Digital Trends: 06.15.24

I just wrapped up the Kickframe AI + Marketing Bootcamp with 30 smart marketers last week (thank you!) It was an excellent opportunity to receive valuable feedback on the new curriculum while also learning more about how everyone is thinking about and experimenting with AI. If you’re looking to upskilling your marketing team in AI, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I can give you the scoop on this corporate training course. I’ll also be hosting an open training event in September.

AI + Marketing

One thing we talked about during the Bootcamp was how AI affects creativity: does it produce poorer quality creative work than agencies and in-house teams? Right now, yes. Is it giving businesses that don't have a lot of resources marketing capabilities they wouldn't have had otherwise? Also, yes. This is one reason why industry folks have such mixed feelings about AI in marketing: we can see how it can boost productivity, but we can also see how it can hurt quality and disrespect craft. It doesn’t help that OpenAI's CTO shared her feeling that "some creative jobs might go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place." Yikes.
 
Marketers are still investing in AI. Brand teams are starting to share their predictions for how much money they can save (Mondelez forecasts a 10%-20% drop in non-working media spend, while also producing more personalized advertising). Agencies as well. The Brandtech Group continues to invest in consultancies and tools that have AI at their core, such as the marketing platform Pencil. An agency called Rehab says that it thinks AI works best to help with strategy development and market research (not creativity). On the market research front, Mark Ritson talks about how synthetic customer data will disrupt market research (i.e., why pay for a focus group when you can ask an AI model?) Gartner predicts that by 2026, 75% of businesses will use GenAI to create synthetic customer data, up from less than 5% in 2023. Lots happening.

AI + Video

Many people have been paying close attention to AI-generated videos ever since the OpenAI Sora videos came out. Sora can only be used by a small group of testers right now, a list that somehow includes Ashton Kutcher. He shared that soon “you’ll be able to render a whole movie” using it. In fact, that is what a new start-up has in mind: to become the “Netflix of AI” by allowing audiences to generate their own shows. Abandoned Films is a YouTube channel that publishes movie trailers made by AI for “films that could have been, films that we can only dream of.” The Matrix – 1940s Film Noir is my fave. Luma Labs just released a text-to-video tool called the Dream Machine. It’s open for everyone to use, not just former sitcom stars. My creations have not worked out particularly well, but some more talented prompt engineers have created some videos bringing famous memes to life.

Fresh Research

  • Teens and YA on AI (Common Sense): GenAI use among teens and young adults was studied by Harvard. 51% of those 14–22 years old have used GenAI at some point, but only 4% say they use it every day.

  • State of AI in 2024 (McKinsey): This study shifts the focus from teens to businesses, where AI adoption has jumped to 72%. Approximately 50% of businesses have now adopted AI across 2 or more business functions. The biggest area of AI growth still remains consultancies billing clients for AI advice.

  • Consumer Trend Report (Forerunner): Interesting research on big-picture consumer trends. Includes a useful 2 X 2 chart on how consumers view AI as a tool to help them with different tasks.

Smart Reads

  • Building AI Products (Benedict Evans): Another smart / sober view of how (at this point) AI product innovation is most successful when it focuses on solving a narrow and specific use case.

  • New Cultural Codes (Zoe Scaman): A fantastic new deck / visual essay on how brands can more fully participate in culture and society, with some great framing and examples.

  • Doing Stuff with AI (Ethan Mollick): An update on the best ways to play around with AI right now, including how to use the new features of frontier models that use images as inputs.

Cool Beans

  • The Complexifier: As a strategic planner, I often question whether I’m making something simple too complex, or I’m making something complex too simple. Now I no longer need to do the former, the Complexifier GPT can do it for me!

  • Jenny Nicholson: Is an Executive Creative Director who shared a smart, fun 20-minute presentation on how she experimented with AI in her work over the last 12 months. Worth a watch.

  • WKRP’s Dr. Johnny Fever: My new favourite person in the world has pieced together every one of his DJ breaks and created a 3-hour playlist that is impeccable. One for the Gen X’ers on the mailing list.

Digital Trends: 07.01.24

I recently led a half-day AI + Marketing corporate training session for a 30 person in-house marketing team. The majority of the participants worked in creative and production roles. I was curious how they would perceive the AI use cases and tools that I was presenting; would they see them as a threat? During the session, participants were assigned to work in groups to develop a new campaign concept and supporting marketing asset using artificial intelligence. The response and outcomes were quite positive, with some important considerations and caveats that I believe marketers should consider before rushing to adopt these tools:

  • Domain expertise is extremely important. Designers who used AI to create marketing visuals produced assets that were ten times better than non-designers, as did copywriters who used AI to create scripts.

  • AI performs best with templated work. AI was most useful in creating traditional marketing assets, such as a press release, especially if an example is provided.

  • Helpful at the start, more helpful at the end. AI was useful as a brainstorming tool, but it was more useful for documenting and describing the idea after it had been largely developed by the team.

  • Great work still requires time. Everyone understands the potential for AI tools to save time on specific tasks; however, marketing teams must exercise caution before reducing timelines and expectations unreasonably.

  • Concerns about losing skills. Creative professionals have acquired skills and experience, and they enjoy being creative in their work. One copywriter put it best: "I don't want to lose the creative part of my brain, or the creative part of my work."

Thanks to the PharmaBrands team for inviting me to speak about AI+Marketing at their awesome conference in Toronto last month.

AI & Advertising

Speaking of AI in advertising work, I find this whole AI-shaming narrative in the marketing space to be ridiculous. We can’t have CMO’s being lauded for embracing AI, while then shitting on those brands that use AI in their work. If AI is used to bring iconic print ads to life, it’s magical; but if there are any imperfections it is a mockery. The offending marketing director must then do an industry perp walk on LinkedIn apologizing for using the technology. Just stupid. It’s a new tool, people are learning how to use it. Those who start now will have a valuable head start.
 
And how is AI impacting marketing agencies? According to Forrester, 91% of US ad agencies currently use AI primarily for content creation. Large agencies and networks are adopting AI tools at a larger scale, including WPP, which followed up their NVIDIA keynote with another presentation at Cannes to showcase its AI Production Studio. New GenAI ads can now tailor ads to peoples “complex psychological profiles”, making them more persuasive than non-targeted messages. This deck from Springboards.ai makes the case for AI as a driver of increased creativity in advertising work.

Fresh Reports

  • AI & Universities (Bond): Mary Meeker is back, this time with a focus on how AI will impact higher education at a larger scale and faster rate than the Internet. Watching my kids use ChatGPT to explain math problems has been an eye opener.

  • Social Media Benchmarks 2024 (Dash Hudson): A handy report for those looking for updated performance benchmarks for different platforms and verticals.

  • AI Survey (Bain): Illustrates how business adoption has changed over the last 12 months since the previous survey – Sales, Coding, Marketing, and Customer Service are the areas adopting AI the most.

  • What do People Think of Generative AI (BBC): Research on how BBC audiences perceive AI in relation to media they consume – some interesting findings and framing around what constitutes lower vs. higher stakes for AI.

Smart Reads

  • Apple Intelligence and AI Maximalism (Benedict Evans): Insightful explanation how Apple is zagging with its AI strategy, which focuses on embedding AI into its products and what those products and your phone know about you.

  • Gradually, then Suddenly (Ethan Mollick): Makes an interesting parallel between the advancements of AI and digital cameras; digital cameras were a niche product until their resolution (gradually) reached the level of a Polaroid camera, at which point they became a mass product (suddenly).

  • AI Strategic Vision Toolkit (Nobl): A super-smart and useful resource from NOBL on different prompts and frameworks you can use to start having more clear and productive conversations about AI with your teams.

Cool Beans

Digital Trends: 06.01.24

I just finished my first AI + Marketing ‘Beta’ Bootcamp session with 25 smart marketers / guinea pigs. It’s been incredibly interesting to discuss AI with this group, because we’re all figuring out the tools, use cases, and challenges in real-time. It’s clear that we’re all trying to find the fit of these tools in our work (only 29% of marketers have integrated AI into their daily workflow). One thing that we talked about was keeping in mind the goal isn’t to adopt AI, but to adopt AI if it benefits you or your business. Documenting a test or pilot project can help.

AI Hype

While most of the Beta Bootcamp crew uses AI on a regular basis, how is it being adopted more broadly? From a business / marketing perspective, adoption appears significant:

  • 98% of marketers use AI in some way, 45%, of which are ‘expermenting’.

  • 75% of people are using AI at work, and 46% started less than 6 months ago.

However, these numbers drop when the general population is studied:

  • Approximately 50% of the online population in Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA have heard of ChatGPT.

  • 1% use ChatGPT on a daily basis in Japan, rising to 2% in France and the UK, and 7% in the USA.

While I’m obviously optimistic about AI, it’s important to keep this gap in perspective as we rush to introduce new tools or pitch new AI products or ideas.

AI + Marketing

What happens when marketers have access to infinite labour, infinite content, and mass personalization powered by AI? An interesting thought experiment by Andrew Chen on the second order effects of AI and marketing, including the convergence of marketing and sales, “When a marketer kicks off in new campaign, it might be more like spinning up an instance of millions of virtual AI sales people -- or better yet, "sales companions" -- that go out and engage consumers in the exact way they want to be engaged.” And you thought retargeted ads were annoying! HubSpot also recently released a report on how startups use AI in their GTM (go-to-market) strategy. Customer targeting and segmentation were the areas startup reported the greatest benefit from AI, and many employ similar tools across marketing, sales, analytics, and service - with ChatGPT playing the largest role.

Speaking of tools, I thought this was interesting: instead of an AI company promoting a new content production tool, they are framing the tool as a person - don't buy the tool, hire Sarah - your own content marketer available for less than the cost of an intern.

Social Creative

Gary Vaynerchuk has a new book out on building brands on social media, and he gave a punchy interview about how marketers need to take social creative more seriously. He makes the case that strong social creative is undervalued, stating, “17 million actual organic consumed views is probably equivalent to the value of 100 million paid social views, and 100 million paid social views is probably equivalent to a $50 million media buy.” Some brands are also now exploring new alternative social media platforms as X/Twitter continues to self-destruct (and btw now allows porn).

Fresh Research

Digital Trends: 05.15.24

Sorry that I’m a bit late with this newsletter. Work and life have gotten busy, and since these are still researched and written by a human (call me old-school!) I needed a few extra days.
 
Thanks to everyone who signed for my upcoming marketing and AI beta-bootcamp. These will be run live virtually, likely in three 1-hour sessions over six weeks starting in June. The training will be designed to provide marketing teams with a shared and current understanding of what AI is and how it affects marketing, including relevant use cases and technologies that can be explored today. If you or someone you know is a marketer and is interested in being a 'guinea pig', please enter your information here, and I will contact you later this week with the scoop. Participation costs nothing more than your attendance and honest opinion - the more honest the better!  

AI & Search (Not)

There were rumours that Open AI might launch a Google search competitor this week, but instead it launched GPT-4o (the “o” is for omni). This multi-modal model works with text, vision, and audio as input and output in real-time. I haven’t spent much time with it yet, but the videos of it in use make it appear super user-friendly. This example from the founder of the Khan Academy demonstrating how GPT-4o can be used as a math tutor is powerful. In his fantasic new book Co-Intelligence, Ethan Mollick goes into great detail about the potential of AI as a learning helper.

AI & Platforms

While there are loads of standalone AI consumer apps launching all the time, media platforms continue to roll-out new AI features for advertisers (many of which are updates to AI-enabled tools that have existed for years):

  • Google has added new AI-powered features to Pmax campaigns, such as targeting lost customers.

  • LinkedIn is testing Premium Company Pages which will include tools for creating content and growing followers.

  • Meta now offers AI capabilities for image / ad production, such as swapping out backgrounds.

  • Amazon is using AI to make it easier for sellers to create listings simply by providing a URL.

AI & Work 

Microsoft recently released a very interesting report on AI in the workplace, which highlights the surge in use and need for AI skills. 71% of leaders say they’d rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without. The report explores the types of jobs that will be most affected; some experts are predicting the end of stock photographers and call centres. Even your friendly neighbourhood marketing strategist might be impacted! It’s not all bad news, as the big consultancies advising companies on how to use AI are doing just find thank you very much.

AI & Friendship

Will AI girlfriends actually become a $1B business? It certainly looks like it’s trending that way – which was the biggest ‘aha’ (or rather ‘ew’) moment for me from this report on the top GenAI Consumer Apps. While some academics suggest that these tools can help “lessen feelings of depression, anxiety or even stress”, many lonely teen boys are feeling addicted. Add in the strangeness of a Miss AI contest or an AI girlfriend that is constantly angry with you and it’s not pretty. Hard Fork co-host Kevin Roose recently shared his bizarre experience hanging out with 9 AI friends for a month. Here’s a more optimistic perspective on how technology may help people connect in ‘the loneliness economy’.

AI & Deepfakes

If you’re bored with your AI girlfriend, you can always create a deep fake of a real person. In China, it is becoming popular to build a GenAI avatar of a dead loved one to aid in the grieving process. Fans of Katy Perry and Rihanna created a new version of fan-art by sharing GenAI-created photos of the artists at the Met Gala. And of course, scumbags want in on the AI action, thus a teacher was recently arrested for using AI to deepfake his principal giving a racist rant and another scammer targeted the CEO of WPP.

Fresh Research

  • GenAI & Google: A list of 101 real-world generative AI use cases across industries (creative, data, coding & more).

  • Teen Study (Piper Sandler): Snapshot of US teen brand preferences (TikTok, Nike, Chick-Fil-A FTW!).

  • Global Ad Trends (Warc): Useful report showing the continued growth of social advertising (Meta to overtake linear TV ad revenue this year).

Cool Beans

Digital Trends: 04.15.24

I've had the pleasure of meeting many of you over the years while hosting the Kickframe Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp training & networking event. I stopped running the event during COVID, but I'm bringing it back with a new focus on marketing and AI. Here's where you come in.

I'd like to gather feedback on the curriculum and exercises, so I'll be hosting a series of 'beta bootcamp' sessions. These will be run live virtually, likely in three 1-hour sessions over six weeks beginning in May. The training will be designed to provide marketing teams with a shared and current understanding of what AI is and how it affects marketing, including relevant use cases and technologies that can be explored today.
 
If you or someone you know is a marketer and is interested in being a 'guinea pig', please enter your information here, and I will contact you closer to the date with the scoop. Participation costs nothing more than your attendance and honest opinion - the more honest the better!

Exploring AI Opportunities

I’ve been working with a client to explore AI opportunities across several business areas. This has required an approach to explore different workflows with multiple stakeholders - many of whom are unfamiliar with AI. It’s tricky. What I found helpful is the concept from Ethan Mollick that jobs are a bundle of tasks. Some tasks can be easily handled by AI, while others cannot. The idea is to take a top-down approach to decompose jobs into tasks, then into use cases with the greatest potential for AI automation or enrichment. I ran an exploratory workshop recently based on this approach, and we are now analyzing which use cases from the workshop have the potential to be automated, augmented, or transformed using available AI tooling and technology.

AI & Search

How will AI impact search? Google has been testing Search Generative Experiences in several markets (but not yet in Canada), and intends to charge for a new AI-infused search product. Perplexity, a Gen AI search engine, appears to be following in Google’s footsteps by planning to sell advertising. It’s interesting to see the incumbent and new entrant moving closer together. The Verge compares AI chatbots to search engines for various types of searches (chatbots great for ‘buried information’, search great for ‘exploration’) and concludes that AI search engines can’t "kill Google" but will change search.

AI & Social 

Meta recently released Meta AI across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It’s early days, but it’s not a great sign that “How to Turn off Meta AI” is already trending. Feels like an awkward fit, especially because the feature provides users with Google results / links which can drive users off the platform. The AI + social trend that fascinates me most? Virtual influencers: Not only can you now virtually chat with an AI version of a real person, those real people are now competing with completely virtual influencers for advertising / sponsorship dollars.

AI & Hardware

Will there be an ‘iPhone for AI’? A bunch of companies and investors are trying to figure out the right sort of hardware and UX to help people use AI in a natural and additive way (including Jony Ive of Apple fame). Early products have not entirely impressed tech reviewers (see “The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed” on the Humane AI Pin). Iyo is a start-up that is designing hardware for your ears, whereas the Apple Vision Pro focuses on your eyes. Maybe using AI on your phone isn’t so bad?

AI & Advertising

Dove made a splash last week with its smart and emotional pledge to not use AI in its advertising as part of its Self-Esteem Project. Some other brands have followed suit, banning the use of AI to depict human features in their advertising. While I appreciate the move in this context (not setting unrealistic beauty expectations), I doubt it will deter advertisers and agencies from experimenting with AI for production work (resizing, reformatting, translating, personalizing….basically all of the '-ings'). Plus some advertising is just too well suited to not use AI (see Spotify cloning the voices of podcast hosts for audio ads). Piotr Bombol has put together a useful overview of AI tools for advertising.

Cool Beans

  • Dumb & Boring Phones: Turns out ‘digital minimalism’ is definitely a thing, and so is the business opportunity around selling ‘dumb’ phones (new and refurbished). Heineken is launching their own.

  • Spotify AI Playlist: Spotify has released a beta version of a feature (again, not in Canada!) that generates a playlist based on text-prompts. Now I can just ask Spotify to create the perfect late-night email newsletter editing mix.

  • Google Arts & Culture: I haven’t checkout out the experiments at Google Arts & Culture in a while, and they’re so good. This one recommends a recipe based on combining two national cuisines into one. I tried to trick it by selecting Canada combined with Canada, but the joke's on me - this looks tasty!

Digital Trends: 04.01.24

This is not intended to be an A.I. newsletter, but it’s starting to feel like one. I regularly cover topics and links that are (a) in the news and (b) interest me, and A.I. just happens to be in the middle of that Venn diagram right now. This edition is inspired by Ethan Mollick’s appearance on the Ezra Klein podcast yesterday. He discusses how we should be experimenting with A.I. in our day-to-day work. I’m committed to trying this as a way to find efficiencies in my personal workflows, and to gain a better understanding of the technology. The areas I’m exploring, as well as the tools I’m using are listed below. If you have any suggestions, please share and I’ll include them in my next newsletter. (Note: the examples shown were inspired by the passing of SCTV legend Joe Flaherty).

Researching Stuff

Google is still the tool I use most for day-to-day research, despite the fact that search traffic is predicted to fall 25% by 2026 due to A.I. tools. I use ChatGPT-4 to supplement this research, especially when I’m familiar with the subject and can verify results. I’ve signed up for Liner which has a useful feature for summarizing webpages and PDFs (maybe I can use it for this newsletter?) Phind is another research tool with a more chat-like interface.

Summarizing Stuff

It is basically impossible to keep up with all of the podcasts, newsletters, and Substacks I’ve subscribed to. My current workflow entails scrolling and skimming across 40+ open Chrome tabs while listening to podcasts and videos at 1.5X. Not great. I’ve seen a few tools that summarize YouTube videos (Eightify), and convert articles you never get around to reading into audio summaries (Recast). I’ve downloaded a service called Tailor, which summarizes the news based on multiple sources.

Writing Stuff

I spoke with a senior marketing client yesterday and she mentioned that her in-house creative team has been hesitant to use A.I. to assist with copywriting. I get it, given that A.I. has led to a decrease in writing jobs. And as someone who writes regularly, it does feel a bit like cheating – like I’m not only outsourcing the writing, but also the thinking. Well, no more! I’m trying out QuillBot – an AI-powered paraphrasing tool. And by “trying out”, I mean that it has already smoothed out some rough edges in this newsletter.

Meeting & Notetaking

I’ve been part of many virtual meetings where an attendee pops up along with their virtual note-taker. At first it was a little disconcerting, so I do like the suggestion of providing attendees the option of a bot-free meeting. That being said, perhaps I can be more present and engaged in meetings if I am confident that an A.I. service is capturing all of the key points. While Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet have their own features, I’m going to give Otter.ai a try (Read and Fathom are a few other standalone apps). We’ll see how well it captures notes, including summaries and action items, and whether or not it bothers anyone (including me).

Making Presentations

I’ve come across a few A.I. tools intended to help create presentations that are technically impressive but practically useless (for now). I have a Kickframe template / design system that I use for my presentations, but occasionally find myself wasting an embarrassing amount of time trying to find the perfect image for a background or transition slide. I’ve been using DALL·E2 to create images with some success, and as of this week you can start editing the images it produces. I plan to use Canva’s A.I. features to see if they can make designing my next presentation run more smoothly.

Business Admin

Ah, administration. Kickframe Inc is a simple operation but when it comes to admin – it’s repetitive, I’m terrible at it, and I don’t enjoy it at all…. which makes it a perfect candidate for A.I. automation. I am on the waiting list for Lutra, which looks promising. They provide a number of use cases that could potentially save me time, such as researching a person or company via LinkedIn and organizing my expenses. I’ll give it a shot.

Fresh Research

  • 2024 Digital Media Trends (Deloitte): Great insights into how general media consumption is changing and how it differs across age groups. 60% of Gen Z watch UGC because they don’t have to spend time searching for something to watch vs. 15% for Boomers.

  • Loud & Clear (Spotify): Annual music econometrics report from Spotify that shows how streaming revenue is being distributed and how listeners are using the platform.

  • 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer (Tech Sector): Interesting focus on trust and the tech sector – how do will A.I. continue to advance if the level of trust that people have in A.I. companies is steadily declining?

Cool Beans

Digital Trends: 03.15.24

So, how will AI impact my job? It’s the question many are noodling these days. Some marketers and agency folks must have lost some sleep after reading Sam Altman’s prediction that AI will replace 95% of creative marketing work. Bloombury analyzed 5M freelance job listings and found that roles for writers and translators were eliminated most since the release of ChatGPT. To top it all off, Scott Galloway compared AI to Ozempic as a way for CEOs to stop their craving for hiring people.
 
Other marketers and businesses are opening their arms to AI, including Zoe Scaman who generously shared her early learnings from incorporating tools into her strategy work. Roger Martin has a great post on how AI is unbeatable at modelling an average way of doing something, so the real opportunity for an individual is to find an exceptional way of doing something to create value. From an organizational perspective, Ethan Mollick shares a few useful ways / questions to explore AI opportunities that are perfect for a workshop activity: What useful thing you do is no longer valuable? (Opportunities for Delegation) What impossible thing can you do now? (Opportunities for Innovation).

AI & Prompts

The AI tool that I use most is GPT-4, which has required me to figure out how to use prompts effectively (a work in progress, to be sure). A few companies are offering Prompt Engineers salaries of up to $335K, however some experts explain that the best resource for optimizing prompts for AI is ironically AI (now AI is coming for our AI jobs!) What else works for improving prompts? Well it turns out asking AI to Act Like Star Trek might help, as well as offering a tip for a good response. The most useful guide that I've found is actually from OpenAI, and Navreo recently posted a list of 100 ChatGPT prompts for Marketing Agencies which I’ve bookmarked.

AI & Tools

Most of my clients have been using AI tools for creative production work for a while now, but as a strategy consultant / trainer I’m keen on finding tools that fit with my work. For now, I use AI for ‘open’ work where I am gathering input and not ‘closed’ work where I’m making recommendations. It’s interesting to see new (paid) tools emerging that are designed for marketing planner / strategist-types including:

One (free) tool that is interesting to monkey around with is Globe Explorer (h/t Neil Perkin) which creates instant taxonomies relating to a specific topic. It’s a surprisingly useful format to learn about – or visually scan – a topic, and dig further.

It’s also interesting to check in on the GPT store from OpenAI for new tools. One new, popular tool is ‘SellMeThisPen’ which creates second-hand marketplace listings based on pictures uploaded by users. Just think about all of these simple, repetitive tasks that people and businesses face that can be delegated to a custom GPT.
 
Adobe also recently launched a beta version of an AI Assistant for Acrobat that allows users to essentially query a document. It feels like everyone will start using such agents to ‘search this for me' or 'summarize this for me.’ The flip-side opportunity for such agents is to provide one based on your own proprietary documentation. The San Francisco Chronicle just launched a ‘Chowbot’ based on its database of local restaurant reviews.

AI & Oddities

Ever wanted to….
….speak to a chatbot of deceased Velvet Underground co-founder Lou Reed? I got you.
…create an app without coding? Learn from someone who built an app that points to the centre of the galaxy using only ChatGPT.
…instantly create a new song? Now you can by just entering a few text prompts into Suno AI. Do yourself a favour and crank the volume for The Kickframe Hustle.

Digital Trends: 03.01.24

I’m old enough to remember trying to describe the internet to those who hadn’t seen or used it before. Looking back, the metaphors that I used often made things more confusing (WTF is an information superhighway?) The same challenge exists now with AI. This piece on how metaphors can shape our use of AI is interesting – do we use AI the same way if we refer to it as a 'partner' or an 'assistant'? This post also has a helpful list of considerations for how we might describe (and therefore mentally frame) AI: is it a ‘tool’ or a ‘being’? IBM recently posted a resource that clearly delineates between AI concepts that are often used interchangeably (e.g., deep learning vs. machine learning). If you’re struggling to understand AI, know that you’re not alone “AI is a suitcase word. It’s incredibly complex, ever-changing, and there is still a lot we don’t know….You’re not “not getting it”.

AI & Video

OpenAI recently teased its new text-to-video model called Sora that generates videos up to a minute long that appear incredibly realistic. Sam Altman (as a highly effective PR tactic) invited people to suggest prompts via Twitter / X and shared the Sora results - I’m sure you saw these flooding your feeds. It’s mind-boggling to see such vivid outputs – which further fuel concerns around deepfakes and IP. If you’re interested in the implications of this new technology, I invite you to enter the rabbit hold that is Reddit and you will not be disappointed (fav comment: “one day you can just write to Sora -> "Make a Hitchcock film similar to Psycho but with penguins and have it last for an hour. You will literally be the creator of your own entertainment”). From a marketing perspective, I know a few agencies that have been using these types of tools for storyboarding – it will be interesting to see how Sora impacts production work.

AI & Meetings

A few weeks ago, I jumped on a Zoom with someone I hadn’t met yet. They had their camera off, recording on, and an AI Notetaking app ‘attending’. I felt like I unknowingly stepped into a virtual recording studio. That’s why I love the suggestion made in this post about providing disclaimers in meeting invitations – attendees can request a “bot-free” meeting. We're all going to be using more of these types of tools, particularly for internal collaboration - the benefits are clear and tangible. Slack has announced the release of Slack AI that recaps channels and summarizes threads. Tools like Otter, Fathom, and Read can be used to capture and summarize notes – and can even let you know if you’re talking too much.

AI & Marketing

Marketers are starting to experiment with different applications of AI for new advertising campaigns and digital services. A few that caught my eye:

  • Ikea: Launched an AI-assistant in the GPT store that helps customers plan product purchases.

  • Rembrand: Influencers / content creators can use a new AI tool to insert product placements onto walls in their TikTok and YouTube videos.

  • GuacAImole: A set of AI tools from Avocados from Mexico to help you level up your guacamole game.

  • Trivago: Since the old Trivago Guy hit a rough patch, he’s been replaced by a new actor voiced by AI – translated into 20 languages.

  • BodyArmour: Created a Superbowl ad that pokes fun at shitty AI-generated video called Field of Fake.

It’s easy to dunk on these early initiatives like a nacho chip into a fresh bowl of AI-powered guacamole, but these brand teams are learning by doing and gaining valuable experience early in the game.

Vision Pro & Culture

I haven’t tried Apple’s Vision Pro yet, but I’m keen. The early reviews from a technical perspective have been quite positive, however some owners are returning their devices due to headaches and lack of use. It will be interesting to see how these devices fit within broader culture, as everyone has been so quick to shame users for wearing their devices in public. One interesting use case is shopping (or at least browsing) – fun to see how these brands have created mixed-reality shopping experiences. Another use case is in-flight entertainment, which a Maldivian airline announced it will be offering. I’m on an early flight tomorrow morning, and I better not be sitting next to someone pinching and zooming for 4 hours. I’d rather sit next to a mime.

Digital Trends: 02.01.24

Most of the popular use cases for generative AI in marketing today involve producing creative assets efficiently at scale. But how can AI help with marketing planning? Tom Roach recently shared how his agency is using AI today, including examples of using a model for customer segmentation. He also highlights a new tool called Briefly that promises to help create marketing briefs using AI (and you thought copywriters were the only ones worried about their agency jobs?!) - I’m on the waiting list.

Microsoft recently released the New Future of Work Report that focuses on the impact of AI on different modes of work. One concept that is relevant to marketing planning is their reframing of LLM tools as ‘‘provocateurs” that promote critical thinking vs. “co-pilots” for basic, repetitive tasks (see page 9). A “provocateur” AI system (or use of system) would challenge assumptions and offer counterarguments - potentially helpful for upstream strategic planning. 

I continue to monkey around with different AI tools to try and better understand the technology and its potential applications. One AI use case that is relevant for research and planning is classification: organizing data for better understanding. I came across a cool GPT called Diagrams: Show Me that classifies and visualizes information into diagrams, like mind-maps. It’s a simple example of how AI might help a planner to organize, present, and see new patterns in a data set. For example, since yesterday was the NBA trade deadline, and now there is no one left from my beloved 2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors on the team (no offence Chris Boucher!) I tried a few Raptor-focused prompts using the tool. It was interesting to see how the model interpreted more qualitative categories like, well, "organize by quality".

It will be interesting to see if / how these bespoke GPTs and AI tools gain traction. It feels like most of these will become features integrated within larger products and platforms. Below are a few new AI features launched recently by the big guys:

  • Amazon Shopping Companion: Amazon has launched a new chatbot called Rufus that will answer questions about products, make comparisons, provide suggestions.

  • Google Maps AI: In a similar vein, Google is rolling out an AI-powered feature within maps that provides users with recommendations based largely on input from its 300 million contributors.

  • Gemini & Google Ads: Google will use its new AI model (Gemini) to help people to create and manage Google Ad campaigns using conversational prompts, which could make Google Ads more accessible to small businesses and DIY marketers.

Fresh Research & Reports

Shaping Thinking

Last year, I put together a quasi-periodic table of visual elements that can be used to help bring more clarity to presentations. Each box includes what I want to communicate (the client’s question that I want to answer) and a visual element to help me do so. As a trainer and consultant, I find that incorporating the right visuals into a presentation or workshop can help me explain things more clearly, structure sessions more effectively, direct the attention of participants, and ultimately influence outputs. If you’re looking for frameworks top help shape thinking, check out the Kickframe Toolbox with over 55 editable templates to download :-)

Digital Trends: 01.15.24

I’m working on a new training webinar focused on AI and marketing. And by working on it, I mean I haven’t started it yet but feel so stressed about telling you that I now need to do it #productivityhack. Seriously, if you’re a marketer and have a specific question about AI please reply back and let me know what’s on your mind. It’s tricky to wrap your arms around this topic, so knowing your interests will help me focus. More to come.

General, Generative AI Weirdness

They’re here. After years of warnings about deepfakes, they’re now all over the place and the Canadian government is trying to take steps to combat them for the upcoming elections – even recommending that people watch debates live. From an advertising perspective, Meta is now requiring those running political ads to disclose if ads have been digitally altered, which I doubt will make much of a difference.
 
If you’re skeptical about deepfakes, try HeyGen and see how powerful and accessible these tools are. I’m not sure about the ethics of deepfaking yourself, but I gave it a go. Here’s my avatar reciting the climax of a classic children’s story.

Gen AI continues to be used to create art based on the works of existing artists. Dudesy recently released a bizarre AI-generated comedy special impersonating George Carlin (‘I’m Glad I’m Dead’) much to the dismay of his daughter. AI was also used to ‘complete’ Keith Haring’s Unfinished Painting raising ethical and intellectual property concerns (Note: I went to the Keith Haring AGO exhibit with my non-AI generated daughter and it was amazing).

I’ve also been tinkering around with the new ChatGPT Store – OpenAI’s equivalent of Apples’ App store. Currently only users with a paid tier can use and create GPTs. The most popular GPTs seem to be for research and graphic design. Another popular category is apparently AI Girlfriends which have potentially disturbing implications. My Stratbot GPT only recommends marketing planning frameworks – sorry fellas!
 
If you’re thinking of building your own GPT, this resource from the Nielsen Norman Group has a really useful breakdown of different types of chatbot experiences.

Cool Beans

  • Peloton & TikTok: Peloton shares surge 15% as it partners with TikTok to offer short-form fitness classes. I’ll invest in any stock that gets me off a stationary bike faster.

  • Circle to Search: Cool, smart UX enhancement from Google – allows users to use their finger to circle something on their phone and have Google look up information about it without switching apps.

  • Apple Vision Pro: The Apple headset is launching in February and experts are grappling with the most interesting question – how does it fit into the real world? For a more narrow use case, check out these Smart Binoculars that identify the birds you’re looking at.

  • Pre-Internet Times: I don’t know what's funnier – that young people are interested in what life was like before the Internet, or the captions in this article describing earnestly how pay phones and Yellow Pages worked.

Evolution of the Web

Speaking of nostalgia, remember when the web was weird? Early users visited many different websites and regularly stumbled across bizarre blogs and niche communities – without guidance from an algorithm. Websites also looked very different, as everyone was experimenting with the form and not uniformly optimizing for Google. People could more freely express themselves in new semi-public ways.
 
It seems like some folks are longing for these times, and curating resources to help people serendipitously wander the web - like Youtune that shows original songs posted on Youtube with relatively few views, and Scrubstrack that takes you to random Substack newsletters (see more ways to escape the algorithm here).

Fresh Reports

  • 2024 Creative Playbook (Recess): A super useful / fun collection of tips, tools, and resources collected from 30 different creatives and strategists. I’ve already bookmarked a few of the free online tools included in here.

  • B2B Sales Gap Report (Publicis Sapient): If you’re a B2B marketer looking to make your case for more funding for digital, this report is your friend. Survey results show the importance of a strong website for corporate buyers.

  • 2024 State of Email Newsletter (beehiiv): Recent data on email newsletters that is helpful for benchmarking metrics (and setting expectations).

  • 2024 Social Calendar (TikTok): If you’re still putting your social media / content calendar together for the year, this report from TikTok highlighting different cultural moments throughout the year is a handy input.

  • Media Universe Map (Evan Shapiro): An amazing chart that illustrates the size / value of different media companies and properties. Really puts the scale of the large tech companies (Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft) in perspective.

Digital Trends: 01.01.24

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are off to a great start to 2024. I had a fantastic break (thanks for asking!) but now my brain feels like an old hard drive in the middle of a cold reboot. Please excuse any typos. My last newsletter of 2023 included a list of the trend decks I found most useful. For this newsletter, I’ve included a few more – some looking forward, and others looking back.

Looking Forward

I love this use case for ChatGPT – uploading a bunch of trend decks and prompting ChatGPT to synthesize the predictions. Here are a few other trends I found interesting, synthesized the old-fashioned way:

Looking BackwarD

Google, Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all released reports on the most popular searches and content on their platforms in 2023. Here are a few more ‘in-the-weeds’ reports on how we spent our time online last year:

  • iPhone Apps: The most popular iPhone apps in the U.S. were a bit of a surprise to me: Top Free =Temu (Retail), Top Paid Paid=Shadowrocket (VPN), Top free Game: MONOPOLY GO! Interesting to see how the lists differ between iPhone (more utilities) and iPad (more streaming).

  • Wikipedia Pages: While the most read page on the platform was predictably ChatGPT, the 3rd was 2023 Cricket World Cup, and the 4th was Indian Premier League. A good reminder that it’s a global platform.

  • Netflix Viewing: Netflix responded to pressure to be more transparent about viewership and published its first Engagement Report. Chart toppers include The Night Agent, Ginny & Georgia, and a bunch of others I haven’t watched or heard of.

  • Best Memes: This is a fun scroll through 2023 via the most popular memes that graced our social feeds. The smirk / shrug Kevin James meme still gets me.

Useful Reads

  • The End of the ‘Digital Agency’?: WSJ article that explores how generalist digital agencies are struggling in the face of automation, in-house models, and specialized freelancers. Should agencies and marketers drop the whole ‘digital’ term? I rambled on about this back in 2019.

  • Martech for 2024: No one writes about martech in a more clear or useful way than Scott Brinker. His new report is a great resource for any “non-techie” marketer trying to better understand recent trends in marketing technology.

  • Reclaim Your Brain: Timely initiative from the Guardian on helping people to reduce excessive screen time. I just signed up for this email-based coaching program as this is on my New Year Resolution list.

  • The School of Good Services: A fantastic presentation by Lou Downe on the importance of great service design. I love her framing of bad services as ‘nouns’ and good services as ‘verbs’; “when we think about services as verbs, they get bigger”.

Digital Trends: 12.15.23

It’s that time of the year when my inbox is filled with meetings rescheduled to January, Amazon gift order confirmations, and many, many marketing trend emails. So, in the spirit of the season, I have combed through these various trends / predictions and curated the resources that I found most useful - consider these your 12 Trend Decks of Christmas.

1. Year in Search (Google): A time capsule of what people searched in Canada and across the globe over the past year. Great for a quick snapshot of the zeitgeist of 2023, and how Canadian search interest differed from the rest of the world. For example, wau more Connor Bedard, Women’s World Cup and Quordle. Bonus trends from Google: A Year on YouTube.
 
2. Pinterest Predicts: Identifies trends based on the number of searches for different items and topics on Pinterest. Great for tracking how interest is surging for different consumer products and design trends. Highlight: Um...Jellyfish-inspired searches - Jellyfish haircut +615%, Jellyfish hat +220%, Jellyfish umbrella +195%.

3. What’s Next Trend Report (TikTok): Reviews trends and what’s driving engagement on the platform, as well as the benefits of marketing on TikTok. Great for getting up to speed on popular creators and creative formats. Highlight: TikTok is positioning itself against Google as a place to ‘discover’ vs. ‘search’; "44% of TikTok users came to the platform with a specific outcome in mind and ended up discovering something they didn’t intend to."

4. Think Forward (We Are Social): Explores very current cultural trends and the implications for social media marketing. Great for catching up on the people, topics, and hashtags driving social engagement today. Highlight: the #delulu movement (celebrating being intentionally delusional!) has over 4 billion views.

5. Global Consumer Trends (Mintel): Synthesizes Mintel data from around the world to identify five macro trends influencing consumer behaviour, along with what marketers can do about it. Great input for big picture brand planning. Highlight: ‘Relationship Renaissance’ – more people seeking new forms of real-life intimacy for physical and mental health.
 
6. Most Contagious Report: Reviews the events, advertising trends, and award-winning campaigns that captured the industry’s attention in 2023. Great for marketers to refresh themselves on the most successful (or rather contagious) creative campaigns for the year. Highlight: Research shows that putting ads on physical objects that don’t usually carry marketing messages can be more effective than traditional media.

7. Tech Trends 2024 (Deloitte): Comprehensive review of technology trends, including how Deloitte’s trend predictions have evolved over the last 10 years in the areas of interaction, information, and computation. Great for business leaders considering their technology roadmaps. Highlight: Eye-opening section on synthetic media, and how it is getting easier for bad actors to use AI tools to impersonate and deceive. Scary stuff.

8. Trends 2024 (Mindshare): Reviews 5 current trends impacting the media landscape, as well as the performance of Mindshare’s last 10 years of trend predictions. Great for marketers looking for a perspective on how digital media has changed, and what’s coming next. Highlight: Kudos to Mindshare for including their ‘missed’ trends – tech that didn’t catch on (e.g., iBeacons, Snapcash, and Smart Ink?!)

9. 2024 Trend Report (Trend Hunter): Very detailed report (I love this one) including specific trends with real-world examples, with smart workshop questions for readers to ponder. Great for anyone looking for some inspiration or fuel for an innovation-focused brainstorm: Highlight: Too many to choose from – give it a skim and I promise you’ll come away with a new product idea.
 
10. Reckoning with Reality (Foresight Factory): Reviews four macro trends (Humanity, Health, Sustainability, Belonging) and how they are playing out in the world today, including where they conflict (e.g., technology vs. ecology). Great as an input for macro-framing of a consumer market. Highlight: the business opportunity around serving people looking for more human connections (see above 'Relationship Renaissance') - 22% of US consumers believe the biggest drawback of AI is loss of human interaction.
 
11. AI, and everything else (Ben Evans): Annual presentation on macro strategic trends in the tech industry, this year with a focus on AI. Great for understanding and framing AI in smart, non-technical terms as we move from ‘this is cool!’ to ‘is this useful?’ Highlight: Reframing ChatGPT use more accurately from “answer to this question” to “what would an answer to this look like?”
 
12. Digital Trends 2024 (IMG): Review of digital marketing trends through the lens of sports and entertainment. Great for folks working in this space, as well as marketers investing in content and sponsorships. Highlight: Smart categorization of ‘not-so-social’ media platforms and how they best support different business and communication goals.

This will be my last newsletter of the year, so I’d like to thank all of you who have been reading, sharing, and replying back to say kind things along the way. I appreciate you and your support. Have a wonderful holiday.
 
Sincerely,
Tim

Digital Trends: 12.01.23

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:

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

Digital Trends

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.

Digital Trends: 11.15.23

OpenAI recently held their first developer conference, complete with a Steve Jobs-esque keynote from Sam Altman. Several changes and features were announced – by far the most interesting being the ability for users to create their own custom GPTs without any code. This capability is now available to ChatGPT Enterprise and Plus users, so I thought I’d give it a try.
 
I created a ChatGPT called Stratbot (strict copyright protection pending) based on The Kickframe Toolbox. I uploaded a PDF version of the website content and a CSV file with URL links to each framework. I then used a set of prompts (and many revisions) to configure the tool, instructing it what to do and how to behave. You can now ask Stratbot to recommend a framework for a specific marketing planning activity. Stratbot will then provide you with a recommended framework (from the Kickframe Toolbox), along with a description and link to download an editable version. If you have ChatGPT Plus, you can try it here. It works.

When I was creating the KickframeToolbox, I explored building a similar feature based on a complicated decision tree, but was deterred by the time and cost required (and a strong hunch that the chatbot would turn out to be perfectly terrible to use). Now I can create one that is 10X better in under an hour.
 

AI & Work

So, what does this all mean for marketers?

But don’t worry marketers, if the robots force us out of work – LinkedIn has created a new AI chatbot that will help us to find a new job!

Fresh Research

New Resources

Cool Beans

  • Google Map Updates: Google Maps has been updated to include ‘immersive views’ of routes, and a cool way for people on mobile to use Google Lens to scan their surroundings and find location-based information.

  • Humane AI Pin: A new device from former Apple execs that shows how we might use and interface with AI in a post-smartphone world. Make sure to watch the video.

  • Weird Gadgets from Temu: Temu is a discount Chinese retailer that sells some fairly bizarre items (if you haven’t heard of them, ask a teen). Here’s a review of some of their weirdest, with a cool quiz to test your knowledge (and imagination).

Digital Trends: 11.01.23

Have you ever opened up a Kickframe newsletter, and wondered who is writing this thing? This image pretty much sums it up - just add a laptop with 100 tabs open, a few more empty Starbucks cups, and a hoodie.

This image was created by my friend Carlos Garavito. He is an Executive Creative Director and AI artist. I’ve been setting aside time each week to learn more about AI, and speaking with people smarter than me about this stuff (which Carlos absolutely qualifies) has been the most helpful. I asked Carlos to share his advice to creatives who are interested in learning more about generative AI, and he generously provided this top 10 list:

  1. Educate Yourself: Invest the time to stay informed and up to date by reading up on the latest developments, following AI creatives on social media, and taking courses.

  2. Start Small & Experiment: Begin with a small project to figure out how generative AI works. It can feel unpredictable, but learning to guide AI effectively is part of the process.

  3. Understand the Tools: Explore different platforms (most offer free subscriptions) to find what suits your needs, and test and learn the different input parameters for your desired output.

  4. Collaborate & Network: Connect with other creatives online (and in workshops) exploring AI in their work. As an AI creator, I "live" on LinkedIn, posting daily with examples and prompts.

  5. Integrate AI into Your Workflow: Use AI as a tool to complement your creativity, not to replace it. It can handle repetitive tasks, allowing you more time to focus on the creative aspects of your work. It’s great for quick prototyping.

  6. Ethical Considerations: Ensure that AI-generated content is used ethically and does not infringe on copyrights. Be transparent about using AI, especially when sharing work publicly.

  7. Explore New Creative Avenues: Generative AI opens up new possibilities. Don’t be afraid to experiment with unconventional ideas and explore uncharted creative territories.

  8. Stay Positive & Open-Minded: The creative industry is constantly evolving (it always has). Stay positive and open to new technologies and ways of working.

  9. Balance Technology & Artistry: While technology is a powerful tool, the artistry and human touch in creative work remain irreplaceable. Strive to find the right balance.

  10. Feedback & Iteration: Share your AI-assisted creations with peers and mentors to get feedback, and use this as an input to refine how to integrate AI into your creative process more effectively.

Make sure to follow Carlos on LinkedIn if you’re interested in connecting and learning more.

Cool Beans

AI & Google

As more people use AI tools like ChatGPT, it’s safe to assume that certain types of searches and tasks will migrate from Google search. That’s why it’s fascinating to see how Google is combating this threat / embracing this technology with new features and innovations…like it’s Search Generative Experience. Google obviously has a long history of innovation (this is a great interactive timeline of its product milestones), and just announced a feature to create images within search results, and a tool to help kids with their math problems (and math-challenged parents like me to help my kids).

The implications of these changes will also have an impact on those companies relying on Google as a source of organic traffic, and many publishers are worried about having their articles summarized by Google instead of referring audiences. Google just released a new post on what AI can and can’t do for marketers that is worth a read.

Fresh Stats

  • Digital 2023 – October Statshot (We Are Social / Meltwater): 300+ slides on the latest global digital trends, including this nugget on the challenge brands currently face on FB “on average, a Facebook page with a million followers can only expect 400 users to engage with any of its posts, regardless of the post type.”

  • How People Can Create—and Destroy—Value with Generative AI (BCG): Study that shows the impact of generative AI on creative ideation (good!) and business problem solving (not so good!)

  • Teen Survey (Piper Sandler): Semi-annual survey on U.S. teen preferences – highlights the growth of fast food, mobile devices, and video games…basically everything that I nag my own teens about.

TikTok & Media

Speaking of teen trends, I recently saw my 13-year-old son on his phone while also watching a YouTube short (vertical video) on the TV. Aside from being another proud parenting moment, it reinforced to me new media habits (and advertising canvases). Many Gen Z and Millennials are now watching full shows and movies on TikTok, and Adam McKay is producing a new made-for-TikTok show that will be shot entirely vertically.

TikTok has also  announced that it now offering Out of Home media, and has partnered with DIVE Billboards bring this new media format to Canada. Out of Home is now Out of Phone.

Digital Trends: 10.15.23

I’ve a big believer that to understand a new technology you really need to use it. I’m making time to trial new AI tools to get a better sense of how they work and how they might benefit marketers. Next up, AI video generation for business (HeyGen).

Fixing the Internet

Is the Internet broken? If so, can it be fixed? This question is gaining traction, fueled by X / Twitter becoming a hellscape. Some writers point to the adoption of an advertising over subscription model as the original sin, and others point to dark patterns from online advertising as the main culprit. But maybe the Internet is irreparably broken because it is impossible to moderate social media (where we spend the majority of our time). This quote from Yoel Roth gave me pause as he framed this as a people problem, not a technology one:
 
“Humans were never meant to exist in a society that contains 2 billion individuals, and if you consider that Instagram is a society in some twisted definition, we have tasked a company with governing a society bigger than any that has ever existed in the course of human history. Of course, they’re going to fail.”
 
This MIT article zags by arguing that the solution is MORE Internet – specifically new, smaller, distributed spaces. But maybe we need to go back to an older model: Substack is promising to bring blogging back! I realize this goes against the current of small, algorithmically-fed video stories – but maybe that’s the point.

Fixing Media & Advertising

The WFA released survey results on the future of media agency models, and it ain’t pretty:

  • 11% of respondents believe their current agency model fits their future needs, while 24% believe it is unfit for future purpose.

  • 92% of respondents believe that speed and agility are important, but just 31% are satisfied with how their agency delivers in this area.

The 800-pound gorilla on the media agency horizon is AI, and how it might replace planning and buying. The challenge for agencies is to determine what repetitive work can be done more efficiently with AI, to focus more on strategic council and innovation opportunities. I really like this framing from Peter Buckley of the promise of AI (guided by an excellent media team, of course) and how we are moving toward buying Outcomes (vs. Space or Audiences).

Speaking of framing, it’s always interesting to see how platforms / publishers position themselves to advertisers. Pinterest is now pitching itself as a full-funnel platform with a clever differentiator given where we are with social media toxicity in 2023: “There’s no confrontation, news or drama. Pinterest is about ideas – not opinions.” Meta and Google are both heavily promoting their new generative AI tools.

Fresh Decks & Research

Smart Reads

  • Research vs Making Culture: Matt Klein from Reddit argues that brands should take a more active role in engaging with communities to help support and actively shape culture vs. passively study it.

  • What makes the perfect creative brief?: Ian Leslie with some smart thinking (and a fantastic Aretha Franklin reference) on what makes a great brief, and how you can use them to guide your own work and career.

  • Unbundling AI (Ben Evans): Smart read (as always) on ChatGPT being a black box / blank slate, and the need for new, single-use case products / interfaces to drive adoption and utility for people.

  • 10 rules of IP brands: Ana Andjelic with smart framing of how IP-driven brands grow; “Their creative model is entertainment and customer management is fandom.”

Cool Beans

  • Nike Virtual-To-IRL Shoes: Very cool-beans case of Nike rewarding members of its .SWOOSH community who own a Nike Our Force 1 NFT with an opportunity to buy an exclusive physical sneaker.

  • Meta Glassholes: Very not-so-cool-beans case of people walking around public spaces with wearing Meta AR Goggles and recording / sharing their experiences. Want a first-person view of getting slapped?

  • Nerfball: Who needs to sponsor a sport when you create your own? Hasbro has launched ‘Nerfball’ and is using college athletes to attract young audiences to it. Pro-tip: soak that nerf football and you can throw it a mile (or hit someone in the back and leave a water mark).

  • Rewind Pendant: A wearable that captures what you say and hear in the real world, then transcribes and stores it on your phone. The first promoted use case is “Forget what your spouse just asked you to pick up at the grocery store?” I’m intrigued…

Digital Trends: 10.01.23

Last week I delivered a training session on how to modernize your marketing briefs and briefings. In this session, I cover a concept that I call ‘Briefstorming’ (the trademark is available for sale). I was struggling to find a background visual for my presentation, so I turned to Bing Image Creator (powered by DALL·E 3) to create one: “cartoon picture of lightbulbs raining from the sky with lightning in the style of a keith herring”. It was a simple, little experiment that reinforced for me the importance of investing time in using these tools to understand their potential fit in my own work.

Following that thread, there’s lots to keep up with in the world of generative AI:
 
AI & Translation: New tools (like HeyGen) are being used not only to translate recorded voices to different languages, but bringing the promise of instant universal translation to life. Spotify is apparently exploring how it can use these tools to translate podcasts into different languages. I’m feeling better about my decision to drop French in Grade 10.
 
AI & Music: AI is expected to impact the music business significantly within the next year, bringing with it many concerns over copyright protections. Spotify will allow AI-made music that is not impersonating an existing artist (autotune is still permitted, unfortunately).
 
AI & Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots are becoming pervasive, and Meta is incorporating these tools across its products including celebrity versions including Snoop Dogg (has he ever turned down a sponsorship opportunity?) ChatGPT is becoming more current as it will access up to date information vs. the previous cut-off of September 2021.

AI & Images: OpenAI (ChatGPT) announced that it will be releasing text-to-image capabilities, and Getty Images is fighting back from having its images scraped by other models by releasing its own an AI-powered image generator that produces commercially safe outputs. My friend Carlos Garavito is a great follow on LinkedIn (and IRL) – he is sharing his own AI-powered images and prompts daily.

AI & Smart Reads: I’m admittedly still trying to get my head around AI….how it works, where it’s heading, and what it all means for marketers and businesses. I’ll continue to share the resources that I come across that I find helpful, here are a few:

Fresh Decks

  • The Cost of Dull: A few slides on a study being done by Peter Field (of Long / Short fame) and Adam Morgan (eatbigfish) on the cost of overly-rational advertising. Some good data points in here if you’re trying to convince someone to take a chance on more emotional creative.

  • Chaos in the FYP (OK COOL): Smart, fun deck on the latest trends driving engagement on TikTok. Lots of inspirational examples and practical tips for brands.

  • Gen X & Social Media (Wavemaker): Study of the social media habits of the Gen X audience that “is largely ignored by brands and the advertising industry”. As a proud Gen X-er slacker...whatever, I don’t care.

Cool Beans

  • Tinder is sponsoring a pop-up shop to help singles remove their old couples tattoos by turning them into new pieces of art.

  • Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses: Cool beans? We’ll see – but the reviews of the product are surprisingly positive. If this means that people standing in front of me at concerts will start recording video using their glasses instead of holding up their phones, I’m all in.

  • Lapse: A new social ‘disposable camera’ app that allows people to take 36 pictures within a group chat, and only view the pics after all have been taken. Fun idea.

Digital Trends: 09.15.23

AI & Marketing Workflow

Sure, AI will take over and destroy humanity, but in the meantime can it please help me with my work? I’ve been tinkering with various generative AI tools – all very interesting, but no great productivity gains yet. Ethan Mollick’s Substack is super helpful in this area – he has a great guide on experimenting with different tools (read the comments for more recommendations). As these tools become more integrated with the core applications I use, they’ll no doubt become more helpful. I’m keen to try Google’s AI chatbot which now integrates with Gmail, Docs, and Drive to access user information, not just the public web. Consulting companies are also trialing these tools, and a study shows that consultants that used AI finished completed tasks 25.1% more quickly and produced 40% higher quality results.

Some brands and agencies can’t help themselves when it comes to jumping on a new trend, even if it’s only to grab attention. Exhibit A: Coca-Cola launching a new flavour called Y3000 generated in part by AI. Exhibit B: La-Z-Boy launching The Decliner – an A.I. powered recliner that sends texts by pulling its handle. Not sure this is exactly what Alan Turing had in mind when he was putting in those late nights in the lab pioneering artificial intelligence.

Social Media Moves

Contagious has a good interview with social media vet Matt Navaro discussing the general shift from people sharing publicly on social media to sharing privately within messaging platforms. The large social platforms are responding to this shift, as TikTok is projected to be moving into messaging as is Clubhouse (remember them?) Private messaging is harder to monetize through advertising, so perhaps that’s why Twitter is exploring a subscription model as is Meta (Facebook / Instagram) in Europe.

So where does this leave marketers? More time / investment required to understand niche communities and how to add value. More focus on working with creators / influencers for presence within the feed and for creating content that has a chance to be shared within these private spaces.

First Party Data & Marketing

First-party data has been a hot topic for the last few years as marketers prepare for a world without cookies and investment in adtech / martech grows. Google recently shared that it will drop cookies in 2024, and replace it with user-tracking within Chrome (showing advertisers topics you are interested in based on the websites you visit). Companies continue to invest in acquiring first party data, like PepsiCo who increased data by 50% through tactics like rewards programs and giveaways. Accenture has shared an advertising playbook that highlights the importance for investing in people (i.e., those fleshy things with pulses) to work with this data, and Martech has a practical list of ways companies can unlock value from their data.

For a more nuanced take, this episode of The Overthinkers on first-party data is a good listen. From my experience, it often feels like companies are looking at hoovering up data as an end in itself. We need to spend more time establishing a clear view of the types of experiences we want to provide customers (and operate our businesses), and have that drive our data collection and investment planning.

Fresh Research

  • 2023 Global Mid-Year Forecast (GroupM): Global stats on media spend with a breakdown by channel: Digital and Retail Media up, Print and Out of Home down.

  • Digital Consumer Trends (Deloitte UK): Zooms in on personal technology use and highlights how people are keeping devices longer, subscribing to more services, and are generally skeptical about AI.

  • Creative CMO Report 2023 (Dentsu): Survey of 700 senior marketers that surfaces 8 different themes. Interesting to see marketers biggest concern for 2023 is ‘owning the customer relationship’, which aligns with this desire for more first-party data.

Smart Resources

  • The Multiplayer Brand (Zoe Scaman): Another thought-provoking (and beautifully designed) deck from Zoe Scaman on how brands need to facilitate next-generation customer participation in new ways.

  • The Future of Influence (We Are Social): Smart article / deck on how the influencer / creator space is evolving – from forming collectives to launching businesses outside of social platforms.

  • Web3 Marketing Case Studies (Paul Martin): Related to Web3, I just came across this awesome repository of modern marketing use cases (Nike, Starbucks, Adidas). Bookmarked!

Digital Trends: 09.01.23

AI is Everywhere

The current coverage of AI reminds me so much of the original coverage of the Web. Lots of writing on the “The Rise of”, The Age of”, “The Era of”, and the always popular “The Death of”. Here are a few AI items that spiced up my feed over the past few weeks:

  • Enterprise AI: OpenAI is now offering an enterprise product that allows businesses to train and use their own version of ChatGPT. Smaller, trainable generative AI tools for individuals are also launching (see ChatPDF).

 

  • Google Products: Google is in a great position to offer what these bespoke AI tools can’t, which is integration with its products. The company is launching a Google Meet feature that will take notes for you, and a Chrome feature that will summarize articles (which will either help me to write this newsletter, or make this newsletter totally obsolete…stay tuned!)

 

 

 

  • McKinseyGPT: The consultancy published new research on the state of AI in 2023, and a guide for CTOs. McKinsey is also shared that it has rolled out a new proprietary generative AI tool for its staff. If I was a consulting client, I’d wonder how my data was being used, how I would benefit from these new efficiencies, and if the nature of the advice that I am paying for is bespoke and not derivate of past work.

 

  • AI Companions: AI tools being framed as “companions” as opposed to “computers” or “chatbots”. Pi is an example of this new type of tool that promises to be a companion bot which becomes more personalized and helpful over time.

Brands & Clothing

One of my first clients ever was Molson Canada. I was working on a business case to build an online store for branded merchandise. The brand teams at the time wanted to move away from expensive in-case merchandise giveaways. So, I thought I was dreaming (or drinking?) when I saw that Molson was trying to acquire their own vintage branded merchandise for a new Drake-inspired giveaway. This is happening at a time when Tim Hortons has just launched a new merch shop, and McDonald’s is promoting a new clothing collaboration with Palace. A fun way to align brands with culture and nostalgia, while essentially turning customers into inexpensive media canvases.

TikTok & Commerce

TikTok just released a new Shopping Trend report. It has some useful case studies on how brands are using the platform to sell. I like this visualization on different cultural happenings – some fleeting, some lasting – that marketers can capitalize on.

This comes as more retailers are using TikTok to sell, with some small businesses going live. Creators (rather than brands) seem to have the advantage selling on TikTok due to perceived transparency and parasocial relationships with followers. Interesting to see TikTok rolling out search advertising for brands, as more people are using this feature. As the reach and influence of TikTok grows, more brands are looking to hire TikTok-specific agencies. I’m not surprised – at least in the short-term - as effective TikTok content is unique and specific to the platform.

Research & Resources

  • APG Skills Survey: The APG UK released a survey of planner-types and found that “understanding people” is the most important skill. Related, Roger Martin has a great post on what makes a great strategist (it’s not about intellectual brilliance...whew!)

  • Identity Century (Tracey Follows): A thought-provoking presentation / visual essay on the concept of identity, and how plurality of identity(ies) is the reality in 2023. Still digesting.

  • Top 10 Emerging Technologies (WEF): Study that covers tech well beyond marketing (e.g., flexible batteries, wearable plant sensors) though Generative AI is included. I like the impact framework that they use to evaluate / visualize the differences among technologies.

Cool Beans 

  • Photo Trends: Looking to take a photo and instantly turn it into AI art? Or would you rather go back in time and use a Nintendo DS for something more lo-fi?

  • Environmental Maps: Google is launching new APIs to incorporate solar, air quality, and pollen data layers on Google Maps to help companies make more environmentally friendly decisions.

  • Clock Songs: Another smart and creative digital project by The Pudding – this time (pun intended) it’s a website that plays a song with the exact time in the title. My kids will love this ;-)

Digital Trends: 08.01.23

I’ve been thinking a lot about social media recently. Where it’s going from a big picture perspective, and my own personal use. From a big picture perspective, all platforms are TikTok-ifying – an endless scroll of short videos algorithmically served to maximize time (and ad revenue) in app. From a personal perspective, it now feels purely like media consumption – not a social experience. It rarely feels like time well spent.
Which brings me to the latest battle in the social media platform wars. Meta has launched Threads to usurp the flailing Twitter. The platform grew dramatically, partly because it was so easy to sign-up. Brands are starting to post, however up to 70% of daily Threads users have started to leave. Casey Newton makes a strong case why Threads might still win, particularly given Elon Musk’s move to “rebrand” Twitter as X and to reinvent the platform as a super-app. We’ll see.

After using Threads a bit, I find the whole thing oddly depressing. A brand-new platform that looks and feels (intentionally) like another platform, which is trying to become exactly like another type of platform. Where is the innovation in business models, community governance, or experience design? I think this feeling of fatigue with conventional social media is what’s driving people to smaller, more distributed, private messaging platforms. Something new, not more of the same.

Gen Zzzzzzz

I find it tiresome (and kind of hilarious) how the marketing world continues to be so taken with Gen Z trends. It’s like we’re studying some alien species that has been cloned, so every creature thinks and acts the same way. Here’s a round-up of my favourite Gen Z insights from just the last 2 weeks:

How broad is that brush we’re painting with? Here’s a good POV from Bob Hoffman, reminding us that “There’s as much variation within generations as there is between generations.”

Fresh Decks

  • Consumer Trends (Dan Frommer): Excellent (and free!) 102-slide deck that covers everything from AI, weight-loss drugs, non-alcoholic beer, and the pandemic trends that ended up being contagious (too soon for COVID puns?)

  • Holiday Insights (Reddit): This summer is moving way too fast for me already, and the fact that Reddit has now posted research and insights for planning your next holiday campaign isn’t helping.

  • State of Travel 2023 (Skift): If you work in travel, bookmark this great resource. Skip to section 9 for the "digital" content – interesting perspective on Hopper successfully using gamification to drive bookings.

Cool Beans