KIMP’s Picks July 18th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Social media is a great place to catch up on the latest buzz – be it AI news or tech advancements, or even information about upcoming social media features and algorithms. In short, social media helps you catch up with all the big changes that can possibly alter your workflows and strategies in the coming weeks. So, no more FOMO!

Ready to get a glimpse of the week that flew by? Let’s get started with the KIMP Picks July 18th Edition.

In the Marketing Realm 

Google explains how to link Google Ads with GA4

Google Analytics has changed a great deal, especially with the GA4 updates. In a recent post, Google explains the perks of tying Google Ads back to Google Analytics. 

Linking a Google Ads account to a Google Analytics 4 property allows businesses to view the entire customer journey, from an initial ad click to the completion of a key event on a website or app. 

Additionally, this integration facilitates a consistent flow of data between the two platforms, enabling the creation of consistent conversions, performance viewing, and user re-engagement. According to Google, small businesses that link their accounts see a correlation with a 23% increase in conversions and a 10% reduction in cost per conversion. 

Google is testing a new ad format in the Gmail Promotions tab 

Google is experimenting with a new ad format for Gmail’s Promotions tab that transforms it into a mini shopping experience. The new, visually rich ad unit showcases a featured product upfront and, when clicked, expands to display multiple product tiles side-by-side. These tiles include key details such as a product image, name, price, average star rating, and promotional labels like “Free shipping.”

The format merges Google’s Demand Gen ad targeting with product-driven layouts directly in users’ inboxes. Instead of static promo emails, these interactive ad units invite browsing and buying without leaving Gmail. 

YouTube sponsorship drives brand favorability 

YouTube shared some interesting data gathered from a recent study. Reportedly, YouTube sponsorships are highly effective at boosting brand favorability. The meta-analysis, which covered 11 brand campaigns from 2023 to 2025 across sectors like media, retail, and personal care, showed that brands utilizing these sponsorships saw an average 8.8% lift in favorability. This figure is 2.7 times higher than the lift experienced by competitors.

The research, which measured impact on both desktop and mobile platforms, highlights the power of YouTube as more than just a video platform. By aligning with creators and content that resonate with audiences, sponsorships enable brands to achieve significant brand visibility and emotional engagement.

A campaign that taps into nostalgia 

Olipop has a new ad campaign titled “Soda Stories” that features celebrity and consumer testimonials about their personal connections to soda. 

The campaign, which includes personalities such as Kristin Chenoweth and Joshua Jackson, draws inspiration from the iconic “Got Milk?” ads of the 1990s. The ads showcase individuals recounting nostalgic childhood memories of soda before transitioning to how Olipop’s healthier products brought them back to the category.

The creative is designed to stand out in an increasingly competitive market for better-for-you soda. It runs across owned and paid social channels, as well as out-of-home advertising in select markets. 

In the Content Marketing Realm

Semrush discusses alt text for SEO and accessibility 

Alt text, or alternative text, is a descriptive text for an image that displays if the image fails to load and is read by screen readers. It is crucial for both digital accessibility and search engine optimization (SEO), as search engines use it to understand and rank images in relevant search results.

In a recent post, Semrush discussed some useful strategies for brands and marketing teams to elevate their alt text game. Best practices for writing alt text include being descriptive and concise, ideally under 125 characters, and including relevant keywords without keyword stuffing. It’s also important to localize the text for different audiences and use a null attribute for decorative images to avoid confusing screen readers.

In the Design Realm 

A meaningful brand identity design project 

In a recent post, The Brand Identity discussed the brand identity design created for a coffee shop brand, Lento Lento, which translates to “slowly slowly.” 

The brand identity was inspired by the interior design of 1950s and ’60s Italian and Maltese cafes. The brand’s core concept is to encourage a slower, more leisurely approach to enjoying coffee, transforming it from a chore into a ritual. 

A custom logotype was designed with letter spacing that gradually increases from left to right, visually representing a slowing pace. This shows how the smallest design details can make the most impact on a brand and its identity. 

Tesco Mobile’s innovative OOH campaign 

A recent ad campaign from Tesco Mobile is proof that good design plus a great idea are what make a strong ad. This new campaign aims to help parents understand the digital language used by their children. 

The initiative comes after research revealed that nearly half of parents and caregivers lack confidence in deciphering online slang and emojis, amidst growing concerns over online safety.

The campaign uses a series of out-of-home, radio, and display ads to decode common terms, providing parents with the tools to start conversations about online safety. By clarifying the meanings behind phrases and emojis, Tesco Mobile hopes to empower and reassure families.

The clear, well-planned idea and the well-executed design together make this ad stand out. To keep the central message and them in the spotlight, the ads feature a simple message interface that is hard to ignore. 

In the AI Realm 

Gemini 2.5 Pro comes to AI Mode in Search 

Google is beginning to roll out its Gemini 2.5 Pro model and Deep Search capabilities within AI Mode for Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. 

The Gemini 2.5 Pro model is designed for advanced reasoning, coding, and math queries, while Deep Search can perform hundreds of searches and compile comprehensive, cited reports. These features are now available to subscribers in the U.S. who have opted into the AI Mode experiment.

In addition to these updates, Google is introducing a new agentic feature: AI-powered calling to local businesses. Users can now have Search call businesses, such as pet groomers or dry cleaners, to get pricing and availability information on their behalf. This feature is rolling out to all Search users in the U.S. (with subscribers receiving higher usage limits). 

Runway’s Act-Two – a new motion-capture model 

Runway has introduced Act-Two, its next-generation motion capture model, which provides significant improvements in generation quality and fidelity. The model can animate any character using a single driving performance video and a reference character, and it supports detailed tracking of the head, face, body, and hands.

Act-Two is designed to translate a performance to a wide variety of characters and artistic styles without compromising motion quality. This allows creators to animate diverse characters in different environments while maintaining performance consistency.

Higgsfield announces UGC Builder for quick and easy UGC video generation 

Higgsfield has launched a new tool called the UGC Builder, which allows creators, brands, and studios to generate a complete cinematic video with “total scene control” from a single interface. The builder is designed to eliminate the need for tedious editing workflows.

Users can upload a face and then direct every aspect of the character’s performance, including their movement, sound, emotion, and accent. They can also add a background music track. The platform’s goal is to give users full authorship and the ability to produce a fully-acted video with ease. The new UGC Builder is now available to the public.

Amazon’s Kiro – a new agentic IDE for developers 

Amazon has introduced Kiro, a new agentic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed to streamline software development. The IDE is built on three key innovations: spec-driven development, intelligent agent hooks, and a purpose-built interface.

The spec-driven approach allows developers to express their requirements through natural language and diagrams, providing clear context for Kiro’s AI agents to deliver better results with fewer iterations. 

Kiro also introduces automated agent hooks, which are background processes that generate documentation, write tests, and improve performance without user prompts. The purpose-built interface adapts to the developer’s workflow, maintaining their control over the process.

Amazon’s Bedrock AgentCore helps develop secure AI agents 

Amazon has announced a preview of Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, a new service designed to help developers deploy and operate AI agents securely and at scale. It offers purpose-built infrastructure that eliminates the complexity of building specialized agent systems. This can lead to the acceleration of the progress from prototype to production.

The service focuses on solving key production challenges for dynamic agent workloads. It supports long-running tasks (up to 8 hours), complete session isolation, and seamless integration with existing identity systems.

xAI announces “Grok For Government” 

xAI has announced “Grok For Government,” a new suite of frontier AI products tailored for United States government customers. The initiative aims to bring the best-in-class commercial AI tools to public servants. This move is to help improve efficiency in government services and address complex challenges in science and technology.

The initiative aims to achieve this through custom models built for the demands of national security and critical science applications. Additionally, there will also be moves to enhance specific segments like healthcare and fundamental science through personalized AI-powered applications. 

OpenArt’s new tool pushes the boundaries of video storytelling 

There’s a new AI tool in town, and this one is from OpenArt. This new AI model helps create 1-minute video clips. If you have an idea or even a short script that you wish to bring to life, this tool helps create an engaging video that tells a memorable story. 

From adding motion details to characters to altering the music in the video and fine-tuning the story arc, the tool is packed with plenty of customization options to simplify video creation. 

Real-time desktop sharing option comes to Copilot on Windows 

More and more AI agents are acquiring device interaction features, and Copilot is joining this race. To make Copilot a more efficient AI agent on Windows devices, Microsoft has announced a real-time desktop sharing option in the platform. 

This update gives Insiders access to Vision Desktop Share. This update allows users to share their entire desktop or a specific window with Copilot, which can then see what they see in real time and help answer questions based on what’s on the screen. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes  

What’s new on Edits? 

Like TikTok’s CapCut, Instagram’s Edit has quickly gained popularity. And it has been getting a lot of cool and useful updates every week. Accordingly, this week, Instagram spoke about the introduction of Key Frames and 2 other new updates. 

Edits now has 10 new Voice Effects to apply to your videos with voiceover, to help you add more life and a creative flair to your content. Additionally, if you have always had second thoughts about using audio tracks in your videos, worried about copyright issues, Edits has a solution. It now has a library of royalty-free music which can be integrated into your videos and used without any trouble. 

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Facebook posts are becoming more engaging – with music 

A few years ago, Instagram introduced the option to add music to static image posts on the platform. Since then, the feature has been adopted widely, and it undoubtedly makes posts more engaging. Besides, it gives creators a way to personalize the vibe of their post.

Building on this, Facebook is also adding a music option to the image posts on the platform. Accordingly, you can now add music to your photo posts in order to capture your mood accurately. 

Stay in the Loop 

And just like that, you are caught up on some of the biggest updates that people were discussing this week on social media. We know it’s tough to stay in the loop – to keep up with the ever-shifting social media landscape! That’s why we created the KIMP’s Picks. Our recap post will summarize the highlights of the week to get you up to speed. So stay tuned for our next edition, and we’ll see you again next Friday!