KIMP’s Picks August 7th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Friday is here, which can only mean one thing – KIMP’s Picks 7th August has arrived. 👀

This week may have been a little quieter than usual, but there were still a few gems worth keeping on your radar. We’ve pulled together the updates, ideas, and creative highlights you’ll want to know about, so you can stay ahead without spending hours digging through the noise.

Let’s get into this week’s recap.

In the Marketing Realm 

Disney shows how iconic franchises can drive growth 

A recent Reuters post explores Disney’s success with Toy Story 5. The company’s success highlights how entertainment brands can turn a single content release into a wider business opportunity. The company said the film helped increase Disney+ engagement, boost merchandise sales, and attract more visitors to its theme parks during the June quarter.

Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro said the company’s strategy is to invest in strong franchises like Toy Story that can connect with audiences across multiple platforms, not just at the box office. Disney also announced a partnership with TikTok that will allow creators to use Disney characters and scenes in short-form videos, expanding fan interaction on social media.

For marketers, the key lesson is that successful franchises can become long-term ecosystems. Brands can create stronger growth by building content that encourages community participation, drives multiple revenue streams, and keeps audiences engaged beyond the original launch.

Goldfish revives its iconic tagline with a clear strategy 

ADWEEK recently discussed Goldfish crackers’ approach of bringing back its long-running “The Snack That Smiles Back” platform with a new campaign designed to reconnect with modern families. The campaign highlights Goldfish’s real-cheese ingredients through playful, handcrafted ads that combine childhood nostalgia with humor.

The campaign arrives as the snack industry faces pressure from changing consumer habits, including growing interest in healthier choices and the impact of weight-loss medications. Goldfish is positioning itself as a snack parents can feel comfortable giving their children while maintaining the fun personality that has defined the brand for years.

The ads use creative storytelling, including stop-motion worlds and a fictional talk show featuring the Goldfish mascot, to explain why the crackers are “smiling.” 

For marketers, the lesson is that brands can refresh their identity by combining nostalgia with current consumer needs. A familiar brand asset, when paired with a new cultural insight, can strengthen emotional connections and keep legacy brands relevant.

Microsoft Advertising expands AI reporting and Performance Max tools with new measurement features 

Based on a recent post from Search Engine Journal, Microsoft Advertising’s first monthly product newsletter highlights updates across AI visibility reporting, Performance Max experiments, and ad preview tools. The August update focuses on improving how advertisers measure, test, and review AI-powered campaigns.

Microsoft Clarity’s AI Visibility reporting now includes Topic Insights, which groups AI citations by subject. Advertisers can see which topics AI systems connect with their brand, how often those topics appear, and where content gaps may exist. The update also adds metrics such as grounding queries, citation share, and share of authority to help brands understand AI visibility.

The Ad Preview Hub now supports Performance Max campaigns and Bing Search previews, allowing teams to review how ads may appear before launch.

These updates show Microsoft’s focus on giving advertisers more control, transparency, and measurement tools as AI becomes a bigger part of digital advertising.

LinkedIn research finds B2B brands need to focus on credibility now more than ever 

LinkedIn’s latest research, The Credibility Code, highlights how trust has become a key factor in modern B2B buying decisions. The study, created with Ipsos, shows that buyers rarely rely on a single ad or message. Instead, they build confidence through multiple trusted signals from brands, employees, customers, peers, and creators.

The research suggests that B2B marketers should focus less on reach alone and more on building credibility throughout the buyer journey. With complex purchases involving multiple stakeholders and long decision cycles, buyers often choose options that feel safer and easier to justify internally.

LinkedIn outlines a Credibility Stack built around four sources – brand authority, employee voices, customer advocacy, and creator partnerships. Each layer strengthens the others, helping brands build stronger trust.

The study also highlights the growing role of creators in B2B marketing. LinkedIn and Ipsos found creator-led paid content can drive stronger long-term brand impact and consideration compared with standard video content.

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Google says strong SEO fundamentals are key as AI search expands 

Keeping up with AI search is on every marketer’s mind at the moment. But Google’s recent post reiterates the fact that “good SEO is good GEO.”

Google has shared guidance for brands adapting to AI-powered Search, emphasizing that traditional SEO principles remain the foundation for visibility. The company says AI features like AI Mode and AI Overviews rely on the same core ranking and quality systems used in Search today.

Google advises marketers not to focus on optimizing content for bots or chasing new terms like GEO, AEO, or LLM SEO. Instead, brands should continue creating useful content designed for people, supported by expertise, original insights, and real-world experience.

Additionally, the company also highlighted the importance of strong website experiences, including fast performance, mobile-friendly design, and clear content structures. Accordingly, tools like Google Search Console and Merchant Center are being expanded with reporting to help brands understand visibility across AI Search features.

In short, Google’s message is that brands do not need to follow shortcuts or artificial tactics to succeed in AI Search. The focus should remain on creating valuable content, building trust, and delivering better user experiences.

In the Design Realm 

Building brand differentiation through brand mascots 

SCANA Energy has refreshed its brand identity to stand out in Georgia’s competitive gas market, where the product itself offers little room for differentiation. With the same gas delivery infrastructure available across providers, the company focused on a factor customers could connect with: service and trust.

Notably, the rebrand was built around customer perceptions that SCANA Energy delivered a warmer, more reliable experience than competitors. Its new strategy, “Gas that warms your home with service that warms your soul,” shifts the brand from a utility provider to a company focused on the comfort and care associated with home.

Instead of removing its existing bear mascots, Linda, Harry, and the cubs, SCANA Energy made them the foundation of the new identity. The bears now represent warmth, protection, and the feeling of home through the “Big Bear Energy” platform. 

This rebranding project shows how brands in highly commoditized industries can create preference by building emotional connections around existing strengths rather than competing only on price.

In the AI Realm 

OpenAI details on how GPT-Live enables faster and more natural voice AI conversations 

OpenAI has shared the engineering behind GPT-Live, its third-generation voice system designed to make AI conversations feel more like real human interactions. Reportedly, the system removes the need for traditional turn detectors, allowing the AI to listen and speak at the same time through a full-duplex voice model.

Earlier voice AI systems relied on detecting when a user stopped speaking before generating a response. This often created delays or interruptions. GPT-Live instead keeps audio flowing continuously while handling deeper reasoning, tool use, and other tasks separately in the background.

Therefore, OpenAI rebuilt the system architecture around low latency, using streaming inference, dedicated media processing, and improved communication protocols. The company also developed new methods to manage long conversations, switch between model instances, and maintain context without interrupting the user experience.

Alibaba’s Qwen3.8-Max comes with advanced coding and autonomous AI capabilities 

Qwen has announced Qwen3.8-Max, its latest AI model designed for coding, professional workflows, and long-term autonomous tasks. The company says the model features 2.4 trillion parameters and will soon be available with open weights, alongside the open release of Qwen3.8-27B.

Qwen3.8-Max is built to handle complex tasks with extended planning and execution. The company highlights its ability to support autonomous coding projects, including a multi-day development process that created a production-ready project from scratch.

The model is also designed for professional use cases across different industries, with capabilities for long-term planning, adaptive learning, and multimodal understanding. Qwen says the model can use visual information as part of continuous feedback loops for planning and improving outcomes.

Grok brings connectors to Voice Mode 

xAI has expanded Grok’s Voice Mode to support connectors, allowing users to access information from connected services through natural voice conversations. The update means users can now ask Grok about emails, calendars, documents, and other linked data sources without switching to text input.

The move is part of xAI’s broader push to make Grok a more capable voice assistant. Recent upgrades to the platform have focused on improving conversational flow, tool use, and real-time task handling, enabling more complex interactions across productivity applications.

Meta unveils Muse Code and Muse Spark .2 for advanced software engineering workflows 

Meta has launched Muse Code in beta alongside Muse Spark 1.2, a new coding-focused AI model designed to tackle complex software engineering tasks. The release is aimed at helping developers manage large codebases, automate workflows, and complete long-running projects with less manual intervention.

Muse Code functions as a terminal-based coding agent that can plan tasks, write code, validate results, and coordinate persistent background subagents.

Muse Spark 1.2 builds on its predecessor with improvements in code generation, debugging, codebase understanding, and end-to-end development workflows. 

Additionally, the company also highlighted benchmark gains and demonstrated the model’s ability to optimize GPU kernels through extended autonomous coding sessions involving thousands of tool calls.

OpenAI is shutting down the Atlas Browser 

OpenAI is retiring ChatGPT Atlas, its browser experience, with the service set to stop working on August 9, 2026. Users still relying on Atlas will need to move their saved data before the shutdown, as browser information will not transfer automatically.

OpenAI has advised users to export bookmarks as an HTML file and import them into another browser. However, open tabs and browsing history will not carry over, while cookie exports may be available in some cases. The company also warned users to handle cookie and session files carefully because they can contain account access information.

Finally, ChatGPT conversation history will remain available separately, but Atlas-specific browsing data will not migrate. OpenAI has provided users with a transition period after announcing the retirement in July.

Google Maps expands Ask Maps with AI agents, better personalization and real-time travel assistance 

Google is expanding Ask Maps, its AI-powered Google Maps experience, with new features designed to help users complete tasks, plan trips, and get more personalized recommendations. The update combines Gemini capabilities with Google Maps data to provide more conversational and practical assistance.

Ask Maps can now handle multi-step tasks such as finding restaurants, ordering food, discovering hotels, and locating local events. Users can request specific preferences, and the AI can help narrow options, compare details, and prepare actions such as adding food items to a cart through supported partners.

The update also adds Personal Intelligence, allowing users to connect Gmail and future apps like Calendar for more relevant recommendations based on existing plans. Users can choose whether to enable these connections, and past Ask Maps conversations can be recalled when history settings are active.

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

WhatsApp brings new group chat features 

Just last week, WhatsApp introduced a bunch of useful call features on the platform. And now the platform has introduced new updates to improve how users manage and communicate in group chats. The changes include enhanced polls, @all mentions for group-wide alerts, and a faster way to create new chats from existing groups.

The updated polling feature now allows users to set voting deadlines, hide participant names, and edit poll questions within 15 minutes of creating them. These changes are designed to make group decisions faster and easier.

WhatsApp has also added the @all mention feature, allowing users to notify every member in a group at once instead of tagging people individually. In groups with more than 32 members, only admins can use the feature. Users can also manage these notifications through their settings.

TikTok Symphony adds Dreamina Seedance 2.5 with longer AI videos 

TikTok has upgraded its Symphony AI creative platform with Dreamina Seedance 2.5, giving advertisers new tools to create longer and more detailed AI-generated videos. The update expands video generation, reference inputs, and visual consistency across Symphony Creative Studio, Ads Manager automations, and the Symphony API.

With the upgrade, advertisers can now generate videos up to 30 seconds long, doubling the previous 15-second limit. They can also upload up to 50 image, video, and audio references, allowing more control over scenes, pacing, and creative direction.

TikTok says the updated model improves visual quality by delivering more realistic imagery and better consistency in elements like lighting, motion, characters, and product details. The goal is to help brands create more polished, TikTok-style content with fewer manual edits.

LinkedIn targets AI slop with new content quality measures 

LinkedIn has announced new efforts to reduce AI-generated low-quality content, often referred to as AI slop, while protecting authentic conversations on the platform. The company says users come to LinkedIn for real perspectives, expertise, and professional connections.

Therefore, LinkedIn is expanding its automated defenses to detect spam and large-scale automated activity. The platform says it is already blocking billions of automation attempts and catching hundreds of thousands of automated comment attempts daily.

Moreover, the company is also developing new classifiers to identify AI slop and low-quality posts, which will help reduce their visibility in recommended feeds and content from outside users’ networks. Members will soon have more ways to report posts or comments they believe feel inauthentic, helping LinkedIn improve its detection systems.

A Final Word

Keeping up with the constant stream of changes across AI, marketing, design, and social platforms is becoming harder every week. New features, algorithm shifts, and industry updates can easily get lost in the noise, making it difficult to know what actually matters.

That’s where KIMP’s Picks comes in. Our weekly recaps bring the most important updates together in one place, helping you save time, stay informed, and focus on the trends that can impact your brand and work.

Stay tuned for the next edition of KIMP’s Picks so you don’t miss the updates shaping the future of creativity, technology, and marketing.