In-between the non-stop election chat (plus the soon-to-be non stop sports chat, which I’m much more excited about) in the media, there has been plenty going on in the world of digital marketing.
Not least a ludicrous acquisition of BeReal which I refuse to dignify with analysis above the fold. Elsewhere however there is some interesting analysis of why and how politician elites are still glued to X, as well as LinkedIn scaling back targeting capabilities in the EU and what this means for us. Apple have also joined the AI party, at long last.
I’ll be back for more next week but will be scaling back updates a little over the next few weeks with a couple of summer breaks planned (and, let’s be frank, when LinkedIn scaling back targeting is major news we know that it’s a little bit on the quiet side).
Political Elites are still addicted to X
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) might have led to market value, share and user engagement declines; one thing that has not changed however is its importance in political discourse.
Despite initially scurrying over to Mastodon and Threads, it does seem that political elites and media professionals alike have flocked back to X, driven by its unique position in the venn diagram of influence, audience reach and discoverability.
To some extent this is resignation; X is cheaper in terms of CPMs and ad targeting lends itself well to political messaging. It’s an interesting case study in the weird relationship politics has with social media, where strategic presence – feeling like you should be there – outweighs what you might otherwise think. More in this interesting article from Notus.
LinkedIn tightening targeting capabilities in the EU following complaint
Interesting news from LinkedIn towers this week. Over the last 4-5 years the platform has grown into one of the outstanding paid social choices thanks to its mixture of targeting and reporting capabilities (and finally adopting some formats which were pretty standard elsewhere).
One of the features I’ve been most excited about and have utilised regularly has been related to group membership and activity. Alas however, good things must come to an end and, at least in the EU, this seems to be the case here.
It appears LinkedIn is concerned about a “misconception” that ads could be indirectly targeted based on “special categories of data” following a series of complaints. Either way, this feature isn’t available for campaigns targeting the EU any longer.
The takeaway? Well, firstly, obviously that – but also just to be mindful that while platforms add new features all the time, these can also be taken away; it’s critical that we’re ready to pivot as and when needed.
Apple brings ChatGPT to Siri
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is always a noteworthy event in the tech and digital world, and this year was no exception with the debut of ‘Apple Intelligence’ among other features.
Tim Cook announced a variety of Gen AI services during his keynote, including “Apple Intelligence” and a deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. As The Guardian puts it: “The new Siri will be able to function as an AI chatbot and receive written instructions, and also has the ability to take actions within apps based on voice prompts. “
This marks their first major play into Gen AI (at least in relation to faster-adopting competitors) and is consistent with the general mindset of waiting longer, but with a view to getting it right.
The firm also said it plans to also integrate Gemini in the future. Elon Musk has threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies following the news, with concerns around user and business privacy.
Further Reading
BeReal was acquired this week by video game and app developer Voodoo for c. €500 million, a frankly ludicrous amount from where I’m sat given the lack of mainstream cut-through to-date and overall market saturation.
WhatsApp is adding a new automated assistant feature which will enable businesses to chat with customers using AI.
There’s been a lot of rumblings and grumblings about Meta using social posts to train AI tools this week. Unless you live in the EU, you won’t be able to opt out of this – whatever Rafa Nadal might think.
A wild story did the rounds on Reddit this week, with a man who crunched the numbers and found out that having swiped right on 14,000 women, he received 14 matches. Though there may be more to this than meets the eye, with his behaviour decidedly botty.
That’s it! I’ll be back next week but then will be taking a little summer break, with normal service resuming in July.
As ever, if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate it if you shared this with your friends and colleagues.
If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!