Is Meta listening?

In early October I posted

Meta needs to ditch the horizontal ad placements and replace that asset bucket with one for 4:5 in the ad builder

Earlier today, when editing the “Right Column, Search Results” placement it now shows 1:1 as the recommended size (in the one account I’m in that I did this in, so YMMV).

The main Feeds placement bucket still says 1:1 recommended, but it looks like it’s trying to default to a 4:5 size in the preview pane. So change may be afoot there as well.

A crop and trim menu displays options for aspect ratios with 1:1 labeled as recommended

Commercials we shared at work recently:


Brands are empty vessels that get filled with meaning through actions and co-creation with customers. Money does not equal meaning.

To be solidly profitable, companies need some kind of competitive advantage…

But it might equally rest on a trusted brand and well-worn habits of making the right kind of decision, quickly. In other words, profitability can rest on shared values, goals and practices too.

An organisation…that has developed the right kind of culture, may well be more attractive to customers

Brand building is expensive in the short run and cheap in the long run.

via Tim Harford


YouTube is the most universally popular platform out there.

Everybody watches YouTube. All the different age groups have big numbers.

YouTube is the closest thing to a mass media platform we have these days.

via Behind the Numbers podcast


Hospitality: Would you like some cake?

Sales: Can I get some cake? It’s great cake. What kind can I get you?

Customer Service: How was your cake?

Marketing: Here’s your cake.


The pattern for breakthrough marketing:

Pick a side. Make enemies. Build a tribe.

via Bots Gone Wild


What happens to the trailing 9 pricing psychology trick in a world without pennies? (Rounding up is not a long term answer for customer happiness.)

$999 still works
but does $9.99 become $10 or $9.95?

Does the decision become a signal of profitability and pricing power by retailer?


Choosing manual control over algorithmic features (smart bidding, automated audience targeting, etc) in paid platforms is like choosing manually-controlled traffic lights over automated ones.

(Yes, I did sit at a manually-controlled one, because road work, earlier and it was painful.)


Foursquare’s MarsBot has been reborn as BeeBot (basically).

It sounds like a glimpse at the future of computing (ambient computing!). The interface is your headphones (AirPods get the name drop) and information is fed to you via your location (using AI (obvs)).

Audio augmented reality


The best marketing is rooted in listening