Latest News from the World of Digital Marketing – August 2024 Part 2
Google introduces Gemini Live
During the presentation of the Google Pixel 9 family, Google not only unveiled its new flagship devices, such as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Pixel Watch 3 and the Pixel Buds Pro 2, but also surprised us with an arsenal of features based on artificial intelligence.
Among them, Gemini Live stands out, a tool that promises to revolutionize the way we interact with our devices and is positioned as a direct competitor to ChatGPT, the popular OpenAI platform.
What is Gemini Live
Gemini Live is Google’s most recent bet in the field of artificial intelligence. It is a generative AI-powered conversational assistant designed to give you a natural and fluid conversational experience.
Unlike traditional assistants like Google Assistant, this technology has been built from the ground up so you can interact with it in a more human and less robotic way, allowing you to talk to the AI as if you were conversing with another person.
This is a significant leap compared to what has been seen so far in the market, as it is not limited to responding to specific commands. Gemini Live can maintain an ongoing conversation, understand the context of questions and adapt to your needs.
How Google’s new conversational AI works
To activate Gemini Live, simply say “Hey Google” or press and hold the power button on your compatible device. From there, you can engage in a conversation with the assistant, asking it questions, asking it to perform tasks or simply chatting about any topic.
One of the most notable features is its ability to hold contextualized conversations. This means that it remembers what you have said previously and can refer to it in subsequent responses, making the interaction much more natural.
In addition, Gemini Live offers a number of advanced features that set it apart from other voice assistants, such as:
- Conversation transcription: You can review transcripts of your conversations with Gemini Live at any time, which is useful for remembering important information or simply reliving funny moments.
- Redirection: You can interrupt the AI at any time to change the subject or ask a new question, without having to wait for it to finish speaking.
- Integration with other apps: Gemini Live integrates with other Google apps, such as Keep, Tasks, YouTube Music and Calendar, to perform tasks such as adding items to shopping lists, playing music or checking your calendar without leaving the conversation.
- Project Astra: In the future, this AI will be integrated with Project Astra’s computer vision technology, which will allow you to use your phone’s camera to ask questions about real-world objects, such as identifying plants, translating text or looking up information about places of interest.
Where is Gemini Live available?
At the moment, Gemini Live is available on Android devices, although it is important to note that, to access all the features, you need a subscription to Gemini Advanced, which costs $20 per month (€21.99).
The feature is in English, but Google has already announced that more languages will be added in the near future, along with a version for iOS 18. By offering a natural and fluid conversational experience, along with a wide range of advanced features, this technology is positioned as a strong competitor against other conversational AIs.
Streaming
Netflix: from the screen to live experiences
Netflix has announced the opening of the first Netflix Houses, two innovative entertainment spaces that will open in 2025. One of these houses will be located at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania, while the other will be located in Galleria Dallas, Texas. These locations will offer visitors an immersive experience that will combine stores, restaurants and activities related to some of the platform’s most popular franchises, such as The Bridgertons, Stranger Things and The Squid Game.
Outside, the Netflix Houses will entice visitors with sculptures and murals of iconic Netflix characters, creating an environment that begins to captivate from before entering. Inside, activities will be designed to allow for a deep connection to the series. Attendees will be able to participate in dances set in the opulent settings of The Bridgertons or test their skills in competitions inspired by the challenges of The Squid Game.
These activities are not the only attractions. Restaurants will offer themed menus, allowing guests to sample food and beverages inspired by their favorite shows. From elegant The Bridgertons-style banquets to more contemporary and daring dishes that could come right out of Stranger Things, the dining offerings promise to be an integral part of the experience. In addition, stores in the Netflix Houses will sell exclusive merchandise. Fans will be able to purchase collectibles and one-of-a-kind items, such as Stranger Things Hellfire Club T-shirts, available only at these locations. This exclusive merchandise adds additional appeal for fans looking to take away a tangible souvenir of their experience.
An experience beyond the screen
The choice of King of Prussia Mall and Galleria Dallas as the first locations is no accident. Both are major malls that attract a large number of visitors and represent a diverse audience. With these locations, Netflix hopes to not only attract its existing subscribers, but also capture the attention of new fans who can discover the richness of its content through these immersive experiences.
Netflix has already had success with temporary live experiences, and is now looking to capitalize on that excitement by bringing these experiences to a more lasting environment. The Netflix Houses aim to provide a space where fans can experience stories in a completely new way, strengthening the bond between the platform and its subscribers.
Netflix Houses will be open to the public from 2025, marking a new way in which the platform’s content connects with viewers. These first openings in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas represent just the beginning of what could become a broader network of spaces dedicated to Netflix-style immersion and entertainment.
ecommerce
What do consumers demand from ecommerce?
Recent technological advances are affecting not only all economic sectors, but also the consumer habits of buyers, who are asking for solutions that allow them to simplify the purchasing process. This is demonstrated by the recent Packlink study, which specifically points out that 35% of Spaniards want formulas to be implemented to make payments more flexible in ecommerce.
This type of process makes it possible to simplify purchases by applying split payment systems, making it possible to acquire high-cost products that would otherwise involve a considerable economic effort for buyers.
Likewise, 26.6% expect biometric authentication to be implemented to log in and simplify payments, while 27.8% want stores to offer virtual assistants to improve customer service. In this way, consumers will be able to resolve any doubts or problems related to the purchasing process independently.
Overall satisfaction
In addition, 27% expect virtual reality to be implemented to test online products live, and 23.6% expect Artificial Intelligence to speed up delivery processes. However, despite the desire for all these improvements, Spaniards are generally happy with their online shopping, with 89.7% saying they are satisfied or very satisfied with their online experience.
“The continuous application of new technologies by ecommerce allows to improve the shopping process for consumers. In this sense, greater simplification can result in greater customer satisfaction and brand loyalty,” says Noelia Lázaro, Packlink’s marketing director.
Facebook Ads in 2024: is it worth it?
Facebook has been around for a long time. Despite being one of the pioneering social networks with more users in the world, the reality is that other platforms have been emerging that now give more play where there are more users connected, so wondering if it is really worth continuing to advertise on it is something totally logical.
The answer is yes, because even though it may seem to be overtaken by other new platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram, Youtube, WhatsApp and other more or less specific sites like Linkedin or niche sites for gamers and other groups, Facebook is one of the most valuable platforms due to the number of active users.
Don’t forget, Facebook is still the platform with the most users
There is no doubt that we should continue to think about Facebook for certain Ads campaigns, but obviously, many other aspects that determine the ROI of the ads take precedence.
This involves taking into account the type of business or brand itself, what our strategy can be in the campaigns themselves, if the ad format is ideal for a good response on Facebook, or even if the competition is very present, seasonality and many others that ultimately determine whether or not we should be on Facebook.
The challenge of dealing with Facebook: it’s very restrictive with data
However another factor is key, and that is that it also presents some drawbacks, as the restrictions for data usage are becoming very restrictive and sometimes creating or doing something on the platform becomes a real headache for those of us in the business.
While people are still converting on Facebook, the data that advertisers can collect from browsers and third parties has been significantly reduced. However, there are always strategies that are going to allow us to get our ads in front of our target audience, such as with Facebook’s Conversions API.
What does Meta focus on?
Meta will allow us to carry out our campaigns based on interests, not on intent, but its segmentation possibilities are so wide that it will offer us the possibility to segment to the maximum and obtain new potential customers.
In addition, its ad builder editor is also quite extensive, so the options for formatting, customization and creativities are more.
Meta Advantage and Advantage+
These are Facebook’s two features for AI-powered automated campaigns that aim to improve marketing results and make it easier for marketers and advertisers. The main difference between Advantage and Advantage+ is their process when creating campaigns
Advantage allows you to modify or touch some specific parameters (audience, text, budget, locations, etc.) and Advantage+ automates completely from scratch the creation of the campaign, where the algorithm has great freedom of choice of potential customers in advertising and shopping campaigns.
Is it worth using these new features for our Facebook campaigns?
Some Facebook reports state that Advantage+ is proven to significantly improve results. CPA by 17% and ROAS by 32% compared to traditional campaigns.
However, and although the data shows that it improves, we must be very aware of other aspects such as ensuring that the installation of the pixel is correctly installed and we must also keep up to date with the latest Facebook updates to avoid any new functionality that may affect both our shopping campaigns and ads.
Latest Tech and Digital Marketing Updates
📌A breakthrough for Spotify. They could not display pricing and subscription information for iOS because Apple forced them to use their internal payment system and thus take 30% commission. Now, they will be able to show pricing for their plans but still can’t put direct links to their website.
📌Google plans to improve Gemini like this: they want to add the “Deep Research” feature that will be reported from a few sources to give more reliable answers.
📌Groups of up to 32 people on TikTok. The platform’s new feature allows you to create chats with up to 32 friends. You will also be able to create custom stickers or save stickers created by others.
📌X launches Grok-2. The new AI model improves on the chatting, coding and reasoning capabilities of the previous Grok-1.5 model. What’s more, it is capable of generating images.
📌And Elon Musk breaks records at X. To show that “Space,” X’s live streaming feature, works flawlessly, he announced a conversation with Donald Trump. And although the platform had technical problems at the beginning, it has become the most listened to “Space,” with more than 250 million plays.
