KIMP’s Picks August 29th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

As another week closes, it’s time to catch up on all the social media buzz you missed. From AI news to social media algorithm updates, marketing inspiration, and more, the KIMP’s Picks is your go-to end-of-the-week recap. 

The KIMP’s Picks August 29th Edition brings to you a handpicked list of shareworthy social media posts that give a glimpse of the week that flew by. Ready? Let’s go.

In the Marketing Realm 

Google rolls out loyalty features for retailers 

In a recent post, Search Engine Journal discussed a few recent loyalty-focused features introduced for retailers using Google advertising tools. 

Reportedly, Google has rolled out new loyalty features for retailers, giving them a powerful way to promote their loyalty programs directly within Google’s shopping ecosystem. This update allows brands to showcase member-exclusive benefits like special pricing, shipping perks, and points in both free and paid Shopping listings. 

A new “loyalty goal” in Google Ads also helps advertisers optimize campaigns to target high-value customers, shifting the focus from a single transaction to long-term customer value.

The new features are available in select countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Australia, and are soon coming to more countries. To get started, retailers must have an existing loyalty program and enable the “loyalty add-on” in their Merchant Center account. They must also update their product feeds with a “loyalty_program” attribute, ensuring data consistency.

Tackling holiday email marketing like a pro 

Email is one of the most popular channels in holiday marketing. From personalized offers to announcements about upcoming sales, brands use emails in many ways. But if you are worried about your emails getting lost in the inbox clutter, then this post from MarTech is for you. 

The article discusses that younger consumers are being overwhelmed by emails and moving towards other platforms like WhatsApp. Besides, they also seem to dislike overly personal messages. 

This new behavior suggests a shift from an “omnichannel” to an “optimal channel” approach. Consumers want control over how brands contact them and expect a consistent experience across different platforms. 

But the post also highlights that even with these challenges, email remains a powerful tool for brand-building and can drive other actions like website visits or sales. Accordingly, when planning holiday campaigns, marketers should use simple, clear subject lines and avoid over-relying on AI for messaging.

Bumble’s new campaign to rebuild its reputation

Bumble is trying to win back users by shifting away from casual swiping and doubling down on love. Its new global campaign, “For the Love of Love,” highlights real couples who met on the app and leans into the idea that dating apps can lead to meaningful relationships.

Yes, that sounds a lot like when Tinder launched the It Starts With a Swipe campaign for similar reasons. Campaigns like these prove that brands cannot stay on the same track when it comes to branding. They occasionally have to take a step back and re-evaluate their position in the market and their reputation to see if they need a brand repositioning.

The campaign runs through December and the brand is deploying diverse ad formats like out-of-home ads, immersive installations, singles events in major cities, and partnerships with podcasts and media outlets like The New York Times and Vogue. To back it up, Bumble refreshed its app with photo verification, personalized recommendations, and expert dating advice.

McDonald’s celebrates 30 years of McFlurry

McDonald’s Canada is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the McFlurry, which was invented in Bathurst, New Brunswick. The new campaign, “An East Coast Original”, is designed as a tribute to the region’s creativity and ingenuity. 

Partnering with seven local artists, McDonald’s has turned its advertisements into a showcase for handmade, traditional art forms like stained glass, rug hooking, and driftwood sculpture.

The art pieces cleverly combine elements that celebrate the McFlurry while also including elements of Atlantic Canada’s culture and landscape. Instead of traditional ads, the artwork is displayed as if it were in a gallery across out-of-home, video, and social media platforms. The campaign highlights how a simple idea can become a beloved, global icon while celebrating its humble, local roots.

In the Content Marketing Realm 

LinkedIn discusses the value of authenticity in B2B content marketing 

LinkedIn recently shared a post highlighting a few useful strategies for B2B content in the age of content overload. 

The post highlights how the flood of AI-generated content may save time, but leads to a lack of authenticity, which buyers notice. 

For B2B brands, that’s a problem because trust is what drives decisions. Besides, most B2B buyers are risk-averse, and authentic content is what bridges the gap between skepticism and confidence. So, with AI content on the rise, authenticity can be the strongest differentiator for any B2B brand. 

In the Design Realm 

Are you using these Canva tools in your marketing workflow? 

Canva has become a crucial component of many design workflows. If it is part of your design and marketing workflows too, then here is a post you might like. 

The post here from Canva summarizes a few useful tools that have gained a lot of popularity on the platform and have become a must-have for marketers. 

It explores Visual Suite 2.0, which brings all the useful creative tools on the platform to one place. Canva Sheets with upgraded data visualization features, Canva Code that simplifies coding, Magic Insights and Magic Formulas are the other Canva features that the post discusses. 

Cracker Barrel scraps new logo after heavy backlash 

Cracker Barrel recently announced a logo refresh, replacing its iconic design with a more modern design that removed the “Old Timer” figure, which has become one of the most prominent details in the logo. However, the oversimplified emblem did not sit well with the audience. 

The move sparked criticism that the brand was abandoning its Southern roots and nostalgic identity. The uproar reached national attention, with former President Donald Trump weighing in and urging the company to return to its classic design. 

Additionally, branding experts also called the rebrand a misstep, saying it ignored the company’s story and atmosphere. With that, the shares dropped about 7% shortly after the announcement of the logo refresh. 

Responding to the outcry, Cracker Barrel posted on social media that it listened to its guests and would keep the “Old Timer” and is reverting back to its old logo. 

In the AI Realm 

Google announces a new and upgraded image model – Gemini 2.5 Flash Image 

Google has unveiled a significant upgrade to the Gemini app’s image editing capabilities with a new model, Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. Designed to be a huge upgrade to Google’s previous image models, this one is also packed with top-tier image editing features. 

From preserving character consistency to tackling advanced edits, including changing a subject’s outfit or location, this new model can handle a variety of tasks, accepting simple text prompts.

Nicknamed Nano Banana, this new model also allows for blending multiple photos together, making multi-step edits to a single image, and applying the style from one object to another. This powerful tool is available to all Gemini users, both paid and free. All edited images include a digital watermark for transparency.

Additionally, to help users make the most of the new model and to accurately edit their images to get accurate results, Google has also shared a prompting guide. 

A new Fitbit personal coach powered by Gemini 

Fitbit is introducing a new, AI-powered personal health coach, built with Google’s Gemini. This feature, available for Fitbit Premium users starting this October, will act as a fitness trainer, sleep coach, and wellness advisor all in one. It creates personalized workout plans based on your goals and real-time data from your tracker, adjusting when you need to rest or if life gets in the way.

Given that more and more brands are now deploying AI tools in wearables, Fitbit’s new personal health coach comes as a practical move. 

The new version also offers advanced sleep insights with improved algorithms that track sleep duration and stages. Accordingly, to accommodate the new AI features, the entire Fitbit app has been redesigned around this AI coach, making data visualization and navigation more intuitive. It can also connect to other health apps to get a holistic view of your wellness.

AI Mode Just Got Smarter, More Personal & Way More Useful

Days within its launch, AI Mode in Google Search has gained a lot of popularity. And now Google is rolling out big updates to AI Mode. The idea is to refine it to create a more dependable, interactive assistant in Search. 

The upgrade introduces “agentic capabilities” and can help users with simple tasks like restaurant reservations, allowing users to set preferences like cuisine, party size, and location. AI Mode then searches platforms like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock to surface real-time availability and link directly to booking pages. 

According to Google, support for event tickets and other local appointment booking are coming soon.

Personalization is also getting sharper. For now, dining results can be tailored to individual tastes, using past searches and Maps activity to suggest options like favorite cuisines or outdoor seating. But still, users stay in control and can adjust the settings to manage what context they share.

Google upgrades Translate with AI-powered features 

Google is upgrading Translate with two major AI-driven features designed to make communication as well as language learning smoother. 

The first is real-time live translation, which now lets people hold natural back-and-forth conversations across more than 70 languages. Powered by Gemini’s advanced reasoning and speech models, the app can detect pauses, accents, and intonations to deliver accurate audio and on-screen translations. Notably, the update is built to work efficiently even in noisy environments. 

The feature is being introduced in the U.S., India, and Mexico, with more countries following soon. 

The second update introduces a language practice tool that adapts to each learner’s skill level and goals. Users can set their proficiency, then dive into tailored listening and speaking scenarios that help build confidence in everyday conversations.

Video creation in Vids gets an upgrade 

Google Vids is upgrading the AI video capabilities in Vids to make it easier for teams to create polished content without heavy editing or production skills. Already boasting over 1 million monthly active users, the app now offers several new features as well.

For instance, with Veo 3, users can turn static images into dynamic eight-second video clips with sound, perfect for product showcases or branded storytelling. AI avatars are also available, letting teams simply write a script and have a digital presenter deliver it, which can be highly useful when creating training and onboarding videos and demos. 

On the editing side, transcript trim now automatically cuts filler words and pauses. Google has also announced that noise cancellation, backgrounds, and appearance tools are coming soon.

Anthropic comes to Chrome 

Perplexity made headlines when it stepped beyond the “AI tool” label and introduced a browser built with AI capabilities, Comet. Keeping up with the evolving trends, Anthropic has now unveiled an extension for the Chrome browser. 

This extension lets Claude perform tasks directly in the browser, such as scheduling meetings, drafting emails, or filling out forms. The move could make Claude more practical for everyday work.

However, given the inherent risks, Anthropic is working on tightening its security measures, integrating safeguards like action confirmations, site-level permissions, and advanced classifiers. 

So, the current version is not being made available in a full release but rather being introduced to a few Max users. This is to allow real users to help identify vulnerabilities in real-world browsing. Feedback will guide stronger defenses and better permission controls before wider rollout.

Alibaba’s Wan2.2-S2V brings film-grade animation 

Alibaba has released Wan2.2-S2V, a new open-source AI model for creating high-quality, audio-driven human animations. The 14-billion parameter model goes beyond simple “talking heads” to generate professional, film-grade video from a static image and an audio file. 

This model can handle a wide range of characters, from real people to cartoons, and supports dynamic, long-form video with consistent motion. Notably, Alibaba has released this as an open-source model to make high-quality video generation more accessible. 

Replit upgrades its AI app builder with new features 

Replit made waves when it launched its AI-powered app-building tool. And now it is launching new design tools for its AI-powered app builder, setting a new standard for AI-generated applications. 

The update introduces “Themes,” which let users manage colors, fonts, and other UI properties across an entire app with a single update. This means users can instantly tweak their apps to match the brand’s visual identity.

For enterprise clients, Replit is also offering a “Bring Your Own Design System” feature. This allows companies to import their existing design systems from platforms like Figma or a custom library. This ensures that AI-built apps don’t just look similar to a brand’s style, but are built according to its exact design guidelines.

xAI announces Grok Code Fast 1

xAI has released Grok Code Fast 1, a new AI model designed to be a quick and cost-effective assistant for developers. It’s built from the ground up for “agentic coding”, a workflow that uses AI to perform tasks and make tool calls. The model is specifically optimized for daily tasks that can feel slow with other AI tools.

According to xAI, it can handle everything from building new projects to fixing bugs. For a limited time, the model is available for free through several launch partners, including GitHub Copilot and Cursor. 

Introducing Grok Code Fast 1, a speedy and economical reasoning model that excels at agentic coding.

Now available for free on GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cline, Kilo Code, Roo Code, opencode, and Windsurf.https://t.co/3tMbmLbxOP

— xAI (@xai) August 28, 2025

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes  

WhatsApp adds an AI-powered Writing Help feature 

WhatsApp has introduced a new AI feature called “Writing Help” to assist users in crafting messages. By tapping a new pencil icon, users can get AI-generated suggestions to rewrite their messages in different tones, such as professional, funny, or supportive. 

According to WhatsApp, this feature is powered by Meta’s Private Processing technology, which ensures that neither Meta nor WhatsApp can read the content of the messages or the AI suggestions. Additionally, the company emphasizes that this new tool, along with others like Message Summaries, is completely optional and off by default, giving users full control over their privacy. 

Spotify x Instagram – new music sharing features 

Spotify has rolled out two new features that make sharing music on Instagram more dynamic and interactive. When users share a song to their Instagram Story, a short audio preview of the track will now play automatically, allowing friends to hear a snippet without leaving the app. And tapping the music sticker leads directly to the song on Spotify.

The second feature brings real-time music sharing to Instagram Notes. By enabling the integration, your Instagram Note will automatically display the song you’re currently listening to on Spotify. This provides a seamless way to share your musical mood with friends. 

You can also share a specific track to Notes directly from the Spotify app. Both features are now available globally for all users on Android and iOS.

Instagram introduces new metrics in Reels Insights 

Instagram recently announced the introduction of the “Retention” metric to Reels Insights. This interactive chart shows the retention rate on your Reels. This metric allows creators to understand how much their content engaged their audience, how well it retained their attention. Most importantly, it highlights moments that intrigued the viewers the most and least. 

Moreover, soon View Rate will be replaced with Skip Rate to indicate the size of the audience who chose to skip the Reel. This can be a useful metric as it can help creators understand whether the first few seconds were catchy enough to hook the audience. 

View on Threads

Instagram makes it easy to link Reels 

Several creators and brands on Instagram do series videos where there is a set of Reels shared one after another. This format keeps the audience engaged, consistently intriguing them enough to keep them coming back for more. However, siloed Reels make it difficult for the audience to scroll through the content to find all those that are linked. 

To tackle this, Instagram is introducing the “Linking Reels” option that lets creators link Reels that build on one another. 

View on Threads

To Conclude…

We hope these posts gave you a recap of the week. To catch up on more such highlights every week, and to stay in the loop with all the biggest AI news, stay tuned and check out this space every Friday. See you soon!