KIMP’s Picks September 26th: Weekly Highlights In Design, Marketing, AI, & More

FOMO hitting hard on Friday? Worried you did not catch up on the latest social media buzz? You’re in the right place. The KIMP’s Picks is your weekly recap post that brings you all the crucial highlights of the week – AI news, social media algorithm updates and everything else that matters. Ready to catch up on all the news you missed this week? Let’s get started with the KIMP’s Picks September 26th Edition.

In the Marketing Realm

Strategies used by popular brands to leverage YouTube for growth 

YouTube shared a post highlighting a few key trends and strategies adopted by renowned brands that leverage the platform for their growth. For example, the Shorts Ads deployed by Louis Vuitton helped with a 42% brand lift. 

Michael’s chose creator collaboration to boost their holiday marketing efforts and as a result witnessed 5:1 Omnichannel ROAS. For e.l.f Cosmetics, a combination of YouTube products like Video View campaigns and Demand Gen helped increase their revenue on the platform by 25%. To sum it up, brands need to explore strategies like popular cultural trends and discussions, creator collaborations and other strategies to find what works for them on social media channels like YouTube. 

AI is rewriting brand discovery

AI is changing how people find and choose brands. AI works differently from traditional search engines. Particularly, the fact that a catchy logo and other superficial brand elements are often not enough for brands to get noticed by AI assistants. MarTech is known to share the latest news and insights in the world of marketing technology. In the article below, they explore the significance of establishing a strong brand meaning in order to start appearing more in AI search. 

Logos, slogans, and color palettes still have a role, but they’re no longer enough. AI looks deeper. It weighs customer reviews, user-generated content, social proof, ethical practices, and consistency across platforms. If your brand story is fuzzy or inconsistent, you risk being invisible when AI generates recommendations.

The article also highlights that the shift is big. Gartner predicts a 25% drop in traditional search traffic by 2026 as people move toward AI-powered queries. That means discovery is no longer about optimizing for keywords but about ensuring your brand’s values and meaning are clear, consistent, and machine-readable.

Oreo’s playful new ambient advertising campaign 

Oreo and VML have taken the brand’s playful spirit beyond the cookie aisle with a clever campaign called Oreo Walks. Outside select Kroger stores in Cincinnati and Columbus, crosswalks have been transformed into giant stacks of Oreo cookies, complete with illustrated faces appearing to munch on them.

This experiential campaign, with its eye-catching setup, isn’t just for fun. Each crosswalk includes a QR code that unlocks a special in-store offer, nudging passersby to pick up cookies even if they hadn’t planned on it. The idea blends creativity with commerce, turning everyday foot traffic into a direct path to purchase.

This campaign demonstrates that creative moments that merge into everyday environments can drive both attention and sales. 

Doritos and KFC create “Supermarket Drive-Thru” for a new product launch 

To debut the new Doritos Kentucky Chicken Sandwich, Doritos and KFC have launched a campaign that flips the script on in-store marketing. Instead of waiting for shoppers to find the product, they built a fully functional drive-thru right inside the snack aisle, designed exclusively for supermarket carts.

Called “The Supermarket DriveThru”, the activation taps into the fact that shoppers spend a lot of time in the snack aisle in a supermarket. Hence, by placing the experience there, the brands made discovery feel fun, surprising, and effortless. Customers could roll up in their carts, place an order, and get the sandwich instantly, mimicking the familiar drive-thru ritual but this time in an unexpected context.

In the Content Marketing Realm 

Google AI Overviews brings visibility but not clicks 

Search Engine Land is a great place to find all the latest Search-related news. In a recent post, they discussed the changes coming to Search and, hence, content marketing with the growing popularity of AI Overviews. 

New data from over 20,000 search queries reveals that appearing in Google’s AI Overviews drives brand visibility but delivers clicks similar to a Position 6 ranking on traditional search. This means far fewer than the top blue links. The study found that even the best AI Overview placements can’t compete with the Top 3 organic results, which remain the strongest traffic drivers.

That’s good news for content creators because traditional SEO still matters. 

In the Design Realm 

Canva shares Visual Communication Report 2025

The role of design for brands is evolving. But have you wondered why visuals matter to brands now more than ever? Canva’s recent Visual Communication Report 2025 breaks down some of the recent trends in visual marketing. 

It highlights the fact that “visuals change minds” and help people grasp the message more effectively. Creative assets are also effective in boosting the memorability of your message. The report also highlights how strategy is more important to help visuals work harder and cut through the noise. 

From emphasizing the importance of visual fluency for leadership rules to the many drawbacks of poor visual communication, the report goes on to talk about diverse challenges and trends in the world of visual communication for brands. 

Is AI really saving time in creative workflows?

AI has become an integral part of design workflows today, and not adopting the tech makes designers feel outdated. One of the main reasons cited for the use of AI in design is that it helps save time for creatives. A recent post from “It’s Nice That” explores the realities of this perception. 

AI promised to cut the boring parts of creative work so people could focus on big ideas. Reportedly, in practice, the opposite is happening. Instead of more free time, creatives report endless iterations, tighter deadlines, and new forms of digital busywork. Clients expect faster turnaround, and the tech itself brings extra chores like managing prompts, file chaos, and system maintenance.

Some studies back this up. While AI boosts output, many feel less connected to their work, with some even describing the process as numbing. The pressure to “do more” has grown, echoing a familiar pattern from past tech revolutions: efficiency gains don’t reduce work, they raise expectations.

This shows that AI can amplify creativity, but chasing speed alone risks burnout and shallow output. 

A rebranding project

Popular fashion resale platform, ThredUp, has launched a full rebrand, featuring a refreshed visual identity, a redesigned user experience, and AI-driven features aimed at making secondhand shopping more seamless and personalized. 

To support its tech-focused rebranding, the brand has introduced a new “infinity” emblem, which represents circularity while subtly forming a thread-like “T”. This design also reflects the brand’s focus on sustainability and modern style.

The campaign highlights the need for brands to keep up with the evolving market trends and ensure that their brand identity aligns with audience expectations. 

In the AI Realm

Google Labs’ new experimental visual idea platform – Mixboard 

Google Labs has introduced Mixboard, an experimental AI tool designed to help users explore and refine ideas visually. The platform allows users to generate and edit images and text for a variety of applications like DIY projects. 

Mixboard’s open canvas lets users start projects from text prompts or pre-populated boards, bring in their own images, and use AI to create unique visuals. The Nano Banana model integrated into it enables natural language edits like combining or modifying images, and generating context-aware text. One-click options like “regenerate” and “more like this” make iterating on ideas simple.

Currently in public beta in the U.S., Mixboard aims to make creative exploration more intuitive and accessible by blending AI with flexible visual tools.

Conversational AI editing in Google Photos 

Google Photos is expanding its conversational editing feature to all eligible Android users in the U.S. Users can now make edits using text or voice, from quick fixes like “Restore this photo” to creative changes such as “Change the background to a beach”.

The rollout builds on capabilities first introduced on Pixel 10, allowing users to skip traditional sliders and tools. By tapping the “Help me edit” option, they can describe the desired changes, and Google Photos applies them using advanced Gemini AI. Suggestions and playful prompts make it easy to experiment, whether for minor adjustments or imaginative edits.

With gestures, one-tap suggestions, and conversational AI, Google Photos aims to make creative photo editing more intuitive and accessible.

Meet Qwen3 Max – a new trillion-parameter model 

Qwen has launched Qwen3-Max, their largest and most powerful AI model yet, featuring over one trillion parameters. The model’s preview version of Qwen3-Max-Instruct already ranks highly on the Text Arena leaderboard, surpassing GPT-5-Chat.

The official release shows superior performance across all major benchmarks, including knowledge, reasoning, and multilingual ability. Its biggest gains are in coding and agent tasks. On real-world coding challenges (SWE-Bench Verified), it scored 69.6. 

Qwen3-Max is built on an efficient Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture. This design ensures a smooth and stable training process. 

Qwen’s new vision language model 

Qwen has launched its most powerful vision-language model, the Qwen3-VL series. This model is a step toward moving multimodal AI past simple recognition towards true cognition and task execution. 

The flagship model, Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B, is now open-sourced. Its Instruct version matches or exceeds Gemini 2.5 Pro in visual perception benchmarks. The advanced Thinking variant achieved state-of-the-art results in complex multimodal reasoning, even outperforming rivals on math vision problems.

Notably, the model excels in practical applications. It features strong Visual Agent Capabilities, allowing it to operate computer and mobile interfaces like a human. Its improved Visual Coding can instantly convert design mockups into functional HTML/CSS code. 

Qwen3-LiveTranslate Flash achieves real-time multimodal interpretation 

Qwen has unveiled Qwen3-LiveTranslate-Flash, a cutting-edge model for precise real-time multilingual audio and video interpretation. Built on the powerful Qwen3-Omni, this system supports seamless live translation in 18 languages and multiple Chinese dialects.

The key innovation is Vision-Enhanced Comprehension. For the first time, the model incorporates visual context by analyzing lip movements, gestures, and on-screen text. This visual aid dramatically improves accuracy in noisy environments and resolves confusing homophones or ambiguous terms. 

Google Search Live comes to all users in the U.S. 

Google has rolled out Search Live across the U.S., making it available to everyone in English (even to users who have not opted in for Google Labs experiments). The feature lets users have real-time conversations with Search by using voice or a camera, turning everyday moments into instant problem-solving opportunities.

With Live, you can point your camera to learn about landmarks, or even tackle everyday tasks like troubleshooting electronics. The goal is to make search more interactive and helpful by merging AI with voice and visual context. 

Google brings significant AI-powered upgrades to Chrome 

Google just rolled out the largest update to Chrome, powered by its Gemini AI. The goal is to make browsing faster, smarter, and safer.

Gemini is now built directly into Chrome on desktop and mobile. It can summarize complex pages, compare info across multiple tabs, and even recall sites you visited before without digging through history. Soon, it will also act on your behalf for routine tasks like booking appointments or ordering groceries.

Google apps like Calendar, Maps, and YouTube are now more tightly integrated, letting you interact without switching tabs. Chrome’s omnibox is also getting an AI boost, allowing direct access to AI-powered search and contextual page insights.

On the safety side, Gemini Nano expands Chrome’s scam detection, blocking fake virus alerts and shady giveaways. Chrome will also filter spammy notifications, handle intrusive permission requests more intelligently, and soon let users change compromised passwords with one click on popular sites.

Google’s AI Plus plan rolls out to 40 more countries 

Google has rolled out its AI Plus subscription to 40 new countries after a strong debut in Indonesia. The plan is designed to make advanced AI tools more affordable and widely accessible.

Subscribers get higher usage limits for Google’s image model Nano Banana, access to Veo 3 Fast for video generation, and integrations with tools like Whisk and Flow for creative projects. Productivity features are also included, with Gemini built into Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, plus expanded limits in NotebookLM. On top of that, users receive 200 GB of storage across Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail.

Additionally, the plan can be shared with up to five family members, making it even more cost-effective for households.

xAI’s new cost-efficient model is here: Grok 4 Fast 

xAI has introduced Grok 4 Fast, a new model designed to deliver top-tier reasoning at a fraction of the cost. It builds on Grok 4’s capabilities but is optimized for speed, efficiency, and accessibility across both enterprise and consumer use cases.

What makes Grok 4 Fast stand out is its token efficiency. It uses 40% fewer tokens than Grok 4 while maintaining similar performance, leading to a 98% lower cost on frontier benchmarks. Independent analysis confirms it has the best price-to-intelligence ratio among publicly available models.

Grok 4 Fast is already live on grok.com, iOS, and Android. All users (including free users) can now access this faster, more efficient model.

Wan2.5-Preview debuts with next-gen multimodal AI for visuals 

Wan has unveiled Wan2.5-Preview, a major step forward in multimodal AI for image and video generation. The new architecture combines text, images, audio, and video under a unified framework, making it more versatile and aligned with human preferences.

The model introduces joint multimodal training, improving how visuals and audio sync together while following instructions more accurately. Reinforcement learning with human feedback further boosts quality in both images and videos. 

For video, Wan2.5-Preview offers synchronized audio and visuals, supporting vocals, effects, and background music in high-quality 1080p clips up to 10 seconds long. On the image side, it delivers photorealism, diverse artistic styles, and detailed typography, while supporting conversational editing and pixel-level precision. 

Google brings Gemini to Google TV 

Google is rolling out Gemini for TV, turning the living room screen into more than just an entertainment hub. Everything Google Assistant already does still works, but Gemini adds conversational intelligence that goes far beyond simple commands.

Now, you can ask Gemini to find shows everyone in the family will enjoy, recap past seasons, or recommend trending series even if you don’t remember the title. Follow-up questions let you refine your choices and check reviews before you hit play. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot adds Anthropic models for more choice and flexibility 

Microsoft is expanding the AI options inside Microsoft 365 Copilot with the addition of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1. Until now, Copilot has relied solely on OpenAI’s models. With this update, customers can now choose between OpenAI or Anthropic models depending on their needs. 

First, the Researcher agent, designed for complex, multi-step work and deep reasoning over all your data, can now be powered by either OpenAI or Claude Opus 4.1. Second, developers can use both Claude models in Microsoft Copilot Studio to build and customize enterprise-grade AI agents, even mixing models for specialized tasks.

Social Media Feature Updates and Algorithm Changes  

Meta brings in-app message translations to WhatsApp 

WhatsApp is introducing built-in message translations to help users communicate more easily across languages. The new feature lets you long-press any message, tap “Translate” and instantly see it in your chosen language. The option works in 1:1 chats, groups, and even Channel updates.

Android users also get the added convenience of the ability to enable automatic translation for entire chat threads, so all future messages in another language are translated by default.

Finally, in terms of privacy, the translations are processed directly on the device, ensuring privacy and keeping messages inaccessible to WhatsApp itself. The rollout starts with six languages on Android, including English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic, and more than 19 languages on iPhone.

LinkedIn’s new tools to boost B2B lead quality 

B2B marketers are under more pressure than ever to deliver pipeline and prove ROI. But chasing lead volume alone often backfires. It can lead to unqualified leads that waste time and budget. LinkedIn is tackling this “volume trap” with new tools designed to drive high-quality outcomes.

First, Qualified Leads Optimization (QLO) focuses campaigns on leads most likely to convert to MQLs and SQLs, while Conversion Value Optimization (CVO) maximizes the value of each conversion. According to LinkedIn, early adopters are seeing good results, including a 39% drop in cost per qualified lead and up to a 20% increase in total conversions. 

Additionally, Conversion Lift Testing provides a clear, causal view of campaign impact, helping marketers optimize efforts and justify spend across the funnel.

LinkedIn also addresses the bottleneck between MQLs and SQLs with the new Book an Appointment feature. Integrated with Calendly, it allows high-intent leads to schedule sales calls in real time, boosting engagement and accelerating the sales process. 

X rolls out “Boost” feature for creators to boost their reach 

X is testing a new “Boost” button to let users pay for amplified post reach directly in-stream, seeking an additional revenue stream. The feature is currently exclusive to Premium subscribers on iOS.

The “Boost” feature comes at an additional cost in tiered packages, depending on the number of impressions. This means that users already paying a subscription fee for X Premium will be paying extra to boost their posts. 

A notable detail here is that these boosts are just for an additional push for reach but they are not traditional ads and hence they lack advanced targeting options. This may limit their appeal for professional marketers. 

X’s algorithm will soon be AI-powered 

The news is that X is shifting to an AI-powered timeline to help users see more content tailored to their interests. The goal is to move away from mainstream or political content and surface posts that align with individual passions, creating a more personalized community experience.

According to Elon Musk, the algorithm will be fully AI-driven by November, with ongoing progress shared through open-source updates every two weeks. Users will eventually be able to dynamically adjust their feeds using Grok, X’s AI assistant, by signaling what content they like or dislike.

Facebook’s new AI-powered dating features 

Facebook Dating is introducing two new tools, Dating Assistant and Meet Cute, to help users connect without endless swiping. Both aim to make dating easier, more personalized, and fun.

The Dating Assistant is a chat-based helper that offers custom match recommendations and profile guidance. Users can input unique preferences, like location or interests, and receive refined suggestions tailored to what they’re looking for. It also provides dating ideas and tips to improve profiles.

Wrapping Up…

Feeling all caught up with the buzz? Keeping up with this whirlwind of updates week after week can be challenging. But you cannot afford to miss out on all the game-changing tech news. So, what’s an easy way to stay in the loop? KIMP’s Picks! Our weekly recap post is your shortcut to catching up on the social media buzz in a few quick minutes. So, stay tuned and we’ll be back next week with a fresh set of updates curated for you.