KIMP’s Picks December 12th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Every week, there is new AI news to catch up on. Social media algorithms are changing and there’s always something new to explore. But do you find it overwhelming to keep up with all these updates? Don’t worry – you do not have to spend all your time doomscrolling to keep FOMO at bay! There’s an easier way to catch up – welcome to KIMP’s Picks – our weekly social media recap. 

With the holiday season in full swing, brands are getting creative with their holiday campaigns. AI companies are getting ready for the year ahead, adding useful features to their tools. Social media platforms are prioritizing personalization and finding new ways to keep up with the ever-increasing content consumption. 

Ready for a quick recap of the social media buzz? Let’s get started with the KIMP’s Picks December 12th Edition. 

In the Marketing Realm 

TikTok taps into experiential marketing with “Holiday Emporium” 

TikTok recently announced a unique seasonal initiative combining e-commerce promotion with an in-person pop-up event to boost small business reach and viral trends during the holidays. Titled the Holiday Emporium, this campaign has been an omnichannel experience, gaining momentum and appealing to the holiday shoppers these past few weeks.

Recently, TikTok took this experience to NYC grand central, engaging with more than 4500 consumers. By localizing its focus and creating a more tangible experience, the brand is creating a buzz and cutting through the digital clutter. 

Campaigns like this one stand as a reminder of the need for experiential campaigns in the digital era. 

Brands are rethinking Christmas symbolism 

Christmas has always been about the festive cheer, family scenes and Santa. But this year, there was a unique trend that developed – an increase in the number of brands incorporating the Grinch into their campaigns. Because of Marketing shared an insightful discussion on this. 

This year’s holiday campaigns have been about the “Grinchmas” trend, with major brands like Asda, Walmart, and McDonald’s placing The Grinch at the center of their campaigns. However, each company has used the iconic character to deliver a vastly different strategic message, revealing unique takes on what audiences want from festive storytelling today.

What stands out here is how each brand takes the same character and seamlessly blends it into their campaign and their story for the holidays. This demonstrates the power of creativity and the use of well-recognized symbols in Christmas advertising. 

Google Search Console adds “Weekly and Monthly” views to Performance Reports

Google has introduced new weekly and monthly views in Search Console’s performance reports. Until now, site owners mostly saw daily or 24-hour data. The new options let you switch your performance chart to a longer timeframe so you can spot trends over weeks and months more easily.

The primary goal of this feature is to help users bypass the “noise” or sharp daily fluctuations often seen in performance graphs. By viewing data aggregated into stable weekly or monthly blocks, it becomes much easier to identify clear, long-term trends in clicks and impressions. This helps eliminate ambiguities arising from weekend lulls or short-term anomalies.

Creativity takes the spotlight at Ad Council’s Annual Award Dinner

The Ad Council’s Public Service Award Dinner put a clear spotlight on how creative work can shape culture and move people to action. Think With Google shared a summary of a few common observations from this year’s event. 

The night’s message came through loud and clear – audiences respond to emotional and empathetic storytelling. People want messages that feel human, not performative, and the most effective campaigns are those that lean into that shift.

Another theme was collaboration. The strongest social impact work isn’t built in isolation. Brands, agencies, creators, and platforms are coming together to create campaigns with better depth and a stronger impact. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Google strengthens the Web ecosystem with new tools and partnerships 

Google has rolled out new features designed to support the open web and give users more control over the news sources they rely on. 

A key update announced is Preferred Sources, which lets people shape their Top Stories results around sources they trust. Google is also surfacing links from paid news subscriptions more clearly inside the Gemini app and other AI-powered search experiences, helping users move from summaries to real reporting with less friction.

Additionally, AI Mode is getting smarter. Inline links now come with short explanations that help people understand why a source is being cited. This makes it easier to choose the next click instead of feeling lost in a wall of results.

Finally, Google is also testing new commercial partnerships with publishers to explore how AI can boost reach while still protecting original journalism. What this means for content marketing is a stronger push to create trusted, high-quality work that earns its place in AI-driven results.

Google’s Year in Search 2025 is here 

Google published its Year in Search 2025 report, showing the questions, topics and trends that spiked around the world this year. 

According to this report, people weren’t just looking for quick facts; they asked deeper questions like “What’s the deal with…” and “How do I…” questions. Most of these questions reflect curiosity about culture, tech, and everyday life. Moreover, searches like “Tell me about…” jumped sharply year over year.

The report highlights how AI changed the way people interact with Search. With more conversational queries and complex questions, users leaned on Google’s latest tools to get intuitive answers. This shift shows that Search is becoming a place people go to learn, discover and explore new ideas. And traditional SEO still matters.

The search trends make one thing clear – audiences are craving depth and context. So high-quality, informative content that answers real questions will be more valuable than ever.

Year-end SEO checklist 

Search Engine Land recently shared a quick SEO checklist with actionable tips for content marketers to remember in 2026. 

The list starts with emphasizing the need for double-checking technical health to identify and fix crawl gaps, indexing issues and canonical conflicts. It also talks about auditing content freshness, validating brand visibility across all AI search surfaces, including Google’s AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity, and updating entity attributes to ensure brand accuracy.

It also talks about prepping for Q1 content strategy, exporting crucial SEO reports, and tightening the alerting and monitoring processes. Follow these tips to wrap up your content marketing efforts for 2025 with a bang. 

In the Design Realm 

Adobe brings Photoshop and other editing tools to ChatGPT

A few weeks ago, OpenAI introduced the option to chat with apps within ChatGPT. Now, Adobe has integrated its flagship apps, like Photoshop, Adobe Express, and Adobe Acrobat, directly into ChatGPT, making powerful editing accessible to its 800 million weekly users. This move combines the precision of Adobe’s tools with ChatGPT’s simple, conversational interface.

With these updates, users can now perform complex photo edits by describing changes in natural language, such as asking Photoshop to make people “pop” or apply a vintage effect. The integration also allows users to create designs using Adobe Express.

Additionally, Adobe Acrobat enables the free merging and editing of PDFs, simplifying tasks like compiling professional documents. Users can enable this functionality by connecting the apps in ChatGPT settings and using a simple prompt.

Google Photos now has an upgraded video editor 

Google Photos is bringing huge updates to its video capabilities with five new features, making it simpler for users to create and edit compelling highlight videos right within the app.

The update introduces ready-made templates (rolling out on Android) that offer pre-set templates with built-in music and cuts synced to a soundtrack, allowing users to quickly create shareable videos by selecting photos and clips.

The redesigned video editor (on both Android and iOS) is faster and easier, featuring a universal timeline for multi-clip storytelling. 

Additionally, users can now easily add the perfect soundtrack by browsing Photos’ music library and incorporating custom text with new fonts, colors, and backgrounds to their highlight videos (on Android).

Some creative predictions for 2026

The week was filled with predictions about creative trends for 2026. To begin with, Pantone announced its Color of the Year 2026 – PANTONE Cloud Dancer. The response has been mixed. But a white shade representing a “reset” for the overstimulated audience is considered to be a great move by some critics. 

Pinterest, in contrast, came up with some different predictions. Pinterest has released its Pinterest Predicts 2026 trend forecast, and one standout theme is Gimme Gummy. This trend is all about playful, tactile aesthetics inspired by gummy bears and sensory experiences. Stretchy textures, 3D jewelry, and others are popping up across fashion, beauty and lifestyle search activity.

Gen Z and millennials are driving the spike, with searches around gummy textures, jelly blush and tactile “ASMR‑style” products up significantly year over year.

In the AI Realm 

Google expands Pomelli with animation features 

A few weeks ago, Google introduced Pomelli in Google Labs, an experimental AI tool for marketers. Now it is expanding the tool with the animation feature. 

In addition to creating static brand assets quickly and conveniently, users can now create animated assets as well. This feature is powered by Google’s newest video model, Veo 3.1. 

The feature will initially be available free of charge to users in the US, Canada, Australia & New Zealand! 

Google upgrades its voice models 

Google has released major updates to its Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro text-to-speech models. These updates bring richer expressivity, context-aware pacing, and improved multi-speaker consistency. 

The enhancements to these speech models aim to make AI-generated speech more natural, whether for audiobooks, tutorials, marketing videos, or multi-character content.

The new models let developers control tone and style precisely. Whether you are looking for a cheerful narrator or a dramatic storyteller, the models now let you adjust pacing dynamically so the speech flows naturally for jokes, suspense, or action sequences.

Claude Code comes to Slack 

Anthropic expanded Claude Code to the web a few weeks ago. And now it has introduced a beta feature allowing users to delegate tasks to Claude Code directly from Slack. This enhancement, currently a research preview, aims to streamline the developer workflow by moving context seamlessly from team chat to coding sessions.

This update takes into account that the critical discussions around engineering work, like bug reports or feature requests, often happen in Slack. So, now, tagging @Claude will automatically initiate a Claude Code session, pulling in relevant thread and channel messages for context. This allows Claude to jump straight into tasks like bug investigation, quick code reviews, or small feature implementation.

You still need the Claude app installed in your Slack workspace and access to Claude Code on the web. But once set up, developers can debug, refactor, and implement fixes without switching apps.

Shopify launches Winter ’26 Edition with 150+ AI‑powered upgrades

Shopify has launched its Winter ’26 Edition, featuring over 150 new AI-powered features aimed at reimagining how merchants build, design, and scale their businesses. The central theme of this massive update is the use of AI to amplify human creativity.

The biggest highlight here is the revamped Sidekick, which transforms from a simple assistant into a proactive AI-powered collaborator. Sidekick can now anticipate merchant needs, offer personalized business advice (Sidekick Pulse), and even edit a store’s theme using natural language commands.

Another major feature is SimGym, an AI research preview that acts as a “flight simulator” for stores, allowing merchants to test major changes with simulated shoppers before going live. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes

TikTok introduces Shared features for enhanced experiences during the holidays 

TikTok is rolling out new features to make it easier for friends and family to discover, share, and enjoy content together this holiday season. 

Shared Collection allows users to save and organize videos with friends or family, creating a private or public collection. These collections can include recipes, DIY projects, or gift ideas. For the collections to work, both participants must follow each other, and they can rename and manage the collection together.

Shared Feed brings a curated, interest-based video stream into direct messages. Friends receive 15 videos daily tailored to both their tastes, fostering shared experiences and easy conversation. 

Additionally, TikTok is launching holiday greeting cards inside messages, letting users send animated, festive greetings to spread cheer.

A new way to fine-tune the Instagram Reels algorithm 

A week ago, Meta introduced a new feature on the Threads app, allowing users to fine-tune what they see on their Feeds. Now it’s Instagram’s turn. 

Meta is adding an AI-powered customization option for the Reels feed on Instagram. Users can access the interest settings within the Reels tab. This displays an AI-powered summary of the user’s top interests, allowing them to add or remove topics. This helps the algorithm to know what kind of Reels to show more and which ones to avoid on your Reels feed. 

From enhanced Reels insights for creators (announced a few weeks ago), to better-tuned Reels content delivery for users, Meta is working toward putting Reels front and center.

View on Threads

A few more cool features to try on Edits 

Building on the features introduced a couple of weeks ago, Instagram has announced a fresh set of updates coming to their video editing app – Edits. 

This includes new templates that allow users to quickly start creating Reels without having to start from scratch every single time. These templates include trending audio and fonts that can easily be applied to your clips. 

Additionally, the Storyboards feature brings more structure into your brainstorming sessions by letting you organize your Stickies in fine-tuned Storyboards. Creators can also add videos from the public Reels library to their Remix. 

The other updates include the secondary colors tab and the lock screen widget to add sticky note reminders for Reels ideas. 

View on Threads

Creating, finding and sharing content on Facebook has been made simpler 

Facebook is rolling out a major redesign for the interface aimed at cutting through clutter and helping people connect with what matters to them more easily. 

The update simplifies the Feed, search, and navigation so users can dive deeper into their interests. It also helps them find new posts faster, and enjoy photos and videos in a cleaner, more immersive layout. 

Moreover, photos now show in standardized grids and double-tap will help register “likes”. You can also explore media full-screen without losing your place.

Content creation gets a boost too. Meta has also redesigned the interface for making Stories and Feed posts, so popular tools like tagging and music are easier to access. Audience and cross-posting settings are more visible, reducing guesswork when sharing.

View on Threads

LinkedIn enhances advertising with new AI-powered features 

LinkedIn is rolling out new ad features to help marketers build awareness and scale creative more efficiently. 

First, Reserved Ads guarantee your message appears in the first slot on people’s feeds, giving premium visibility and more predictable impressions for brand campaigns. Ad personalization dynamically tailors copy using profile details like first name, job title, industry, or company, making each impression feel more relevant.

Additionally, to speed up creative production, LinkedIn is launching AI Ad Variants, which generate multiple on-brand versions from a single headline or intro.

Also, by early 2026, LinkedIn will introduce Flexible Ad Creation, which will let advertisers upload multiple images, videos, and copy variations. LinkedIn’s system then mixes and matches these assets and shifts budget toward top performers automatically.

Snapchat’s optimistic plans for performance advertising in 2026 

Snapchat is reportedly transforming its advertising platform in 2026. The aim is to make campaigns smarter, simpler, and more aligned with human connection. 

The platform is focusing heavily on AI to drive both performance and efficiency for brands. Snap introduced Smart Campaign Solutions, which includes automated tools like Smart Budgets and Smart Targeting. This machine learning-based targeting has already delivered an average 8.8% increase in conversions for adopted ad sets.

The company is also simplifying content creation with powerful Generative AI tools. New features like Sponsored AI Lenses allow brands to quickly produce personalized, high-performing creatives at scale. The platform says it ranked as the #2 preferred ad platform among consumers this year by ensuring that the experience feels more native and less intrusive. These new plans for 2026 aim to enhance the experience even more. 

Reddit is introducing Verified Profiles 

Reddit has started limited testing of verified profiles. These verified profiles will feature a grey checkmark next to selected usernames to signal authenticity for notable individuals and businesses.

The goal is to help users know who they’re engaging with in situations where identity matters. For example, during AMAs, official brand announcements, or when journalists share news.

Initially, this checkmark replaces the old “Official” badge for businesses but doesn’t grant any special privileges or paid perks.

According to Reddit, verification will be voluntary, opt-in, and only offered to a small curated group of active contributors at this stage.

To Conclude…

AI is evolving rapidly. Most importantly, the way people use AI to boost their productivity is changing. Social media algorithms are changing too, thanks to AI now becoming a more mainstream feature in most of them. Personalization of Feeds is no longer a good-to-have option. Keeping up with all these updates can be challenging. But that’s why you have KIMP’s Picks. The week’s social media buzz all summed up in one place, in one easy recap. See you next week with the next edition of KIMP’s Picks.