KIMP’s Picks 26th April: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Hello and welcome back to another edition of the KIMP’s Picks – your weekly dose of inspiration. This is where we scour social media to curate a list of trending topics, hidden gems, and everything in between. We’re talking marketing insights, AI updates, design inspiration, and even the latest social media algorithm shifts.

Ready to stay ahead of the curve and avoid FOMO? Let’s dive in!

In the Marketing Realm 

Prioritizing experiential marketing 

Dunkin’ is taking their brand directly to festival-goers at Coachella with an interactive activation. This activation is also a collaboration between YouTube and Dunkin’. YouTube recently shared a glimpse of this activation in the below post. 

The above campaign includes free samples for customers, virtual games, and a chance to win Dunkin’ gift cards. Dunkin’ understands the importance of meeting customers where they are and building brand loyalty for the future.  Coachella, with its focus on young demographics, is a prime location for this type of event marketing.

Heineken’s creative campaign 

In a new creative campaign, Heineken unveils a limited-edition device called The Boring Phone. This Y2K-inspired device aims to curb smartphone use and encourage real-life connections at nightclubs like in 1997. This device is reportedly made by HMD and does only what it’s supposed to do – calls, SMS, and a low-resolution camera. 

Additionally, Heineken plans to launch a separate app in June designed to “turn smartphones boring” for those who can’t snag a physical Boring Phone. This creative campaign taps into the need of the hour – real connections in a digital world! Ad Age discussed this campaign in the below post. 

Capitalizing on YouTube Shorts Ads 

Google recently shared a post that explores some tips for brands to make the most of YouTube Shorts Ads. The post highlights that Ads on YouTube Shorts are viewed for 90% longer than ads on other similar social media platforms. Therefore, the discussion delves into some of the best practices for brands leveraging short-form advertising on YouTube. 

YouTube Select Shorts allow advertisers to target specific content categories (like sports, beauty, etc.) while also ensuring that their ads appear alongside popular content. Therefore, this is definitely one of the most crucial platforms to consider in advertising. 

Snickers campaign exemplifiers trendjacking 

Trenndjacking is a strategy where brands hop on to popular trends and topics. And AI happens to be one such topic that’s trending almost everywhere in the digital realm. Snickers therefore decided to capitalize on this trend in their recent ad.  Ads Of The World shared the below post featuring this creative campaign from Snickers. 

In this new Brazilian campaign, Snickers takes a hilarious approach to their “You’re not you when you’re hungry” tagline. This campaign uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images based on purposefully misspelled prompts, reflecting the funny mistakes people make when hungry. It’s a fun take on how hunger can cloud judgment, even for AI. On the whole, the campaign leverages a trendy topic (AI image generation) to deliver their core message in a fresh and engaging way.

Influencer media kits for creators 

Popular social media toolkit Buffer shared the below post discussing a critical component of influencer marketing – the influencer media kit. So if you are a content creator looking to land better brand partnerships, then this post is for you. 

The post discusses the nitty gritty of influencer media kits and some tips to create them. From the key metrics to summarize your social media influence to relevant social media links and audience demographics, there are several details that can add value to your influencer media kit. 

Looking for influencer marketing inspiration? Check out this blog featuring some of the best influencer marketing campaigns from well-known brands. 

Lessons from award-winning ads 

The Drum brings all the latest news and trends in advertising. They shared the below post discussing a recent edition of Kantar’s annual Creative Effectiveness Awards. The post discusses the winners of these awards and the inferences from the respective ads. The post also highlights some of the advertising trends to look out for based on these award-winning ads. 

This year, the awards highlighted five key trends in advertising, the themes of courage, catastrophizing, candid, consistent, and comical. Since these ads are based on actual consumer feedback, the insights here are valuable for advertisers looking to revamp their strategies. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Content marketing statistics for 2024 

The content marketing landscape is constantly evolving. With more digital channels being leveraged and with AI becoming a pivotal portion of content marketing, things are constantly changing. Therefore, what should you anticipate for 2024? The below post from the popular online marketing platform Semrush answers this question.

The post delves into some of the most useful content marketing statistics based on recent trends and predictions for the upcoming year. From content creation to budgeting for content marketing, distribution strategies, and AI in content marketing, the post talks about productive statistics in diverse topics. 

Time for some content ideas 

Content can be of two types – one that delves into evergreen topics and one that talks about what’s trending (similar to the Snickers campaign we discussed earlier). So, if you are looking for trending discussions to hop on to, then the below post from X can give you some inspiration. 

X shared that recently there has been a surge in the posts related to the Summer Olympics on the platform. Just within this year, there have so far been 6.9 billion impressions. So content created around the Summer Olympics or conversations about the games can be great ways to engage with your customers. 

In the Design Realm 

Adobe unveils Firefly Image 3 

Adobe’s Firefly has been one of the most stunning AI models of recent times. And recently they announced Image 3, a new foundational model. Reportedly the model brings enhanced photorealistic qualities as well as better styling capabilities. 

In short, the update promises significant improvements in image quality, user control, and creative exploration. Some of these changes include improved lighting, positioning, detail, and text rendering for more photorealistic outputs. And a better understanding of complex prompts and improved illustration capabilities as well. 

Adobe researchers create VideoGigaGAN

Popular gen AI platform Eluna AI shared the below post discussing a new development in video upscaling, VideoGigaGAN from Adobe researchers. 

This new video AI model can significantly improve video quality. This model can also help upscale videos by up to 8 times their original resolution while preserving the fine details and ensuring a smooth flow from frame to frame.

This technology has the potential to revolutionize how we experience videos, especially as high-quality content becomes increasingly important.

New Canva features 

Do you use Canva in your workflow? To create marketing graphics, internal presentations or even for inspiration? Then there are some cool new features for you to explore. Canva shared the below post highlighting these new features. 

One of them is the option to sort your stickers in your projects so that all your tabs are well organized. Another is the option to translate not just small text portions but entire templates. Additionally, Magic Write streaming on Canva now lets you refine and rework your written content without losing the prompt. The other two updates include animated bar chart race and enhanced interactivity in charts. 

How many of these features have you experimented with? 

Need help with Canva design? Get a KIMP for Canva subscription! 

Coca-Cola’s new campaign is crushing it! 

Have you been seeing a lot of “crushed” versions of the Coca-Cola logo online? This is the new Coca-Cola campaign which gives creativity inspiration. This campaign was developed in collaboration with Ogilvy New York. 

Ogilvy New York shared the below post with glimpses of the designs created for this campaign. The campaign features a visually striking twist: the Coca-Cola logo itself, crushed like a recycled aluminum can. The idea is to raise awareness about recycling and encourage consumers to recycle their Coke cans and bottles.

This clever campaign illustrates how simple and creative designs can help create show-stopping ads that also effectively communicate your message! 

Brand identity design inspiration 

The Brand Identity shares branding and marketing design inspiration on their X page. Their recent post is one such design project that shows how a bit of creativity can bring branding designs to life. 

The project is a new brand identity for Zingara soda, and it aims to capture the essence of “Life’s Zingful Moments.” The design utilizes bold colors, retro vibes, and playful fruit mascots to create an emotional connection with consumers and stand out on shelves. To balance the vibrancy, the design incorporates clear and legible fonts to effectively communicate key information. 

This shows how thoughtfully planned execution can result in a memorable brand identity that makes your brand stand out. 

In the AI Realm 

OpenAI for enterprise applications has more new features 

In a recent post, OpenAI spoke about new enterprise-grade updates coming to API users. The updates focus on security, administrative control, cost management, and improved developer tools.

Some of the new additions include Private Link for secure direct communication and Multi-Factor Authentication for access control. Check out their post featured here for more information on all that’s new on the API. 

Microsoft ventures into small language models with  Phi-3

Microsoft researchers have developed a new class of small language models (SLMs) called Phi-3. The idea builds on the fact that large language models (LLMs) while promising tremendous AI capabilities, their massive size translates to high computing resource demands. This limits accessibility for many users.

Given that the idea was originally inspired by how children learn language through children’s books, the resultant datasets were named “TinyStories”. The post featured here delves further into this advancement from Microsoft. 

Ray-Ban Meta is to get smarter with multi-modal capabilities 

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are getting a significant upgrade. Users can now ask their glasses questions about what they see in the real world, thanks to new multimodal AI features. This includes translations, which is perfect for travelers. Additionally, live video calling via WhatsApp and Messenger is now possible, keeping your hands free.

Ahmad Al-Dahle of Meta shared the below post announcing these updates. 

Stable Diffusion 3 is now available through API 

In the below post, Stability AI announced the launch of Stable Diffusion 3 and Stable Diffusion 3 Turbo models through their API. according to Stability AI, these new models are on par and sometimes even surpass competitor models like DALL-E 3 and Midjourney v6 in text-to-image generation quality, based on human evaluation.

The models are also bringing enhanced text understanding and spelling. In addition to the availability of the new models through API, a limited number of users can also participate in the early release of a companion tool called “Stable Assistant Beta.”

A new sample of Sora’s capabilities 

OpenAI’s Sora is one of the most anticipated AI models in recent times. A public version of this model is currently not available. However, creators and the OpenAI team have all been sharing samples that depict the capabilities of this tool. Generative AI, a renowned online community of AI enthusiasts on LinkedIn, shared the below post featuring a video created for the promotion of TedTalk using Sora. From diverse scenes to realistic visuals and lively transitions, the video looks stunning for an AI-generated version.

Microsoft & Coca-Cola team up to drive AI transformation 

The Coca-Cola Company and Microsoft have expanded their existing partnership to a five-year strategic agreement. This collaboration focuses on accelerating Coca-Cola’s cloud and generative AI initiatives. Through this collaboration, Coca-Cola is investing $1.1 billion in Microsoft’s Cloud and Generative AI capabilities. In short, this partnership is all about the exploration of cutting-edge AI technologies. 

Meta introduces Llama 3 

Recently Meta announced their new and openly available language model Llama 3. Reportedly, this model will soon be made available on AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, and other channels. The model has been crafted to address developer feedback to date and will soon be multilingual and multimodal. 

Meta also announced that benchmarking shows Llama 3 outperforming previous models on various tasks, including reasoning and code generation. Additionally, they are also bringing in new safety features like Llama Guard 2 and Code Shield to mitigate potential risks. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

X’s new TV app is coming soon 

Get ready to enjoy your favorite X content on the big screen! X announced recently that they are soon launching a dedicated TV app. This app will allow users to watch videos directly on their smart TVs, providing a more immersive viewing experience. 

X announced the upcoming launch in the below post along with a short video preview of the app. X has been consistently increasing focus on video content. And the TV app will take them further in that direction creating a more immersive experience for users. 

TikTok’s response to the recent bill announcing a ban 

A possible TikTok ban in the US has been a hot topic of discussion on social media in recent times. And recently, President Biden signed a bill that will ban the platform in the US if ByteDance does not sell the platform within a year. 

TikTok posted the below announcement in response to this recent bill. The response talks about the billions of dollars that TikTok has invested in keeping the data of US TikTok users safe. Moreover, their response also highlights that this ban will come as a blow to the 7 million businesses that rely on the platform along with 170 million American users. 

Things are moving fast and we cannot really foresee what the future holds. One thing we know for sure is that marketers need to prepare for such unprecedented moves by diversifying their focus when it comes to social media platforms. 

Meta AI on Instagram 

Meta recently announced their new AI assistant available across Meta apps. This assistant allows users to get support through 1-on-1 discussions. From creating content to ideating them and other functions this new Meta AI assistant will come in handy in several ways. 

The post they shared here on their Instagram page gives a quick preview of what to expect from this AI assistant and a few creative ways to use it. Currently, this feature has only been launched in a few countries outside of the US. In addition to the discussion about Meta AI assistant, the post also delves into other AI features on Instagram like Backdrop and AI Stickers. 

And That’s a Wrap! 

We hope that the KIMP’s Picks 26th April edition gave you a quick recap of the week that was! Whether you’re a designer looking to unleash new creative possibilities, a marketer looking for inspiration or simply a curious observer of the ever-evolving tech landscape, there’s something for everyone in KIMP’s Picks. Our goal is to make sure that you do not miss anything crucial discussed on social media. So, stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with a round-up of more inspiring developments shaping the future of tech!