The AdExchanger Newsletter is taking a break for Labor Day on Monday, September 7. We’ll be back on September 8!
Attack Of The Talking TikTok Comments
Brands want to meet users where they are. More than ever, that appears to be in the social media comments section.
After all, plenty of marketers have achieved success by placing a quippy remark underneath somebody else’s viral post.
But the comments aren’t just going to be a place for text-based jokes and emojis anymore, TechCrunch reports. Not on TikTok, at least, which is bringing 60-second voice messages, polls, live photos and even image carousels to its comments section.
Setting aside the nightmare of hearing a bunch of 16-year-olds call you “unc” or “Boomer” as opposed to just seeing it typed out – the new features have interesting implications for branded accounts that are already trying to appeal to prospective customers in these spaces.
Obviously, regurgitating existing ad creative would be a no go because it could violate commercial content disclosure guidelines (and because it would be, as the kids say, cringe as hell).
But once TikTok’s users figure out what they like about these new comment formats, a sufficiently imaginative social media manager could do a lot by following their lead.
Just look at the recent “Coyote v. Acme” Reddit AMA, which turned a set of premade images and a willingness to play with Reddit’s community into a very successful marketing stunt.
The Long And Shortical Of It
AI-generated ads are coming to AI-generated microdramas. In case you wanted more slop with your slop.
Shortical, one of the many vertical video apps capitalizing on the microdrama craze, is bringing virtual product placements to its platform. The app is collaborating with the skin care brand MAËLYS to integrate the brand’s products within fully AI-generated miniseries.
The rationale makes sense: If a company is going to entrust AI to generate audience engagement, why stop at content when there’s ad revenue to be made?
But it’s worth wondering whether even people who are enthralled by suspenseful short-form AI slop will be turned off by AI ads encroaching on the content itself.
At this point, people are so inundated with AI that they find themselves missing the “authenticity” the ad industry used to pride itself on. AI fatigue is now strong enough that brands are trying to monetize their claims of caring about human connection.
But there are plenty of brands and platforms out there willing to bet that content deals devoid of humans will land with actual people.
First, Do No Harm
You know what the world really needs right now? An AI agent that sends you to scam websites and changes your passwords without consent.
Well, great news – Meta’s already built it!
Kidding aside, here’s the real good news: This worrying AI behavior was revealed during an internal test among Meta’s employees meant to refine the safety features of Meta’s new personal agent product, Hatch, The Information reports.
One employee says Hatch sent an email without permission. Another reports that the AI transferred their travel points to a hotel account, rather than making a hotel booking as expected.
While Meta envisions Hatch as an all-purpose autonomous consumer assistant, the solution “failed in many ways and actually did the opposite of helping me out financially,” says one of the employees involved in the test.
Hatch was supposed to go live in July, but has since been delayed, for obvious reasons.
Meta’s products are under particularly strict scrutiny in the wake of its $18 billion settlement of a federal lawsuit claiming its social media platforms are dangerous to kids and teens. Regulators also recently put Meta and other companies on notice over safety concerns related to kids using AI chatbots.
Guess testing AI on your employees is one way to avoid harming kids.
But Wait! There’s More!
Nvidia agrees to buy AI startup Hugging Face for $13 billion. [Bloomberg]
How to catch bad or problematic creator-made ads before they can cause lasting brand damage. [Ad Age]
Restaurants’ AI-generated food pics are costing them customers. [Morning Brew]
Elon Musk’s America PAC has already spent over $800,000 on midterm election races, including $207,000 on digital ads. [CBS News]
Ace Hardware is adding weather-triggered features to its programmatic ad inventory. [Modern Retail]
When creator marketing goes wrong: YouTube golf channel Good Good announces its president and CEO have stepped down due to a controversial ad the channel co-created with golf brand Callaway. Good Good’s marketing lead and Callaway’s content head have also left their respective companies amid the controversy. [Business Insider]
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