10 Reading & Watch Recommendations This Week 🍫

1/ How the new YouTube & X live tech show is showing us the future of content 👏

📝 As Marketing & Growth leaders we are constantly looking for new formats or a revisit of old formats to inspire us and be part of. Live social is already swamped, maybe this format will be something you leverage or become part of…

2/ A16z VC and Growth legend Andrew Chen dropped a blog last week about why every marketing channel sucks right now, here’s a good challenge from Emily at MKT1 🍿

📝 Marketing is increasingly difficult in this ever-evolving landscape it’s essential to remember some channels will hit saturation, while you might find one that pops off for you, while others say it’s not working for them.

3/ We are seeing several brands struggle and tackling turnarounds all in different ways, including rebranding and going back to “Brand first” activities. This is a good post on how long and what it takes to turn around a brand 🥤

📝 Starbucks have brought back the black shirt and green apron in US stores, placing brand and uniformity front and centre - another key move by chief brand officer

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4/ FT Interview: How Google is rethinking its place in the market and evolving its search product (alternative link) 🔎

📝 Google is in the prime position to win the AI arms race with their Search product and 6 other products with over 2m MAUs - will they mess search up to win AI? Or will AI win over search first… if we’ve learnt anything, we know not to bet against the incumbents and monopolies

5/ Openai’s ChatGPT is growing at a rapid rate, and their app is exploding in downloads, ranking 1 in app stores, outranking TikTok & Instagram 📲

 📝 The way many chatbot apps will become sticky is going to the phone, driving more desktop app downloads and being installed in browsers. Are you using them enough to get ahead of the curve?

» If you’re feeling a little left behind, don’t worry. It’s likely time for the team AI workshop

6/ WhatsApp is slowly rolling out new features for Marketers, many Marketers will love this idea, but will your customers? Unlikely. 💬 

📝 While WhatsApp works out its monetisation strategy, Marketers will be the perfect guinea pigs for them…it is essential to question will this hinder or hurt your relationships with your customers?

7/ A look into Duo and Duolingo’s Marketing Strategy & why their bold approach worked for them and is unlikely to work for so many others. (alternative link) 🦉

📝 With 15% of new customer acquisition coming from social media, Duolingo is a unique brand confidently embracing quirky social media and a bold mascot to win over net new customers. In a performance-first market, can the classic tactics like a brand Mascot work for you?