This newsletter is a few days late as I’ve been reflecting on my Spotify Wrapped results and what they say about me. It turns out, I’m not the only one that’s feeling embarrassment or shame. Everyone still listens to The Strokes, right? RIGHT?! I’m not going dispute my results like others. Listen to my Top 100 and judge for yourself. I’m at peace with any resulting unsubscribes.
Experimenting with AI
A few weeks ago, I asked my friend Michael Morreale for some advice on new generative AI tools. Michael is a man of many talents, one of which is producing great video content using these new technologies. He pointed me to https://elevenlabs.io/ which saved me hours creating placeholder voice content for a self-directed training course I’m designing. I asked Michael for a few more tips for my newsletter subscribers, and he has generously offered a few gems:
Like many marketers, I've been experimenting with AI to streamline my workflows. As a video shooter and editor, I enjoy getting to exercise the technical and creative sides of my brain at the same time. But inevitable mundane and repetitive tasks can take me out of it. My search for AI helpers has led me to a few gems that are truly useful, time-saving, and occasionally, a tad creepy:
Video translation, including voice cloning and lip moving to match
Eyeline correction when reading a script off-camera
Audio enhancement for cleaning up bad audio
Video enhancement for cleaning up poor-quality footage
You can follow / connect with Michael for more AI-infused video production tips and tools on LinkedIn.
Since I unleashed Stratbot into the world, I’ve been following other folks making their own GPTs. Daniel Robinson has created a few cool ones – this GPT will provide you with ice breakers based on someone’s LinkedIn profile. BrXnd has also created a tool to produce your own brand Manifesto - fasten your seatbelts for the official Kickframe manifesto below.
Cool Beans
Hyundai & Amazon: Ever wanted to add a new car to your Amazon shopping cart? Well can I interest you in a 2024 Hyundai Elantra? Free shipping I assume.
Training & TikTok: Scott Galloway has created a course in a TikTok-like format – a series of short mobile videos curated via an app called Pair. It’s free to sign-up with the promo code PROFG100.
Cool & Creepy Memes: Memes provide “bright, silly light in digital interactions” so Google is rolling out a new .meme domain type (see GrumpyCat.meme). People are also using AI to animate classic memes with predictably creepy results.
'Make it More': Another bright, light trend is ‘Make it More’, now super-charged by ChatGPT. Couldn’t this goose have gotten even sillier?!
Paddington Posts: One of the few bright lights in my Twitter / X feed these days is @jaythechou. He has posted Paddington into movies for nearly 1,000 straight days and I hope he never stops.
Digital Trends
Gen Z’s Top 25 Most Magnetic Brands (dcdx): Ranking and review of the brands with the highest “brand magnetism”, defined as ability to attract popular and consistent UGC. Congratulations McDonald’s!
2023 Review & 2024 Trends (Publicis Commerce): Honest accounting of their past predictions (winner: social discovery, loser: voice-enabled shopping) and some new predictions for 2024.
Connecting the Dots 2024 (GWI): 6 tends with supporting data - interesting to see there’s been a 57% increase in boomers using TikTok since 2021 (an under-served / targeted audience online).
Fresh Reports
Social Media & News (Pew): Related to TikTok, half of U.S. adults get their news from social media, and the percentage of TikTok users who regularly get their news from the platform is up to 43% (vs. 22% in 2020).
Winning Formulas for E-Commerce Growth (BCG): Survey on global ecommerce trends and how growth is reverting to pre-pandemic levels. The report also includes a useful model to evaluate your e-commerce maturity.
State of Digital Marketing 2023 (Luma): Macro-view of how digital media and marketing technology are changing. I like this framing of how commerce is both a channel and a layer for other channels.
