What happened in marketing: Youtube gets polls, Canva is more AI and X revamps ads platform.

This Week: Norway plans to increase minimum age for social media use, Youtube is IG & TikTok with polls and hyperlinked comments, Canva is more AI. 🍲

This week is packed with ton of weird and useful updates. I have delayed my worries about these updates to enjoy the Tyler, the creator releasing in next few hours. You can also do that but don’t skip this email. It’s got some gems in it!

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⌛️ Top 6 Updates of the Week

• Norway plans to increase minimum age for social media use from 13 to 15 and more. (HR)

• Meta and GoFundMe partner to streamline social media donations. (BW)

• YouTube adds real-time format filtering for analytics, poll stickers and more. (FC)

• X revamps advertising platform with new design and usage experience. (TV)

• Canva gets a list of new feature, upgraded GenAI image generator and more. (DO)

• Google Performance Max adds AI-powered video creation and asset testing. (GR)

Trending 🗞️

• Spotify is launching an ad exchange in partnership with The Trade Desk.  (PG)

• It’s Possible to Track Someone’s Personal Phone to an Abortion Clinic. And It’s Legal Too. (NS)

• Advertisers and publishers are mad about iPhone’s distraction control feature.  (callout)

• Chick-fil-A’s family streaming platform is here, The Play app for parents and kids to enjoy branded content with Chick-fil-A at home. (TV) 

• Amazon’s plan to fight Temu is to be the American Temu, a new cheaper platform launching soon. (EX)

• Penguin Random House adds an AI warning to its books’ copyright pages. (TC)

• LinkedIn launches social campaign ‘Know-How That Sticks’ targeting Gen-Z professionals.  (WK)

• Daze, another AI and social app for Gen-Z getting all the hype before the launch, Will it survive?

• Publicis Media dismisses dozens of US employees for RTO policy violations. (OA)

• LinkedIn confirms that ‘follower purge’ was just a bug that’s now resolved. (TC)

• WPP returns to sales growth but forecasts tough quarter ahead. (FT)

  • Financial Times shares, WPP has been outsmarted by Publicis. 

• Tesco abandons brand name in latest OOH campaign, using food to cleverly spell out the name. (VW)

• Bluesky, Twitter-competitor announces Series A funding and reaches 13M+ users. (MR)

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In partnership with Dash Hudson

What the Best Brands Are Doing on Social Media

1. Dash Hudson’s research shares A.P.C., GANNI and UGG are three brands that experiment with different formats, trends, and creator collaborations and see high Entertainment Scores on TikTok. 

   1. A.P.C. does product-focused content that matches the aesthetic. 

   2. GANNI uses camera angles and TikTok Text-on-video/POV format very frequently. 

   3. UGG’s content features many fashion and TikTok icons. Their recent social campaign for #UGG season uses a remix of Low by Flo Rida and T-Pain. It’s quite engaging. 

2. e.l.f. Cosmetics outperforms average video views on Youtube for beauty brands by 145%.

   1. Their campaigns are simply better. The recent campaigns “Divine Skintervention” and “Hairpin” music collaboration with Charlotte Rose Benjamin are good for long-term success on Youtube. 

3. For Brands: Compared to six months ago, YouTube Shorts video views have increased by 153%, suggesting that the short-form offering continues to gain traction. Meanwhile, On-Demand video views dropped by 15%.

4. Brands are starting to focus more on Instagram stories. 

   1. Dash Hudson shares, “Instagram Stories continue to be a powerful tool for engagement, as demonstrated by impressive reach (14.1K) and completion rates (92%) that are high regardless of follower count.”

* it’s free.

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• WordPress Drama: Matt Mullenweg claims WP Engine is trying to curtail his right to free speech. (TV)

• Havas net revenue declines by 0.5% in Q3 2024. (CG)

• Disney retakes top spot in Nielsen’s media distributor gauge as football hikes TV viewing in September. (NS)

• Havas Media’s first Shell campaign is under fire campaign, receiving more than 70 complaints for greenwashing. (AW)

• Tensions rise as WFA grapples with Musk’s lawsuit, splitting members.  (RT)

Also, Trending 💿

• Notion is building an email app with a productivity angle, launching early next year. (RW)

• Sam Altman replies ‘Fake news out of control’ to The Verge’s reporting on OpenAI’s Orion model launching by December. (VB)

• SKIMS launches new social campaign with Olivia Munn, actress and breast cancer survivor. (SR)

• Snapchat launches new fresh fall features and Halloween AR filters. (NR)

• Celebrity jet-tracking accounts have quietly disappeared from Threads and Instagram. (TH)

• LinkedIn fined $335 million in EU for tracking ads privacy breaches. (BG)

• Liquid Death delivers misfortune cookies at Chinese restaurants.  (BW)

• Anthony Edwards took lie detector test in new Adidas sneaker launch campaign. (TG)

• APA releases new client production report titled ‘What Clients Want From Advertising Production Today… And How They Can Get It’.  (read)

• Meta and Google face ‘big tech tax’ as Labor plans how to ensure media sustainability in Australia. (WD)

• Disney raises prices for Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN again. (MD)

• U.S. Fast-food chains are removing fresh onions from the products after McDonald’s E. Coli outbreak. (RT)

• Google’s AI overviews fail at 43% of finance-related searches. (GC)

• Russia leveraged hurricane disinformation to deepen U.S. divisions.  (PN)

• Peacock’s multiview feature is coming to election night coverage, ultimate brain rot with three different livestreams.  (TV)

• Snapchat testing a ‘Discover’ section under Creator Dashboard. (VE)

• TKO Group to acquire IMG, Professional Bull Riders and On Location from Endeavor for $3.25 billion. (DF)

TikTok 🎶 

• TikTok now allows users to make their favourite sounds public and available for use in CapCut. (NS)

• TikTok to stream an exclusive live Player Spotlight featuring Inter Miami CF captain, Lionel Messi. (NR)

• TikTok publishes third transparency report on content moderation in EU. (read)

• TikTok lawsuit reveals details about company’s plan to convince U.S. Lawmakers. (BN)

• Bytedance, TikTok-parent fires Intern who interfered with company’s AI tech. (NC)

• TikTok expands its STEM feed to 100% of adult users in the US. (NS)

• TikTok now allows you to mention people in your story. (BN)

• Wpromote named official badged TikTok partner. (LB)

• TikTok and UnitedMasters enter a multi-year agreement giving platform access to Independent artists’ music catalog and more. (TR)

• Gelato, local on-demand production platform integrates with TikTok Shop. (PW)

 Instagram & Threads 🗂️ 

• Instagram officially releases their annual Creators of Tomorrow list.  (TR)

• Instagram testing an AI expander tool for Stories. (AA)

• RIP to the Online gurus that advocated for not including brand logos in content. Adam Mosseri confirms including your own logo on a reel is ok. (MN)

• Threads rolls out Analytics on mobile. (AN)

• IG’s upcoming ‘Chains’ feature allows friends to add photos to the Chain post. (VT)

• Meta’s web guide to creating on Threads as a creator.  (view)

• Instagram showing on-screen tips for Reels ‘Why This Reels Stands Out’. (OD)

• Instagram showing AI Chatbots in the feed. (RT)

• Threads locked the accounts of WaPo users posting about Donald Trump praising Adolf Hitler. (ER)

• IG announces Halloween-Themed Activations. (ST)

• YouTube Exec Jake O’Leary joins Instagram as global head of marketing. (TR)

• Threads adds an overflow menu to its post composer. (CR)

  • The platform is also testing profile switching in post composer. 

• IG now shows a small link sticker in stories, redirecting viewers to threads post. (RT)

• Threads testing a new feature that allows users to import media from IG for threads posts. (AT)

Meta 😅

• Meta adds ‘automatic adjustments’ to ad accounts, raising concerns.  (BG)

• Meta to use facial recognition tech in fight against celebrity investment scam ads. (TG)

• Meta shares marketing insights from Restaurants Summit 2024. (VB)

• Meta releases AI model that can check other AI models’ work. (AR)

• Meta debuts slimmed-down Llama models for low-powered devices. (DR)

• Facebook introduces new feature allowing users to display follower count for social links. (RT)

• WhatsApp will soon let users add contacts from any device. (BT)

• WhatsApp expands private mentions feature for Status to all users. (ZH)

X (Twitter) 🪁

• X updates API pricing tiers and features + launches xAI API. (read) 

• Elon Musk's X seeks to steer lawsuits to conservative court in Texas. (FG)

• X will let you disable post swipe gestures once the feature launches. (DK)

• X working on a visible tab bar at the Botton during video playback in the iOS. (AP)

• X will soon be able to gift premium subscription on iOS. (LP)

• Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover triggered academic exodus, study suggests. (Psy)

• X adds new button in the post composer ‘Live’. (OD)

Youtube 🕹️

• Youtube adds channel-level ad category blocking controls. (ST)

• Youtube testing hyperlinked/blue search comments. (YT)

• YouTube announces new partnership and resources to expand media literacy education for teens. (BG)

• Youtube displaying hashtags on Shorts. (TR)

• Youtube shares details on their election integrity measures. (US)

• YouTube’s new MiniPlayer is now widely available to Mobile users. (AZ)

Google 🔦 

• Google tests video-enabled shopping ads in search results. (GJ)

• Google adds Travel Feeds in Search Ads. (GJ)

• Google Ads unveils Page-specific Assets for Pmax. (RT)

• New Google Trends SEO Documentation. (SL)

• Google search to drop sitelinks search box in November.  (SJ)

• Google Analytics adds new segment sharing feature. (SJ)

• Google recommending higher resolution favicons.  (KM)

• Google revises URL parameter best practices.  (SJ)

• Google Discover rolling out small design updates, new icons. (SK)

Agency News 

• Honor awards its $250M global media account to GroupM. (AT)

• Guinness hires Uncommon as US strategic and creative agency. (KL)

• Vax appoints Pablo as creative agency. (FG)

• VML reshuffles design capabilities under Brand Design offering. (JH)

• Dentus launches R&D lab in London. (BW)

• Stockland appoints Publicis’ Zenith as new media agency. (AN)

• LeoVegas Group names OMD UK as media planning and buying agency. (LG)

• IPG Mediabrands wins Amgen U.S. media review.  (MP) 

• The Shout Group unveils 5 new clients for FCB Shout. (LN)

• Cramer-Krasselt wins Media, social duties for MOD Pizza. (AD)

• Interpublic reports 2.9% revenue drop in Q3. (AD)

• Columbia appoints Creative Agency Adam&eveDDB.  (MD)

• Abercrombie & Kent Travel appoints Havas Media Network as its media planning and buying agency. (US)

• Bankwest appoints Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, Indie Agency. (FD)

• Buddy Media appointed to lead Cheval Collection’s global social media strategy. (MM)

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• 50,000feet acquires Long Dash, Communication firm. (FT)

• Gravity Global acquires VOCO, social media agency. (RB)

• R/GA EMEA partners with Moncler on launch of ‘The City of Genius’. (LB)

• BINANCE appoints ARK agency to global creative roster. (LB)

• Preacher, Independent agency opens new shop in Amsterdam. (CL)

• MONOPOLY LIFESIZED appoints One Green Bean as its UK Comms Agency. (HB)

• Minds + Assembly acquires HashtagHealth, social agency. (YT)

• THIS, plant-based meat brand appoints St Luke’s London as Creative AOR. 

• ANA names 2024-25 Board of Directors at Evolved 2024 Masters of Marketing Conference. (GH)

• Honda Motor Europe picks ‘Exposure’ agency for influencer marketing. (DF)

• Innocean Australia launches new media planning and buying capability. (BA)

• Zalando appoints Crossmedia as global strategic media partner. (LA)

• Henkel selects Hey Honey as global social AOR for Persil. (LJ)

• McCann Content Studios win Betty Crocker social media mandate in the Middle East. (CG)

• Little Caesars hires IPG’s Mediahub for US media. (AS)

Brands & Ads 🏓 

Best of the Week: Mischief US became creative AOR of Goldfish and launched new experimental campaign changing brand’s name to Chilean Sea Bass Crackers. 

• Heineken’s plan to win over Gen-Z with Boring Phone and Mode to make social gatherings enjoyable again.  (BG)

• Urban Outfitters launches ‘Happy LOLidays’ ad campaign with ‘UO Carol’. (NS)

• Guinness launches ‘Dancing Can’, a new take on brand’s nostalgic ‘Dancing Man’ 1994 ad.  (MC)

• Megan Thee Stallion is the star of True Religion’s 2024 Holiday Campaign ‘Where Holiday Wishes Come True’. (GR)

• John Hamm is back as face of SkipTheDishes in latest ad campaign ‘Shoulda' Skipped It’. (MJ)

• M&M partners with Kate Spade on new candy-inspired capsule collection. (FC)

• Dr Martens launches ‘The Great Reboot’ campaign and Wednesday Collaboration. (CL)

• Kleenex uses scrunched-up portraits to promote menthol-scented tissues. (CL)

• Fiverr launches new musical campaign ‘Nobody Cares’ promoting professional services over AI.  (MD)

• UK’s fighting knife crime campaign links youth service cuts to physical cuts.  (HJ) 

• e.l.f. Beauty launches new challenge ‘Dupe That’ to highlight FY 2024 Impact Report and references Gen-Z’s dupe culture. (MB)

• Fentimans’ brand character ‘Fentiman’ tells people deserve better in a new TV campaign. (UK)

• Adidas launches new campaigns part of ‘You Got This’ brand platform starring Patrick Mahomes, Aliyah Boston and Anthony Edwards . (TD)

• John Lewis Partnership unveils new Made By Care range designed by care-experience artist. (RB)

• Metro, Canadian Supermarket’s loyalty program campaign takes possible inspiration from SURREAL viral name campaign. (WD)

• Hanes’ plain and simple ads bring period under to the mainstream. (AW)

• Movember teams up with running app in emotional ‘call from a stranger’ film. (HJ)

• Droga5 introduces -196 beverage in UK with new zesty ad campaign starring a giant lemon and OOH with bold text. (AW)

• ASOS and THE Or agency launches ‘Inspired by’ ad campaign, it’s alright.  (BT)

• Papa Johns and Tabasco handing gamers free Call of Duty bundles. (MG)

• Chicken Licken celebrates tiny moments of personal triumph in latest ad campaign. (LB)

• Salomon’s new winter vibes campaign uses movement as a metaphor. (CA)

AI 🤨

• Claude AI can now use computer, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and 3.5 Haiku. (AS)

• Radio station in Poland replaces Journalists with AI. (BO)

• Haleon debuts AI-powered screener to make advertising more inclusive.  (DH)

• Razorfish unveils the Beta Lab and its suite of AI Tools.  (BW)

• OpenAI’s approach to AI and national security. (OA)

• Ideogram announces Canvas, an infinite creative board for organising, generating and editing images. (TC)

• OpenAI appoints Scott Schools as Chief Compliance Officer and Dr. Ronnie Chatterji as first Chief Economist. 

• Apple’s AI research finds significant weaknesses in reasoning abilities of LLMs. (PA) 

• OpenAI’s Whisper transcription tool has hallucination issues, researchers say. (RT)

• RunwayML introduces Act-One, generate expressive character performances using simple video inputs. (HJ)

• Character AI drama: George Floyd chatbots pop up on the platform. (DD)

• UK competition regulator to investigate Alphabet’s investment in Anthropic. (FD)

• Perplexity Pro gets a reasoning mode for multi-layered questions. (HJ)

• Former OpenAI researcher says the company broke copyright law. (SP)

Microsoft & LinkedIn

• Microsoft expands Copilot with new autonomous agents. (SJ)

• Microsoft introduces Super Resolution for the photo app on Copilot+ PCs.(AR)

• Microsoft releases their 2024 Global Diversity & Inclusion report.

• DoubleVerify extends media quality measurement on LinkedIn. (DV)

• Siemens and Microsoft scale industrial AI.

• LinkedIn publishes new blog on how the platform feed works. (read)

Marketing & AdTech 

• Fubo launches standalone premium subscription service. (BW)

• FOX announces major ad sales restructure. (AW)

• Japan Airlines unveils new global identity for international markets. (JF)

• Disney says it will hire a new C.E.O in early 2026. (AT)

• Salesforce unveils integrated e-commerce storefronts. (MT)

• Red Lobster appoints new CMO to usher in post-bankruptcy era. (MT)

• Charter plans streaming ad campaign in a bid to stem cord-cutting. (TR)

• Veritone announces divestiture of its media agency for up to $104 Million.  (AW)

• Twitch scraps developer badge from chat streams. (MH)

• HighTouch, the composable CDP announces new CTV ad solution. (NR)

• Contentful announces Elizabeth Maxson as CMO. (TN)

• Later, social media marketing platform launches new affiliate campaign capabilities and more. (TR)

• Top Australian agencies abandon Campaign Brief publication amid growing controversy. (KP)

• Taboola partners with National World, one of the UK’s largest regional publishers.  (BR)

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• Netflix unveils pop-up shop to support mental health charity Mind. (MT)

• YouGov adds audience activation function to profiles tool. (MB)

• NCsolutions and Amazon Ads partner to bring CPG insights to AMC and businesses. (EW)

• Waitrose ditches free newspaper vouchers for loyalty shoppers. (GG)

• Allbritton Journalism Institute names CRO, Brings Ads to Notus. (AK)

• 1440, news email startup history 4 million subscribers and launches first web product. (NS)

• Pinterest adds new update to remix collages, showing credits for the original creators. (TG)

• FTC blocks Tapestry’s $8.5B acquisition of Capri. (TC)

• Bloomberg Media debuts new weekend edition to fight churn on its 740k subscribers. (AW)

The Pulped; Market Data & Studies of the week

• Emotional ads boost brand pricing power by 40%, making customers more willing to pay a premium. Tracksuit’s research shares campaigns that unlock the ‘Emotion Effect’ are nearly three times as effective at generating "fame" (earned media and impressions) and increase the likelihood of ads being shared by 27%. (more)

• In a new UCLA survey, 39.2% of U.S. teens selected playing video games as their favorite activity over watching TV or movies (33.3%) or scrolling on social media (27.5%). (read)

• ChatGPT is the most used AI program, used by 72% of creators, followed by Canva AI, which is used by 24% of creators. (BT)

• Dentsu and GWI’s gaming research shares; While time spent with gaming is high, gaming spend remains low at under 5% of ad spend. Gamers who are aren’t has increased from 50 to 56%. 84% of 7-Eleven shoppers play games weekly.  (more)

• 79% of employees say AI saves them at least one to two hours a day, with 37% saving three to four hours. (YT)

• A new breed of global CMO that is more aligned with consumers when it comes to how our lives will look 5 to 10 years from now. When comparing CMOs’ survey responses to consumers’, this subset of 18% of CMOs has greater alignment with consumers’ visions of a transformed future. (Merkle report)

• TikTok delivers an average return on investment (ROI) that is 23x higher than what last-click models suggest. Over 50% of TikTok-driven revenue occurs in-store, a significantly higher proportion than other platforms. (data)

• EU consumers are cutting back on their non-essential spending, with apparel (-20%), snacks (-15%), and alcohol (-15%) seeing the largest net decreases across product categories. 73% reported higher prices for goods and services in the first half of 2024, leading them to cut spending on non-essentials. (BCG)

• In 45% of U.S. opposite-sex marriages, the wife earns as much or more than her husband, a share that has roughly tripled over the past 50 years.  (read)

• In a recent Cosmopolitan UK sex survey, 69% of readers said that you don’t have casual sex, and yet many of them shared they do have regular sex with people you know. (more)

• A study by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) has reported a 62% increase in the number of clients requesting prenuptial agreements. More than half of the attorneys surveyed in the AAML study cited Millennials as the driver of those requests.  (more)

• In Q3, the growth of Amazon Sponsored Products nearly doubled to 15%, compared to 8% in the previous quarter. Facebook spend growth edged up from 4% in the second quarter to 5% in Q3, Meta growth slowed overall as Instagram spend rose 14% in Q3 compared to 24% in Q2. Meanwhile Google ad growth slowed across both search and YouTube in the third quarter, as each ran up against tougher year-ago comparisons heading into the back half of the year. (Tinuiti) 

• Chime’s research reveals what Americans prefer for social shopping: Facebook Marketplace (49%) and TikTok Shop (41%) top the list for deliberate purchases, while Facebook (32%) and Instagram (19%) are favored for casual browsing. (more)

• New research studying lockdowns’ impact on socioeconomic behaviour. The Authors share, “We found that those exposed to the lockdown were significantly more likely to trust others – they were 5.2 percentage points more likely to send money in the trust game; were 6.4 percentage points more likely to report honest answers in the lying game; and scored 1.3 points lower in the creativity game.”

• Another study shares superhero films can promote prosocial behaviour. (RT)

• VISA publishes their State of Scams: Fall 2024 Biannual Threats report: The report states ransomware attack attempts on businesses decreased by 12.3% during the reporting period, attacks on third-party providers such as cloud or web hosting services increased by 24%, representing an increasing number of fraud cases per attack.   (read) 

• 85% of young respondents are at least moderately worried, with about 58% "very or extremely worried," about climate change and its effects. 38% said their feelings about climate change were interfering with their daily lives. (AX)

• 99% of retail executives in the U.S., UK and Germany think third-party selling is the best model to weather economic volatility, and three out of every four respondents said it’s vital to their company growth.  (read)

• On average, consumers plan to spend $771 on holiday shopping this year, which is 2% higher than last year’s spending intentions, but still 2% below their plans in 2021.  (BP)

• L'Oreal third quarter sales disappoint as China spends less on beauty.  (UT)

• 34% of car dealership shoppers in the USA are interested in information about hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric cars. (more)

• Between January 2020 and September 2024, the price of day care and preschool rose about 22%.  (US)

• Canadian brands outpace U.K. brands for first time. (ST)

• 49% of consumers expect to increase their holiday spending. Notably, those households earning between $50,000 and $99,000 anticipate raising their spending by 10%. (KPMG)

• UK Insurance sector sees surge in consumer brand love, these brands have moved up on the list of Top 100 Most Loved: Aviva and Howden, soaring an impressive 69 and 34 places since last year, respectively. Other notable improvements include Mustard (+41) and 1st Central (+30). (read)

• 58.6% of Gen Z renters nationwide are rent burdened, though 60.2% of Millennials experienced rent burden at the same age. (Zillow)

• Gen Z has an average mortgage payment of $1,882 each month, while baby boomers pay even less: $1,724 monthly as of June 2024. (Experian)

• X/Twitter’s profit in India plummets 89.56 % in FY24. (BE)

MarTech Finds & AI

• Panopto - The AI-powered video management solution for marketers.

• Aytm - The agile consumer insights platform. 

• Chatfuel - AI agents for creators and social marketers . 

• illuma - A Contextual-AI advertising platform for brands and agencies.

• Browse AI - A tool to extract and monitor data from any website. 

Content Opportunities / Ideas of the week 

• 28 October: International Animation Day / Czech Independence Day / Wild Foods Day / National Chocolate Day / National Immigrants Day / Plush Animal Lover’s Day / National First Responders Day.

• 29 October:  World Stroke Day / RSPB Feed the Birds Day / World Psoriasis Day / International Day of Care and Support / National Cat Day / National Internet Day / National Oatmeal Day. 

• 30 October: National Candy Corn Day / National Checklist Day / National Publicist Day / National Wicked Day / National Test Your Ex Day / Haunted Refrigerator Night / My Birthday.

• 31 October: Diwali / National Reformation Day / Girl Scout Founder’s Day / National Unity Day / World Cities Day / National Magic Day / Halloween / World Savings Day. 

• 1 November: All Saints Day / World Vegan Day / National Calzone Day / National Vinegar Day / Autistics Speaking Day / Fountain Pen Day / National Jersey Day / International Pet Groomer Appreciation Day / National Family Literacy Day / Extra Mile Day / National Brush Day / National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month begins. 

• 2 November: World Numbat Day / National Bison Day / All Souls’  Day / National Ohio Day / National Deviled Egg Day / National Broadcast Traffic Professionals Day / Look for Circles Day / Traffic Directors Day.

• 3 November: National Sandwich Day / Zero Tasking Day / Japanese Culture Day / National Homemaker Day / Give Someone a Dollar Day / National Accessory Day / World Jellyfish Day / National Housewife Day / Cliché Day.