KIMP’s Picks June 27th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

Happy Friday, everyone! Finding that familiar pang of FOMO when you scroll through your social media feed? All those big AI news and buzzworthy posts you missed this week, making you feel out of the loop? Don’t worry, we have gathered the best highlights from this week right here. 

Welcome to the KIMP’s Picks! This is where we bring to you a list of shareworthy posts from the week. To give you a quick snapshot of the latest developments. So, are you ready for the KIMP’s Picks June 27th Edition? Let’s get started then, shall we? 

In the Marketing Realm

The difference between demand gen and lead gen 

The terms “demand generation” and “lead generation” are frequently conflated, even by marketing professionals, yet understanding their fundamental differences is crucial for effective budget allocation and sustained business growth. In the post here, Search Engine Journal explores the nuances that distinguish these. 

While both aim to generate revenue, their approaches, intentions, and impacts are all different.  Demand generation is a full-funnel strategy focused on building awareness, interest in a solution, and this often comes before a buyer recognizes a need. 

Conversely, lead generation is a tactical, conversion-focused approach that exchanges valuable content or offers for contact information. Read more about these differences and where to apply them in the article shared in the post here. 

Reddit’s engaging campaign for Snoo’s 20th birthday 

Creatively celebrating brand milestones helps build trust, and involving your customers in such celebrations breaks the communication barriers between your brand and them. Taking this approach, Reddit recently announced a fun and engaging campaign to celebrate its mascot, Snoo’s 20th birthday. 

As a part of this campaign, the company is inviting creators to join their 10-day-long art contest. Creators can submit their takes on the idea “Snoo finding something new” strictly avoiding AI-generated content. From event trophies to branded merchandise, the brand has also announced a lineup of rewards for the contest. 

Contests like these from big names like Reddit remind marketers of the power of engaging campaigns that actively involve the target audiences instead of treating them as mere spectators. 

Google’s Impossible Ad series 

The Google AI Lighthouse program from Google came up with the Impossible Ad series, where the company challenges creatives to get as creative as they can in using AI to create “impossible ad” campaigns. 

In a recent post on its Think With Google page, the company shared a roundup of some of the best contenders in the series. From Slice Soda’s throwback-styled radio station powered by Google’s Lyria to Moncler’s use of Veo 2 and Gemini 2.5 to create a high-quality “experimental film” in a few weeks, the post summarizes some takeaways from Cannes. So, if you are looking for some quick marketing inspiration, this is the post you need. 

Have we reached a stage of AI fatigue?

In a thought-provoking post, MarTech recently shared, it discusses how AI fatigue is becoming a crucial topic right now and how it’s affecting brands in more ways than ever. 

From the fact that too much AI is eventually leading to public resistance to AI to the nuances of finding the sweet spot between AI and human creativity, the post breaks down several crucial details in this discussion. 

After all, since marketing teams around the world are heavily investing in AI, now is a good time to rethink your strategies and create campaigns and ads that connect with customers rather than feel inauthentic. 

The NBA Finals’ impact on brands and local economies 

ADWEEK recently shared a post discussing how promoting during crucial sporting events like the NBA Finals helps brands boost sales and engagement. Particularly, the post explores how the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder’s deep run to Game 7 of the NBA Finals significantly boosted their merchandise sales, sports marketing, and media exposure.

The post comes as a reminder for marketers to look for the right opportunities because, without them, even the best ideas fade away. 

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Semrush discusses blog templates 

In the post here, Semrush discusses blog templates. Though an old article, it is still gold when it comes to content marketing lessons. It talks about some of the best approaches to create blogs, especially when you are struggling to boost your SEO performance.

The post explores ideas like beginner’s guide templates, pillar blog posts, definition blog post templates, “how-to” posts, and numbered listicles. Yes, the 5 most popular post formats known to bring better Search performance and engagement too. The post also delves into a few quick strategies to tackle each. So if the busy week left you in a creative rut, this informative blog can be a great read. 

In the Design Realm 

Brand packaging pays homage to the founder 

Capturing the heritage of your brand or celebrating the legacy of your founder are all great ways to make your brand packaging interesting and engaging. Ideas like these spark healthy conversations around your brand, which can be good for sustained engagement. 

In a recent post, Packaging of the World shared a post exploring the unique packaging design for Hartridges, the renowned botanical soda company. The design here has been built around founder Francis Hartridge and his 1882 original recipe. 

Instead of merely replicating Victorian aesthetics, the company has integrated Francis Hartridge’s silhouette, taken directly from historical photographs, as a key visual element on its packaging. This design choice serves as a badge of authenticity and connects consumers to the brand’s rich history.

This shows how packing brilliant storytelling into your packaging amplifies its impact. 

A fresh take on brand identity design 

The next post we have lined up for those looking for design inspiration highlights a brand identity design project. This is from The Brand Identity page on X. 

The post explores the unique brand identity created for Ronan Space Systems that defies conventional aerospace aesthetics by drawing inspiration from ancient petroglyphs. This unorthodox approach aims to reflect the founders’ vision of building a legacy in the universe, blending advanced concepts with ancient symbolism. 

The strategy positions Ronan as a pioneer, emphasizing not just hardware but a lasting impact across three strategic pillars: today, tomorrow, and beyond.

The discussion in the article can give you some fresh perspectives on branding design. 

In the AI Realm 

Voice Design V3 from ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs has announced the release of Voice Design v3, a huge upgrade to its voice design model, promising users unprecedented control and quality in voice creation. This new version allows for the generation of “any voice you can imagine with a prompt” making it easier to produce production-ready voices.

Reportedly, this new voice model provides users with more accurate control over character “prosody and personality”. This means that users can better adjust the tone, inflections, age, and gender of the characters. 

Voice Design v3 is available to all users. ElevenLabs is offering a promotional upgrade to its Starter plan for just $1 for the first month until June 30, 2025, allowing users to create more than three custom voices. This update aims to empower users to build voices that precisely match their imaginative visions.

ElevenLabs launches mobile apps for on-the-go AI voice generation 

ElevenLabs has released its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing its powerful AI voice tools directly to smartphones. This new application is designed to empower creators, educators, and professionals to generate studio-quality voiceovers in seconds, directly from their mobile devices.

The app is built on Eleven v3, the company’s latest and most expressive Text to Speech model, which supports up to 70 languages, as we discussed earlier. 

ElevenLabs unveils 11ai, a voice-first AI personal assistant 

ElevenLabs has introduced 11ai, an experimental voice-first AI personal assistant designed to showcase the advanced capabilities of Conversational AI and its support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This new assistant goes beyond traditional chatbots by enabling users to perform actionable tasks through voice commands, rather than just answering questions.

11ai offers out-of-the-box integrations with popular productivity tools such as Perplexity AI, Linear, and Slack. Users also have the flexibility to connect their own MCP servers for custom workflows.

11ai supports both text and voice input and automatic language detection. Additionally, users can also personalize their assistant by choosing from over 5000 voices or even their own custom voice. 

Google introduces Gemini Robotics On-Device 

Google has unveiled Gemini Robotics On-Device, a new vision-language-action (VLA) model designed to bring powerful artificial intelligence directly to robots. This innovation aims to make robots faster, more efficient, and adaptable to diverse tasks and environments without requiring a continuous internet connection.

A key feature of this model is its ability to operate locally on the device, offering the generality and dexterity of Gemini Robotics in an on-device format. It is capable of handling a wide variety of complex, two-handed tasks immediately and can learn new skills from as few as 50 to 100 demonstrations.

More updates from MiniMax Week 

In our last edition of the KIMP’s Picks, we discussed the first three updates announced on the first three days of the MiniMax Week. Now it’s time for more. 

On day 4, MiniMax introduced the beta version of its Hailuo Video Agent, marking the beginning of its “Vibe Videoing with Zero-touch” initiative. This new agent streamlines video creation, allowing users to select a creative agent style, input their ideas in plain language, and receive a polished video in one go.

In addition to the video agent, MiniMax also announced enhancements to its Voice Design feature. This “breakthrough in voice generation” allows users to create “any prompt, any voice, any emotion.”

HeyGen revolutionizes UGC video creation 

HeyGen has introduced a new “Product Placement” feature, enabling users to create highly realistic user-generated content (UGC) advertisements with ease. This innovative tool allows brands and creators to seamlessly integrate their products into AI-generated videos, eliminating the need for traditional studios, actors, or extensive editing.

The process is straightforward: users simply upload a product photo, select an AI avatar, and provide a script. The feature leverages HeyGen’s Avatar IV technology, which delivers hyper-realistic gestures and lip-syncing for lifelike presentations. This allows for the creation of “scroll-stopping” ads that can feature products like clothing, accessories, or even conceptual items that don’t physically exist yet. 

Claude introduces new tools 

Claude has launched two significant new features designed to empower users in creating with AI: a dedicated space for building, hosting, and sharing “artifacts,” and the ability to embed AI capabilities directly into their creations.

These updates are now available in beta for all Free, Pro, and Max users by toggling on “Create AI-powered artifacts” in their settings. 

The new artifacts space provides a centralized hub for creation. Users can browse curated examples for inspiration, fork existing artifacts to customize them, and keep all their projects organized in one convenient location.

Furthermore, Claude now allows users to develop fully functional, AI-powered applications with Claude’s intelligence seamlessly integrated. 

Runway enhances Gen4 References 

RunwayML has rolled out a significant update to its Gen-4 References feature, now available to all users. This updated version brings substantial improvements in object consistency and prompt adherence, addressing key challenges in AI image and video generation.

The enhanced Gen-4 References demonstrate notable performance gains, particularly on Dreambench++, a standard benchmark for image personalization. Additionally, the new iteration significantly outperforms both its previous version and other diffusion-based baselines. 

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes  

More customization options coming to Instagram Notes

The Notes feature on Instagram allows users to share short, temporary text updates with their followers. Recently, they announced that there are more customization options coming to the Notes feature. 

To begin with, the platform now lets users customize the notes with different colors to suit their mood. Additionally, in addition to text, users can also now add emojis to make their updates more expressive. This new customization capability means users can express themselves with greater personality and flair. 

Despite changes, X seems to be growing

According to some recent stats shared by X, the platform is reportedly seeing about a 45% increase in the daily to monthly active users, which, according to them, is their highest in 2025. 

Additionally, there has also been an 8% surge in the average daily usage of the platform. On the whole, user activity seems to be expanding on the platform. 

Instagram is bringing more new updates to the Edits app 

So, if you have been enjoying the Edits app, Instagram is adding more updates to it. Firstly, the app now gets the much-awaited Keyframes feature to allow better control over the position, alignment, and other aspects of the animation of clips. 

Next, the Ideas tab will now also display Saved Audio along with sticky notes and full-screen editing for the sticky notes. You can also now choose from more than 30 text effects to add more energy to your video. Finally, Edits also introduces the support for voice enhancements so that your voiceovers sound crystal clear with background noise eliminated. 

View on Threads

Subtle changes to the Threads UI 

Threads has silently added a few slight changes to the UI on the platform. They shared a post discussing the updates. Given the option to add multiple Feeds on the platform, this upgrade focuses on clearing up the layout to make the Feeds easier to access and navigate through. 

According to Threads, all the Feeds will soon be available in a single, organized dropdown menu at the top left. And users will also have the option to rearrange the Feeds based on their interests. 

View on Threads

To Conclude…

The AI landscape is evolving much more rapidly than ever, no doubt. And social media continues to surprise us every single day. But keeping up with updates like these and scrolling through endless posts to find the shareworthy ones can be tiresome. That’s where the KIMP’s Picks comes in. We bring to you an assortment of posts every week to summarize the highlights for you in a few quick minutes. So stay tuned for the next edition of the KIMP’s Picks. 

Did this whirlwind of updates give you a snapshot of the week that was? How does getting more such updates every week sound? If that sounds good, stay tuned and look out for the next edition of the KIMP’s Picks.