of new updates and its capabilities are reportedly now almost on par with those of GPT-4. 

The demonstration of Ernie 4.0 displayed a variety of features including solving problems and writing a novel. This comes as a big news after Baidu’s initial setback with the launch of Ernie.

What AI can and cannot in marketing 

The below post from YouTube Advertisers shares some quick insights from the Advertising Week New York. It summarizes some of the things that AI can do and cannot do particularly in the marketing segment. This post helps distinguish the roles of AI tools and marketers at the current state of things. 

The post delves into some of the limitations like AI tools missing out on the big picture and the empathy factor. All of these points reiterate the fact that AI tools can augment the roles of human marketers and not replace them. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

Creating campaigns on X – tips for advertisers 

X the platform is rapidly evolving and advertisers might be finding it hard to keep up with the changes and the new features that the platform brings. To eliminate confusion and to remind advertisers of all the useful features added, X shared the below post. 

The post covers Adjacency controls for ads on X’s Home Timeline, Sensitivity Settings for ideal placement of ads, Surface Opt-Out for placements again, and Keyword Ads for targeting based on topics. How many of these have you tried? 

X’s “Not A Bot” announcement means that new users might be charged to use X 

X has been pushing its paid plans actively and bringing a host of new updates to Premium users. And now another step toward increasing the revenue for X and reportedly also to prevent spam accounts, X is planning to introduce a fee of $1 for new users. Accordingly, users will have to pay the said amount to start interacting with posts or even to create posts on the platform. 

X announced the same in the below post and that this program titled “Not A Bot” is currently being tested in New Zealand and the Philippines. 

Design updates coming to YouTube 

YouTube shared the below thread listing some interesting design updates coming to the platform. 

According to the featured post, the updates in the interface are coming both to the mobile app and TV app. There are more than 30 new features for better content discovery, the option to search by voice, interesting animations for key moments in the videos and so much more. These are meant to make the YouTube experience much smoother and interesting for the users. 

Broadcast channels are expanding to more Meta platforms 

Meta’s Broadcast Channels have been a hit on Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta recently announced that this feature is now rolling out to Facebook and Messenger as well. This comes in as a handy feature for small business owners and content creators looking for ways to keep their audience engaged on these platforms. 

TikTok Creativity Program Beta 

Despite being banned in some parts of the world, TikTok still reigns supreme in the world of short-form videos. And there are several content creators and businesses who heavily rely on the platform to engage with their audience and to sell their products/services. Keeping them in mind, TikTok added the below post highlighting the basics of its Creativity Program which is currently in its beta phase. 

The post talks about content creators being rewarded for the viewership their 1+ minute videos gain and then shares the requisites for users to sign up for the program. 

Branded content – coming soon to Threads 

Despite the initial virality, the engagement and usage on Threads have been lower than anticipated. However, Meta has been working on various strategies to tackle this. Social Media Today, an online resource for social media news, shared the below post hinting at a possible update coming to Threads. 

According to the post, Threads is testing the option to add branded content tags on the platform. While advertising on the platform is still far away, paid partnership labels for collaboration posts might soon arrive on Threads. We’ll have to wait and watch if this step leads to any significant improvement in the Threads traffic. 

Shall We Wrap Up?

That was quite a lot to catch up on, right? But yes, we cannot deny the fact that there are so many cool updates to look forward to in marketing and AI. But how do you ensure that you don’t miss out on all these critical updates in the crowded social media space? By checking this space regularly! We’ll be back next week with anything new and exciting that brands and content creators share on social media this coming week. Until then, stay inspired and keep exploring! 

Posted On

20 Oct, 2023

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