Finished reading: The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers 📚

AI and the Complexity of Loss - blog.rinesi.com

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the more technical side of AI.

And a quote that extends beyond AI:

not aggressive enough — you use tame optimization algorithms in contexts where you could learn radically new processes through wildly more creative ones with nothing more at risk that a short-term drop in a dashboard only you and your manager care about.

Doing things “the way they’ve always been done” or “the way everyone else is doing them” usually means results a little less than before or others.

Take (acceptable) risks.

Apple Car is dead, meet Apple Robot?

With robotics, Apple could gain a bigger foothold in consumers’ homes and capitalize on advances in artificial intelligence. But it’s not yet clear what approach it might take. Though the robotic smart display is much further along than the mobile bot, it has been added and removed from the company’s product road map over the years, according to the people.

This makes more sense than the car project. And suggests confidence in their AI progress and plan. But feels theoretical at this point.

via Bloomberg

March’s job numbers are in:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, government, and construction.

via BLS

Audio. Always.

Podcasting deserves a larger role in media plans as opposed to “test and learn” experimental buys. 135 million Americans, 47% of persons 12+, are reached monthly.
…
Adopt agency media legend Arnie Semsky’s “5% solution” to podcasts: Allocate 5% of digital ad budgets to podcasts.

Why?

Among 18-34s, podcast reach is now as big as TV

&

Podcast 18-49 weekly reach is 80% of linear TV

&

Podcast female audience growth has been explosive

&

via Westwood One

retail media networks could be a driver for programmatic audio as the next essential advertising channel
…
A Million Ads global CRO Paul Kelly says audio enables retailers to deliver an audience-centric experience, focusing not just on who the audience is but also where they are in the life cycle of the purchase.

One of my rules for the year: audio always.

via Sounds Profitable

Anyone trying to garner attention these days is essentially a media entity. This means owned media channels are important (and I think will only become more important over the next few years).

One way to grow this capability is to Acquire media assets to grow your brand.

The marketing function of a company today demands the same or more of a media company.

Editorial blogs, professional-grade podcasts, YouTube channels, curated newsletters, pop culture social media.

Marketing today demands brand.

Build your brand on assets you control, distribute it via channels you don’t.

The AI search engine Perplexity is going to start testing ads

Related questions, which include links to sources, account for 40% of Perplexity’s queries. So Perplexity plans to add relevant, related brand-sponsored questions along with organic questions.

Since ads in AI engines hasn’t been cracked yet, it’ll be interesting to see how these fare. 🔮?

Plus it gives me an excuse to share this quote from the founder:

Ads are not evil. When ads are done right it’s amazing, and generative AI is going to help us build even better targeting.

Make better ads.

via Search Engine Land

A new brand is an empty vessel.

The meaning doesn’t come from the name or the logo, but from what you fill it up with.

Your drive. Your reason for existing. Your core belief. Your brand experience.

“Just Do It” means more than the strict definition those words when Nike is attached. Red Bull doesn’t literally give you wings. Buying an Apple doesn’t magically make you Think Different.

When we bring a brand to the world, it’s rare indeed that people are okay with it having nothing inside. The wrapper matters, but so does the experience within.

-Seth Godin

Your brand may be hollow when it lives only as a final design file, but it better not be when you launch. Just make sure to leave room for what your fans want to fill it with too.

The premise is that creators make content for a brand, but instead of living solely on social media channels, that content lives in 15- and 30-second spots on ad-supported streaming platforms.

Interesting concept. Creators scale up their reach, brands scale down their production.

Creators and AI (and their ethos) will increasingly become studios.

Ad meets word of mouth meets social proof meets celebrity endorsement.

And social media eats the world.

via Digiday

Social media is a major gatekeeper at this point—the other one is search—so if you’re building a strategy that would be reliant on social media, I would just ask that publisher “why?” given the fact that the rules of engagement can change on you immediately.

Don’t confuse channels of amplification and distribution for your foundation and infrastructure.

via The Daily podcast from eMarketer

Finished reading: The Wager by David Grann 📚

via the Future Forecast podcast:

Nowstalgia: hyperfast way of looking at nostalgia of things that didn’t happen decades ago but years or even months.

The nostalgia cycle is spinning so fast that the look back period is shortening to hypermodern history.

Or; the half life of attention (but not attention spans) is so short that the idea generation period has to compress to a point where sequels and building off the previous effort is the only viable option. It is impossible to both stay relevant and create from a blank slate each time.