New AI Apps, AI Shopping, and AI... Friends?
Happy Friday, everyone! This week we’re going to talk about a few of the latest AI announcements along with some interesting developments in the world of retail media. Let’s get to it!
Meta Launches New Standalone AI App, Rivaling ChatGPT (Wall Street Journal - LINK)
TL;DR – In a move that is less surprising than seeing Jesse and Lexi’s way-too-serious-way-too-fast relationship not work out on Bravo’s “Summer House,” Meta has announced the launch of a standalone AI App, Meta AI. This pulls Meta’s AI capabilities outside of their core platforms and in direct competition with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and X’s Grok app which launched earlier this year. In true Meta fashion, the app features a “Discover feed,” where users can share and explore how others use AI. But that’s not all that’s going on in the world of AI, here are a few more big stories to be watching:
Zuckerberg’s Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI (Wall Street Journal – LINK) – Sticking with Meta for a moment, Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that his vision of the future includes AI therapists, AI business agents, and AI friends. This should serve as a window into where we can expect future investment to go but at the same time, I would be remiss to not say that I couldn’t hate this idea more. The solution to increasing human loneliness in the digital age isn’t more imaginary digital friends.
Perplexity CEO Says its Browser Will Track Everything Users Do Online to Sell ‘Hyper Personalized’ Ads (TechCrunch – LINK) – The AI company has previously announced their intent to create a browser, but now they are saying the quiet part out loud by admitting the motivation behind this initiative is to capture behavioral data that they can’t get inside of AI queries to sell more personalized ads. Hey, I respect the honesty!
YouTube Tests Video Carousel in Google’s AI Overview for Product and Location Searches (AdWeek – LINK) – The video platform is joining the AI overviews fun with the roll out of a new test to surface relevant video content for searchers. Expect more innovation here as we move forward.
OpenAI Rolls Out AI-Powered Shopping, Taking on Perplexity and Giants Like Amazon (AdWeek – LINK) – ChatGPT users will now be able to find, compare, and buy products inside of the AI-powered platform. The feature shows visual details, pricing, and reviews of products with shoppable links to retailers like Walmart. OpenAI joins the likes of Perplexity and Amazon in the fight to capture today’s consumers and their evolving behaviors. Given the value of these searches to brands, advertising in this environment is a natural next step I’d expect over time.
Matt’s Hot Take™ - It can be hard to keep track of all the changes happening in the AI space but given the power of the technology and how it’s becoming more integrated in our lives, we don’t have much of a choice. While the tech is exciting, it’s the applications where it’s embedded in existing platforms - and thus behaviors - where it has the potential to drive the most near-term behavior change.
Retail Media Roundup (LINKS BELOW!)
TL:DR – There’s a ton happening around the retail media world right now as capabilities continue to mature. Here are a few of the most interesting stories from the last couple of weeks:
Advertisers Can Now Measure In-Store Ads Across Grocery Retailers (AdWeek – LINK) - Grocery TV, which has digital screens in nearly 6,000 stores across 120 retailers, is helping advertisers better understand the impact of their ads. They are doing this by stitching together sales data from multiple retailers to measure the impact of in-store campaigns across several different retail media networks at once.
PayPal Is Launching Programmatic Ads Powered By Shopping Data (AdWeek – LINK) – PayPal is joining non-retailers like JPMorgan Chase, Uber, and United Airlines who are using transaction data to sell ads. “Commerce Media” is a particularly interesting space as firms like PayPal have data that is aggregated across multiple retailers and merchants. It’s a big trend to watch as this should open up new opportunities for non-endemic advertisers who don’t sell products through traditional retailers as this data could potentially be more useful.
Sam’s Club Introduces a Host of New Measures Amid Retail Metrics Scrutiny (AdAge – LINK) – The retailer is rolling out new measurement capabilities like brand lift and lifetime value measures to enhance their offering to advertisers. I like this one because it leans into what makes retail media actually valuable to advertisers who don’t sell direct to consumers – their data and measurement.
Saks on Amazon is a Likely Win for Both Parties, But for Different Reasons (AdWeek – LINK) – Amazon gets luxury street cred, Saks gets a whole new crop of potential shoppers – makes sense. Historically the hold up has been part brand equity concerns along with the issue of counterfeit goods being sold on the platform. However, while these are variables that can be addressed through technology and creativity, my bigger concern is if Saks just let a fox in their henhouse? I’d give Toys R Us a ring to hear how their tie up with Amazon went in the early 2000’s (here’s a hint, the Toys R Us location in my town is now a car wash.)
Chuck E. Cheese Launches CEC Media Network (QSR Magazine – LINK) – I just had to share this as I couldn’t believe that what is essentially a children’s casino… now has a media network. What a time to be alive.
Matt’s Hot Take™ - I’m extremely bullish on retailer/commerce data and it’s exciting to see this capability get more attention. We’re at the point where the dollars are big enough to make measurement and performance the critical factor for serious media investors. On top of that, the data is what is actually unique and powerful and the value prop for advertisers. I’d expect a continued focus on this capability and hopefully some of the industry hallucination we’ve seen for the last few years begin to be replaced with real data and actionable insights.
Quick Hits
They’re on the Varsity Influencer Team (The New York Times - LINK) – Name, image and likeness — typically referred to as N.I.L. deals have become a massive part of college athletics over the last couple of years. Historically college athletes were compensated with scholarships – but as revenues have grown to incredible levels thanks large part to massive television deals, N.I.L. deals have been introduced to give athletes a cut of these profits. Now that we’re a few years into popular college football and basketball players promoting polo shirts and Papa John’s pizza, the University of North Carolina is taking an interesting approach to bring all their athletes along for the ride. They are working with an influencer agency to educate their student-athletes on how to build a social following and to ultimately help negotiate brand deals. Given the continued growth and importance of creator content along with colleges now recruiting athletes with their ability to facilitate N.I.L. deals, this is a trend I would expect to explode over the next year.
Instacart is Launching a Gen Z Party-Focused Delivery App (AdAge - LINK) – Instacart is launching a new app, Fizz, that helps party hosts crowdsource snack and drink ideas and even split the bill with their guests. The way it works is hosts create and share a link to their cart where guests can add and pay for their own items, including snacks, party supplies, 30-racks of Keystone and other party essentials. Fizz users can also earn rewards with “Snack Bucks” when they buy drinks, which is a creative way for heavily regulated alcohol brands to engage in promotions. I love the insight of making parties easier on hosts and the elegant extension of Instacart’s tech which over time likely acts as an acquisition vehicle to bring new shoppers into their platform.
Oatly Brings Its Brand Voice To The Most Boring Corners Of The Web – Online Grocery Pages (AdExchanger - LINK) – We know that the consumer journey is fragmented, non-linear, and full of competing messages from brands looking to convince consumers that their product is exactly what they need. However, given the complexity of the digital ecosystem, scalability can often win out over creativity. For Oatly, a Swedish oat milk brand, they have taken the approach that breaking through the noise with original copy is worth investing the time in to ensure each consumer touch point feels uniquely Oatly. For example, a PDP (product detail page) on Kroger’s site might read, “You’re also on Kroger today! That’s so great. Nice to see you here.” This may seem like a small thing, but in the hyper-competitive world of online commerce, standing out from the crowd could mean the difference between a sale or a scroll. This is a great reminder to consider every consumer touchpoint as we never know exactly when or where a consumer may make a purchase decision.
