Some 62% of market researchers say their team is now using generative AI tools, up 23 percentage points from 2024, according to recent research from Market Research Institute International. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Discover how data-driven marketing boosts personalization, decision-making, and ROI with practical tips to get started. Read more. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Spotted in Boston, Month Friend represents a deliberate rejection of social media's obsession with performance and optimization. The service randomly pairs users for exactly one month, during which the pair exchanges daily messages guided by prompts ranging from mundane ("What's your favorite kind of soup?") to profound ("What are you most proud of?"). There's no swiping, no algorithmic matching, no endless scroll of content. Just two strangers committed to a month-long correspondence by email.Users can't choose their partner and must navigate whatever chemistry or lack thereof emerges from the pairing. As the concept's unnamed developers explain, "The closest feeling we'd like to replicate is those intense friendships you form at summer camp, where you're thrown together with a stranger and share everything with them, even though you're not quite sure if you really get along and never see each other again."TREND BITEMonth Friend explicitly acknowledges that it's "probably worse" by any measurable standard than existing social platforms. Which points to something marketers are increasingly recognizing: people are growing weary of hyper-optimized experiences where they feel a constant pressure to perform and rack up likes.The month-long commitment also creates artificial scarcity in an attention economy built on infinite choice. Whether this represents a viable business model or an art project masquerading as a social network remains unclear, but it signals a growing hunger for authentic digital experiences that prioritize depth over engagement metrics.
Creative professionals say they expect demand for video production, motion graphics, and creative strategy services to increase most, according to recent research. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Searchers--your potential customers among them--are no longer clicking through from search results to your webpages. Learn how to use answer engine optimization (AEO) to stay visible in zero-click search results. Read more. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
For its reopening after two years of renovations, Fotomuseum Winterthur recently created a satirical video claiming 'Switzerland is fake.' Working with JUNE Corporate Communications and AI artist Patrick Karpiczenko, the video featured AI-generated content that questioned Switzerland's authenticity and played with various disinformation tropes from mind control through yodeling to Swiss command of global finance.It's a clever marketing exercise tied to the museum's new exhibition, "The Lure of the Image How Images Seduce Online." The campaign's rapid-fire clips mimic disinformation tactics to make audiences question what they see online. As the museum says: "In a world of AI and fake news, it is more important than ever to scrutinize, actively reflect on and critically examine images."TREND BITEBy weaponizing the tools of misinformation to promote media literacy, Fotomuseum Winterthur taps into a deep cultural undercurrent: "What's real, and who decides?" As the tidal wave of synthetic content continues to swell (AI images, deepfakes, virtual influencers), Fake Switzerland reflects a growing need for clarity and critique. It also suggests a way for institutions to forge deeper, more meaningful relationships with their audiences invite them to question rather than simply consume.
