This, to me, is the evolution of search.

The search engine naturally becomes a task execution engine—or a Task Rabbit engine—where you can search for something, have it do that thing for you, and never have to go do it yourself.

-Kieran Flanagan

Kipp Bodnar adds that this will happen via niche agents.

The classic search index isn’t king anymore and the classic 10 blue links have been enshittified.

Search is changing.

via the Marketing Against The Grain podcast (YouTube link)

You get what you build.

We wrote a dialogue with our music that was a continual growth.

We know what we’ve made and we know what our audience is building. They’ve helped us from the start.

We’ve been carrying each other from 2011. There’s no surprises. You get what you work for.

-Joe Talbot of IDLES

Brands are 🍄 🍄🍄

Slack is launching a suite of built-in AI features that serve up summaries of threads and channel recaps, while also allowing you to ask questions about what’s been going on at work. The workplace management platform first started testing Slack AI last year, but now it’s rolling out as a paid add-on for Slack Enterprise users.

AI already has a track record as a pay-to-use service so this type of move will be the norm, not the exception.

Tech giants can add-on AI tools for free to deepen their moats and increase lock-in, but others can generate revenue with them.

via The Verge

Federal Reserve officials continued to worry that inflation could stay stubbornly high during their policy meeting last month. That could keep interest rates at 23-year high for longer than previously expected

But

three rate cuts this year is a “reasonable baseline” expectation.

&

Investors now expect the first rate cut to come around the middle of year, according to futures.

0% rates are a thing of the past, but I could see the Fed cutting the rate in half by the time the dust settles.

via CNN

Rather than an attack on the platforms, we can see this as the culmination of what social networks were built for; in an environment pushed by the business model to favor crude measures of “reach” and “engagement,” the troll is the optimal organism.

&

the concept of human relationships most “tech visionaries” seem to have oscillates between Uncanny Valley ideas of “community” and downright transactional views of how people interact with each other.

via Marcelo Rinesi

ICYMI: What Apple’s iOS 17 privacy shift means for marketers

With iOS 17, the company will remove URL tracking parameters from links accessed in its Mail and Messages apps along with removing them from Safari Private Browsing
…
with Apple’s new Link Tracking Protection feature, user-identifiable information will be stripped from URLs

UTMs look unaffected, for now, hopefully

82,000,000: Number of people in the U.S. who listen to AM radio monthly

Audiences have splintered.
Audio has reach.
Digital hasn’t eaten the world.
[insert other takeaways here]

It’s not about being everywhere, it’s about being where your audience is.

via This Week in Sound

news agencies and digital advertisers are increasingly capturing attention online through the use of images, which people process more quickly, implicitly and memorably than text.

The mass retraining of cognition + the proliferation of AI means that creative is the most powerful lever we have left as marketers.

It also means that text is moving into undervalued territory, which could mean the restart of a cycle.

This paper’s abstract also details the negative ramifications of image proliferation on gender equality. Data sets impact human algorithms too.

You are responsible for your site’s chatbot, because duh

“In effect, Air Canada suggests the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions. This is a remarkable submission. While a chatbot has an interactive component, it is still just a part of Air Canada’s website," Rivers wrote.

“It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all the information on its website. It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot.”

Chatbots aren’t magic, they’re just a new interface on your existing data.

Are you a serial killer or an assassin?

(In terms of marketing. Hopefully you’re neither in the legit sense of the words.)

Serials have a style. A formula of target, method, materials, taunting, tactics. A thing or series of things that become recognizable with time—a signature.

Assassins are the opposite. They don’t seek to stand out, they want to blend in—become invisible. Adept at a number of methods, tactics, and materials. Indifferent to their targets. (Absolutely no taunting.)

Razzle dazzle vs. camouflage

In marketing, serials are the personality-driven marketers. They are the brand, are hired to work for a brand highly aligned with their personality, or are hired to repeat previous results with a new brand (like the guy from Crocs getting hired by Stanley). Serials get work based on their signature.

Assassins are the process-driven marketers. They get work based on their flexibility and adaptability—the ability to tackle different assignments in different ways.

Cockatoos vs chameleons

One isn’t better than the other. But when you figure out which one you are, look for jobs that align.

Because you don’t send a serial to do an assassin’s job.

And you probably don’t want an assassin with flair.

Don’t spend your time trying to change to fit the situation. Spend your time finding the situation that fits you.

“Old news” but timely as we get more privacy laws & cookies crumble

Why Sephora’s $1.2 million settlement with California should be a wake-up call for companies / Marketing Brew

According to the settlement a sale is “the exchange of personal information for anything of value,” including third-party cookies and pixels

That means that businesses who share personal data but don’t want to be classified as selling that data need specific contracts with service providers agreeing to use that data very narrowly and only for the company they collected it for

More from OG journo-blogger Matt Welch:

The early readers of those early blogs had an amazing connection with all of us personally in a way that’s only been replicated—in my experience—on podcasts. Because it hits you different in the ears.

2024: the year of audio

research has shown that audio ads outperform video ads in grabbing attention and generating brand recall

The ears hit different, especially in a time of visual overstimulation.

via ExchangeWire

Trying to decide on a color this year?

Pinterest has identified five key color palettes that will resonate with audiences this year:

• Gummy Pink
• Desert Orange
• Aqua Blue
• Moss Green
• Mocha Brown

via Social Media Today

Finished reading: John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol. 6: Bloodlines by Garth Ennis 📚

I’ve been waiting for TikTok’s fall, but didn’t see them being their own worst enemy

TikTok’s aggressive growth tactics are upsetting partners, creators, and everyday users

If TikTok no longer offers a stream of fun, serendipitous videos and instead becomes a social-media version of the Home Shopping Network, users may jump ship
…
“The For You used to seem uncanny in how it would serve up content perfectly tailored to me. Now it feels like the algorithm is less a diagnostic tool of my soul and instead is assessing me as a potential consumer.”

TikTok said the quiet part out loud

Think of some recent digital ads that caught your eye or spurred you to take action:

• What similarities or themes are there?
• What about them felt relevant to you?
• What made your thumb stop mid scroll/swipe/tap?

If you’re a marketer, you now have a checklist for your next campaign.