March already? Yikes - 2023 is going fast. I hope the year is going well for you. Lots of interesting news, trends, and products surfacing with this new wave of AI-driven innovation. Here’s what I’m reading and thinking about these days:
AI & Marketing
To start, I’m keen on finding practical applications of AI for marketing teams. Generative AI is fascinating (like using text to image tools to create these novel brand collabs), but I suspect there’s greater short-term value in refining vs. creating marketing assets. For example, I can see a ChatGPT-type of tool being used to adjust the tone of email copy for different audiences – helping marketers build more relevant content at scale. Nestlé is apparently using an IA tool to filter brand creative against internal guidelines – automating the brand police. Smart.
From a strategic planning perspective, I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT for some research work. It feels a bit like a shortcut to summarizing headlines from 50 open Chrome tabs. A potential time-saver if you’re familiar with the subject matter (to spot errors) and if you know what you’re looking for. Here’s an interesting list of examples of using ChatGPT for "innovation" work. And if you’re sick of ChatGPT, you can always try CatGPT.
Social & Shopping
My experience with live shopping involves Ron Popeil hawking Dial-O-Matics, Veg-O-Matics, and various other O-Matics on the Home Shopping Channel. Well, live shopping is massive in China and Amazon, TikTok, and YouTube are apparently trying to bring this “new” phenomenon to North America. Shopify is launching a new live video commerce service. A number of new services are blending TikTok-style video with commerce, including Trendio for beauty shopping and TalkShopLive for celebrity partnerships. It’s interesting to see that Instagram is moving away from this area, focusing instead on advertising – and presumably product discovery. I have to think that Shopify and Amazon (shopping platforms) are in a better position than Meta or YouTube (social / media platforms) to win here. Anyone in a rush to upload their credit card to TikTok?
TikTokification & Engagement
Rival IQ published a new Social Media Benchmark report that shows engagement rates are declining or remaining flat for all social platforms not named TikTok (lots of interesting data here broken down by platform and topic area). This explains why other social platforms like Instagram are prioritizing short-form video / vertical swiping (see Reels). Even non-social platforms like Spotify are planning to integrate vertical swiping of content to attract a younger demographic, in addition to a pretty awesome AI-powered personalized DJ. Another platform that continues to evolve is Twitch. I love this approach where Twitch tells streamers what is being tested each month through an experimentation hub (instead of covertly soft-launching features that confuse and annoy users).
Advertising & Media
Unless you work in retail or in CPG, you may not be that familiar with retail media networks – particularly in Canada. In a nutshell, these are advertising platforms owned by retail companies that third party brands can use to advertise on. In Canada, Amazon, Walmart, and Loblaw are the dominant players with others on the horizon. In fact, Amazon advertising has grown so fast that the revenue that made last year from advertisers was comparable to the entire global publishing ad market! A new report by the ANA (US) shows that marketers are attracted to these networks primarily for access to retailer first-party data and use these networks primarily for conversion-focused campaigns (not awareness).
Another area of advertiser growth is in gaming. According to a new YouGov report, 42% of American adults play mobile games for at least an hour per week. It has a useful breakdown of gamer types. Contagious has a free webinar tomorrow (March 2nd) that I’ve signed up for on the topic of Brands & Gaming. Lots of opportunity here.
Cool Beans
Immersive Memories: Wist is a new service that turns your photos into immersive experiences you can relive via VR / Mobile AR. Pretty sure I saw this in Total Recall, which did not end well.
Undeniable Street View: Amazing use of Google Street View, visualizing different streets in Ukraine before and after battling from the war.
Flexible Speakers: Apple has patented a new version of its smart speaker that can be bent and wrapped around different surfaces.
Before Midnight: Finally, the greatest innovation of all – dance parties that end at a reasonable hour so old farts like me can stay awake and get to bed at a reasonable hour!
Kickframe Toolbox
Whenever I teach a digital marketing or strategic planning course, participants always want to get their hands on the templates and frameworks that I use. So, I decided to post them all online. You can access all of these frameworks along with instructions at KickframeToolbox.com. If you’re interested in accessing editable versions for your presentations (PPT, Google, PDF) and video lessons for choosing and using, you can do that as well by purchasing the Marketing Template Kit - or in the words of Ron Popeil – the Template-O-Matic. I’ll refund any purchases for those who aren’t satisfied – no questions asked :-)