Lab Weekly - 03/17/2023
Regional Outlook POVs from APAC and Canada; plus, the latest news from SXSW, SVB, ChatGPT, and TikTok, along with some cool stats to know
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Outlook 2023: APAC POV
Written by Sharon Soh, Chief Planning & Audience Officer at UM APAC, this comprehensive POV examines how the four trends highlighted in our Outlook 2023 report is playing out across the dynamic and diverse APAC region, and explains how brands can navigate the interregnum.
Outlook 2023: The Canadian POV
Written by our Canadian team led by Kelvin Mak, Senior Director, Digital Strategy and Partnerships at UM Canada, this POV digests our Outlook 2023 trends and offers unique insights into how Canada is dealing with the challenges and opportunities of the digital transformation, right next to the U.S.
In case you missed it…
Four Ways Consumer Behaviors May Evolve Amid Recession Fears
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Bing 2.0 Comes to Mobile as Microsoft Plots to Add Ads
Microsoft’s crusade to disrupt search continues, but not without some speed bumps. While the company continues to make the AI-powered Bing more widely available, it is also trying to fix some of the issues that early-adopters have encountered that grabbed headlines.
IAB Playfronts 2023 Recap: Gaming Is The New Mythology
Key takeaways from the 2nd annual gathering of ad and media players interested in reaching the ever-growing gaming audience
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Overshadows AI Talk At SXSW [Ad Age]
The 2023 SXSW festival happened over the past week, and based on reports coming out of Austin, the vibes are definitely off this year. The No. 1 hot topic of the fest ended up being the sudden collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), thanks to a combination of the timing of the Twitter-fueled bank run, as well as the fact that many of the SVB funds were attached to tech companies and startups—many of which had representatives at SXSW.
Granted, some brands still showed up with lavish immersive activations that ranged from the all-purple Roku City to the hotels re-modeled after Amazon Prime shows. However, none of the activations made much of a splash on social media, unlike, say, the Westworld larping experience from the 2018 SXSW. Perhaps that says something about the diminishing value of branded activations and general audience fatigue; furthermore, our highly personalized algorithmic content feeds are partly to blame. Regardless, in the face of strong economic headwinds, spending a lot on festival activations right now would appear a bit unwise in general.
Talk about generative AI is also reportedly prevalent on the ground, albeit overshadowed by the SVB discussions. Attendance was reportedly up from last year, but still not quite matched its pre-pandemic level. Overall, if you ever wondered about the state of the U.S. tech industry in early 2023, there is perhaps no blunter metaphor than the collapse of a regional bank with many tech startups as clients dominating the conversations at an extravagant media and tech festival.
Related: Amazon Prime, Lush, and Roku on the ground at SXSW 2023 with branded activations [Ad Age]; I came to Austin for tech’s biggest party and witnessed a surreal scene as Silicon Valley Bank crumbled [Fortune]
OpenAI Releases Highly-Anticipated GPT-4 Model [VentureBeat]
Just because generative AI got overshadowed by the SVB drama at SXSW this weekend doesn’t mean it has receded its spot as the hottest topic in tech right now. In fact, on Tuesday, OpenAI released the highly-anticipated GPT-4 model in a surprise announcement, opening the floodgate to a sludge of generative AI news that expectedly followed. GPT-4 is the next-gen large language model that OpenAI has been teasing. Upon release, reports say it can deal with new tasks like taking images as inputs and making captions, categories, and evaluations. GPT-4 can handle more than 25,000 words of text, which enables it to be used for things like creating long content, having longer chats, and finding and studying documents.
Microsoft is one of the companies that has reportedly made the leap to GPT-4. The Seattle-based company has confirmed that Bing is already running on the advanced GPT-4 model. On Thursday, it also officially launched the new AI Copilot feature that I wrote about last week, which will gradually but surely transform how desk jobs are performed and evaluated for years to come. Not to be outdone, Google also announced a suite of similar generative AI integrations for Gmail, Docs, and more to rival Microsoft, albeit there is no direct comparison between Google’s own language model and the GPT-4 so far.
While the release of GPT-4 is sure to pour more gas on the generative AI fire, it is important that brands separate the hype from the reality. Not every brand will find a low-stake way to easily incorporate generative AI tools into their consumer-facing operations, and those that do should be mindful of the ethical and legal implications of using such technology. Brands should use GPT-4 responsibly and transparently, and always respect the rights and preferences of their customers.
Related: Duolingo launches new subscription tier with access to AI tutor powered by GPT-4 [TechCrunch]; Microsoft confirms Bing is running on the advanced GPT-4 model [Bing Blog]; Microsoft details Microsoft 365 Copilot's Business Chat, which can summarize meetings, recent customer interactions, calendar entries, and more [The Verge]
TikTok Is Adding A Dedicated Feed For STEM Content [TechCrunch]
TikTok may be facing some serious existential challenges right now — which we’ll have to wait and see how things evolve — but it still rolled out a notable new feature this week. Cynically speaking, the opportune timing of launching a content feed dedicated to educational content now could be seen as an attempt at gaining some good press to help restore its reputation among teachers and parents.
Nonetheless, the concept of topic-based content feed open to all users certainly seems like an intriguing one for more social media platforms to explore. Given how many studies have been done to prove the detrimental effects that excessive usage of social media has had on young people’s mental health, it is somehow surprising that no social platform has made a concerted effort like this to highlight the more “good-for-you” content on their platform. Let’s start taking bets on how long before YouTube or Instagram copies this feature.
Related: The Biden administration demands that TikTok be sold, or risk a nationwide ban [NPR]; Sephora and TikTok team up on new content program for emerging brands [Glossy]
The ratings for the 2023 Oscars increased 13% year-over-year, drawing 18.8 million live viewers for the ABC broadcast aired on Sunday, according to final time zone-adjusted data which includes Live + Same Day numbers from Nielsen, Variety reports. Although the audience grew for the second consecutive year, it remains far below the Oscar shows’ pre-pandemic numbers. On social media, the show managed 27.4 million total social interactions across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
A study commissioned by National CineMedia from attention measurement firm Lumen Research, in collaboration with Dentsu, shows attention scores for ads that run before movies beat TV, connected TV, social and digital ads by as much as four to seven times, AdAge reports.
Levi’s is using K-pop and TikTok to appeal to Gen Z. The denim brand’s newest global ambassadors feature K-pop girl group New Jeans. The K-pop group’s content on TikTok in particular is super popular among Gen Z with #NewJeans at 10.7 billion views and #NewJeansKpop at 9.3 million views. YPulse data shows 29% of Gen Z say they follow K-pop trends.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to our Group Director Josh Mallalieu!
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