COMING AT YOU THE WEEK OF 10.3.23
✨Storytime✨
In the late 90s, Pete Docter pitched a movie. A 30-year-old man starts seeing monsters that no one else can see. The monsters are at his job, his dates. He thinks he’s going crazy!
Then, he learns that the monsters are fears he never dealt with as a kid. And as he overcomes each fear, the monster that embodied it disappears. But he ends up becoming friends with the monsters, so the goodbyes are bittersweet.
Pixar and Pete Docter turned that storyline into Monsters, Inc.
The original pitch didn’t include Boo or Mike Wazowski. Pretty much no part of that OG storyline remained. But it did have two guiding principles that stayed true through all its iterations:
- “Monsters are real, and they scare kids for a living.”
- “The bittersweet goodbye you feel once a problem’—in this case, Sully’s quest to return Boo to her own world—‘has been solved.”
Ed Catmull shares this story in his book Creativity Inc. He says that Pixar’s successful directors “have learned from experience that there is a sweet spot between the known and the unknown where originality happens; the key is to be able to linger there without panicking.”
So don’t panic when you notice the unknowns today. Realize that originality comes after grappling with that.
🫡
Hayley
A BUMMER OF AN EMAIL SHOWS US WHAT MOTIVATES GOOGLE
During Google’s antitrust trial, Google basically said that they’ve increased ad auction prices when they needed more revenue. Now, we got access to an email from Google’s VP of Ad Products that shows how Google’s culture prioritizes revenue goals over what’s best for their users and customers—including advertisers and marketers.
GOOGLE INDEXED PEOPLE’S BARD CONVERSATIONS
If you aren’t an SEO-er, that means those conversations could show up in the results of a Google search. Turns out that when people made their Bard conversation shareable, it would create a link, and Google was indexing those links. But users thought only people they sent the link to could access the conversation. After a few days, Google fixed it up though.
CHATGPT CAN NOW SEE, HEAR, AND SPEAK
There are new voice and image capabilities in ChatGPT. OpenAI says these new tricks would let you “snap pictures of your fridge and pantry to figure out what’s for dinner (and ask follow up questions for a step by step recipe).” They know my needs.
You can also use voice to talk to ChatGPT in a back-and-forth conversation.
GOOGLE ANALYST SAYS LINKS ARE NO LONGER A TOP 3 RANKING FACTOR
Back in 2016 a Google strategist said that links referring to your site were one of Google’s top three Search ranking factors. Now, Gary Illyes says that’s no longer true.
YOUTUBE GLOBALLY LAUNCHES VIDEO VIEW CAMPAIGNS
Video view campaigns (VVC) uses AI to target audiences. And they’re compatible with in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts ad formats. Google says:
On average, VVC campaigns get up to 40% more views and 30% lower cost-per-view than in-stream skippable CPV campaigns.
META’S AI ASSISTANT IS COMING TO WHATSAPP, MESSENGER, AND INSTAGRAM
The AI chatbot coming to these Meta platforms will be a lot like the other AI chats we’ve used. Here are some highlights/differentiators:
- Meta is partnering with Microsoft Bing so real-time search can influence its answers
- They’ve created a bunch of characters that will be the “faces” of the chatbot depending on your conversation
- You can use it to generate images like in DALL-E
META CONSOLIDATED THEIR 11 AD OBJECTIVES INTO 6
The six new objectives are: sales, leads, engagement, app promotion, traffic and awareness. Starting in January 2024, you’ll no longer be able to duplicate or import campaigns, ad sets, and ads using the original objectives.
TIKTOK’S NEW VIRTUAL ASSISTANT HELPS YOU CREATE EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNS
Creative Assistant lives in the Creative Center and it can analyze data, offer suggestions, brainstorm ideas, and provide advice on the TikTok’s best practices.
YOUTUBE HAS NEW ANALYTICS OPTIONS
The new options help you understand how new vs returning viewers engage with your content. They also expanded their analytics cards.
MICROSOFT MADE IT EASIER FOR RETAILERS TO OFFER AD PLACEMENTS ON THEIR SITES AND APPS
Retail media lets brands get more exposure on a “digital shelf,” like getting a special endcap or in-aisle feature at a physical store. But it isn’t easy for retailers to offer these ads. Microsoft’s new Advertising Network for retail will give stores access to Microsoft’s pool of advertisers and agencies interested in retail media—along with other benefits.
OTHER UPDATES
You can now post on Artifact—the AI-powered news app made by Instagram’s co-founders
Reddit is removing the ability to opt-out of ad personalization
This tool lets you use ChatGPT directly in Google Sheets or Excel. For instance, you could use it to automatically generate product tags in a sheet that lists your products’ descriptions. This is pretty sweet!
A FEW TIPS FOR SETTING UP A BUDGET THAT WILL ENHANCE YOUR MARKETING (INSTEAD OF INHIBITING IT)
Olga shares five of these principles. For instance, she recommends keeping a separate budget line for high-performing campaigns/efforts. That way you can replenish funds on something that ended up working well without re-allocating budgets.
☕ PEET’S COFFEE PLANS ‘DISLOYALTY PROGRAM’ FOR NATIONAL COFFEE DAY
👄 SPOTIFY IS GOING TO CLONE PODCASTERS’ VOICES — AND TRANSLATE THEM TO OTHER LANGUAGES
🚗 WHY KIA’S CONFUSING LOGO IS PART OF A GROWING DESIGN TREND
🍟 HEINZ JUMPS ON TAYLOR SWIFT’S ‘SEEMINGLY RANCH’ MOMENT WITH NEW CONDIMENT
🧻 SUSTAINABLE TOILET PAPER COMPANY REIMAGINES WINNIE-THE-POOH’S HUNDRED ACRE WOOD WITHOUT THE TREES
Some of the links in my newsletters are affiliate links. So sometimes I get monies (aka dollary doos, aka sweet sweet dough) when you buy or sign up for some of the stuff I mention—at no extra cost to you.