KIMP’s Picks July 10th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More
The tech landscape is moving fast, AI is changing fast, but you can move faster. In this week’s edition of KIMP’s Picks, we are diving deep into the updates reshaping design, marketing, and generative AI. From major platform feature drops to AI news you just cannot miss, we’ve got your weekly digest sorted.
So, are you ready to catch up on the highlights? Let’s get started with KIMP’s Picks July 10th edition.
In the Marketing Realm
Twix’s creative campaign
A recent post from ADWEEK talks about a recent Twix campaign. Twix has rolled out a new global campaign called “Double Act,” featuring two ventriloquist dummies performing Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s hit song “Dilemma” in an over-the-top musical routine. The ad uses practical effects and largely in-camera production to bring the performance to life. The campaign supports Twix’s broader “Two Is More Than One” platform, which moved the brand away from its long-running Left Twix versus Right Twix rivalry. Instead, the focus is now on celebrating partnership, togetherness, and the idea that two can be better than one.
The campaign further strengthens Twix’s shift toward togetherness and shared experiences, reflecting how brands are using entertainment and creator participation to connect with younger audiences.
Google Trends adds faster historical search interest
Google Trends has introduced a new feature that makes it easier to compare search interest across different time periods directly within the platform. Users can now view how a search term is performing against previous periods without needing to open separate tabs or run additional searches.
After entering a search term, users can select a new search interest option above the timeline graph to compare performance using Month-over-Month, Week-over-Week, or Year-over-Year benchmarks. The tool then displays a historical comparison line alongside the existing trend data, providing immediate visual context for changes in search interest.
This enhancement makes it faster to spot emerging trends and evaluate performance over time. This comes in handy for making timely marketing decisions.
Google Search Console adds analytics for social content visibility in Search
Google is introducing platform properties in Search Console, a new feature that allows creators and marketers to track how their content from Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube performs in Google Search and Discover.
Previously, social media performance and search visibility were measured separately. With this update, users can connect supported social accounts to Search Console and see which search queries bring people to their posts, along with clicks, impressions, and engagement-related data.
The new reports include Performance insights, which show how individual posts and search terms drive visibility, Insights reports that highlight traffic patterns and top-performing content, and Achievements that track milestones based on Search activity.
This update gives brands and creators a clearer view of how social content contributes to search visibility.
Google expands Search campaigns for travel to more verticals
Google is expanding its Search campaigns for Travel solution to include Things to Do and Events advertisers through an open beta. The update gives travel businesses access to Search and AI Max features while allowing them to manage feed-based travel formats and text ads within a single campaign setup.
The expanded solution offers centralized campaign management, helping advertisers handle travel ad formats alongside traditional Search campaign controls. Businesses can also use feeds to enhance text ads, optimize Travel Promotion Ads with keywords, and access AI Max features such as Search Term Matching and item groups.
Google is also introducing unified reporting, allowing advertisers to view performance data across different campaign elements in one place, including search term insights. The update is designed to simplify campaign management and improve visibility into travel advertising performance across formats.
Pringles’ summer campaign creates a buzz
Pringles is launching a limited-edition product called Pringles Pop Dog Buns as part of its “Once You Pop, The Pop Don’t Stop” campaign. The snack brand has transformed potato-based buns into a new summer food experience featuring three popular flavors: barbecue, honey mustard, and sour cream and onion.
The campaign combines two summer staples, hot dogs and snacking, with Pringles positioning the buns as a new way to bring its signature flavors into a familiar food occasion. The limited-edition products will be available through Instagram and Facebook Shops on July 8 and July 15, with customers receiving them free with the purchase of a Pringles three-pack.
Pringles is using a limited-drop strategy to create urgency, exclusivity, and social conversation around the launch. The brand plans to measure success through cultural impact, organic social discussions, sharing, and consumer participation.
The campaign has already gained attention on TikTok, with creators and viewers sharing reactions, taste tests, and commentary around the unusual product.
In the Content Marketing Realm
AI search shifts SEO priorities toward authority and brand visibility
AI search is changing how brands approach SEO, with greater emphasis on authority, topical expertise, and broader online presence. While traditional SEO and AI search optimization share similarities, ranking well in search engines alone is no longer enough to gain visibility in AI-generated answers.
An article Search Engine Land shared recently highlights three areas brands should prioritize more – building strong brand entities across platforms, creating deeper topic-focused content clusters, and earning mentions across trusted communities such as forums and industry platforms. AI systems rely on broader signals to understand which brands and sources are credible enough to recommend.
At the same time, some traditional SEO tactics are becoming less effective. The focus is shifting away from chasing high-volume keywords with limited value, generating large numbers of low-quality backlinks, and optimizing only for click-through rates on standard search results.
Instead, brands need to create content that provides unique value, build recognition across relevant channels, and become trusted sources within their categories.
In the Design Realm
Building brand identity with character
Brands that stand out in the crowd are not the ones with the best designs but the ones with a strong personality and a design system that reflects this personality.
In a recent post, The Brand Identity explored one such brand identity project that grabs attention through its unique character-driven approach.
Dutch cider brand Meneer Bommel’s visual identity focuses on friendliness, simplicity, and individuality. The branding aims to reflect the cider’s approachable yet distinctive character in a category often associated with polished and traditional designs.
At the heart of the identity is Meneer Bommel, a hand-drawn character inspired by the playful imperfections of illustrator Eric Carle’s work. The character represents a curious orchard figure and appears across packaging in different scenes, from picking apples to enjoying cider with his chicken.
The design avoids common cider branding cues such as traditional orchard imagery and premium, masculine aesthetics. Instead, it focuses on storytelling, warmth, and personality, using a simple cream-and-red colour palette.
Projects like these emphasize why human creativity still matters in the age of AI.
In the AI Realm
GPT-Live enhances voice conversations in ChatGPT
OpenAI is rolling out GPT-Live, a next-generation voice model powering a highly conversational ChatGPT Voice. Built on a full-duplex architecture, the model listens and speaks simultaneously, allowing users to interrupt, pause, or hear active listening cues.
Unlike older, rigid turn-based systems, GPT-Live handles fluid back-and-forth communication natively. For complex tasks, web searches, or deeper reasoning, it seamlessly delegates work to frontier models like GPT-5.5 in the background without breaking the flow of conversation.
The update introduces GPT-Live-1 for premium users and GPT-Live-1 mini for free users, with enhanced background noise filtering and new visual cards for specific topics. According to OpenAI, safety remains a priority, featuring real-time output steering and strict anti-impersonation protocols.
Google Photos adds an AI-powered video remixing feature
Google Photos is rolling out Video Remix, a new AI-powered feature that helps users transform everyday videos into stylized, shareable clips in just a few taps. Powered by Google’s Gemini Omni model, the tool is designed to simplify video creation without requiring advanced editing skills.
Available within the Create tab in Google Photos, Video Remix offers a range of ready-made templates that can quickly change the look and feel of a video. Users can apply cinematic relighting to improve darker footage, replace backgrounds, or add creative visual styles such as watercolor, sketchbook, and oil painting effects.
Video Remix is beginning to roll out to eligible Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in select countries.
Meta launches Muse Image AI model for advanced image creation across its apps
Meta has introduced Muse Image, its first image generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, now available through Meta AI. The model is designed to help users create high-quality visuals from simple prompts while understanding complex instructions and combining multiple images.
Muse Image allows users to generate and edit images using conversational prompts and apply creative styles. This model also helps remove background elements, add text to visuals, and make changes by sketching directly on images.
Additionally, Meta AI includes suggested prompt presets to help users explore ideas such as restoring old photos, trying new looks, or transforming images into different styles.
The technology is expanding into Meta platforms, powering creative tools on Instagram and WhatsApp. This includes AI-generated effects and image creation within chats. Finally, Meta also plans to bring the feature to Facebook, Messenger, and advertisers through Advantage+ creative.
Claude brings Cowork to mobile and web
Anthropic is expanding Claude Cowork to mobile and web, allowing users to continue AI-assisted tasks across devices. The rollout will begin with Max users through beta access over the coming weeks, with broader availability planned for other users.
Notably, Claude Cowork allows users to assign larger tasks that involve working across connected files, calendars, emails, messaging apps, web resources, and other tools. Anthropic says most Cowork usage has focused on everyday knowledge work rather than coding.
The update introduces three key changes. Work can move between desktop, web, and mobile; tasks can continue running in the background even when users are away from their devices; and Claude can request user input when decisions require approval.
SpaceXAI unveils Grok 4.5 for next-level coding and agentic tasks
SpaceXAI has introduced Grok 4.5, a new AI model designed for coding, agentic tasks, and knowledge-based work. The company describes it as its most advanced model so far, built to handle complex engineering tasks and broader workplace workflows.
Grok 4.5 was trained on data covering coding, science, engineering, and mathematics, with reinforcement learning focused on multi-step software development and technical problem-solving.
According to SpaceXAI, the model performs strongly on engineering benchmarks and was developed alongside Cursor, a popular AI code editor.
The model is designed to create applications from simple prompts and also support software development. In addition to these capabilities, Grok 4.5 can handle business tasks such as building Excel models, creating PowerPoint presentations, and drafting documents. It is also optimized for faster performance, with SpaceXAI highlighting improved token efficiency compared with other leading models.
Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes
Instagram introduces AI-powered Story effects
As one of the first applications of the new Muse image model, Meta is introducing more than 30 new AI-powered Story effects on Instagram in the US. The effects allow users to transform photos with a single tap, offering creative edits while adapting to elements such as lighting, composition, and the subject of an image.
The new effects include options to enhance photos, experiment with different styles, and create personalized visuals. Also, users can generate custom effects by entering their own prompts within the Story composer. Notably, several effects were developed in collaboration with Instagram creators, who used Meta AI to turn their creative ideas into new experiences.
Meta is also adding more control over AI-generated creations by allowing users to manage whether their public Instagram content can be used in AI image generation.
X introduces a revamped video-editor interface within the platform
X has introduced an updated video editor and recording experience on its iOS app. This brings new tools designed to make video creation easier for users and creators. The update includes features such as green screen recording for users to quickly and creatively switch backgrounds and multi-language captions.
In short, the redesigned video interface brings editing options into a simpler overlay, giving users more ways to customize videos before sharing them on the platform. This eliminates the need for third-party video editing tools before uploading to the platform.
YouTube brings AI-powered Ask YouTube feature to desktop
Ask YouTube, an AI-powered conversational search experience that was introduced a few weeks ago, is now available on desktop devices in the US. The tool helps users explore complex topics by combining relevant videos, Shorts, clips, and text responses based on natural language questions.
Unlike traditional search, Ask YouTube allows users to ask detailed questions and continue conversations with follow-up prompts. The feature is particularly designed to help users carry out specific tasks like planning a trip or even learning new skills.
According to YouTube, the feature is currently available for signed-in users in the U.S. aged 13 and above searching in English on desktop. The feature is expanding to more devices and regions in the coming months.
Wrapping Up…
That’s all for this week’s updates. With AI, search, and social platforms evolving at such a rapid pace, keeping up can feel like a full-time job. We’ll be back next week with a fresh edition covering the latest changes, so you don’t have to spend your weekend endlessly scrolling to catch up on what matters.
Until then, stay tuned and see you next week.
