The number of consumers likely to buy products directly from social channels increased 30% between Q1 and Q2 this year according to the quarterly survey of 1,000 consumers by Amazon seller software vendor JungleScout. Facebook is preferred by Baby Boomers, Millennials and Gen X for purchases, while Gen Z embraces TikTok. Social advertising still lags just behind search advertising in terms of influence.
Conversation automation provider Conversica has announced upgrades to Conversica Chat. One key feature will allow users to customize Conversica’s out-of-the-box AI conversations to better address individual recipients and reflect brand alignment. The move puts genAI in the hands of the user rather than compelling them to rely entirely on black-box AI.
After several years of deliberation, the FTC unanimously approved a finalized rule banning deceptive practices relating to consumer reviews. In addition to banning fake reviews (explicitly including those created by AI), the rule condemns censoring negative reviews and compensating third-parties for positive reviews. It’s going to be hard to distinguish positive from honest reviews, which are certainly often incentivized in the tech space.
Media mix models (MMM), originally developed in the 1960’s, have undergone a resurgence as new technologies make them easier to execute and click-based attribution becomes less credible. But evaluating MMM brings its own challenges. Australia-based Mutinex offers a vendor-neutral Open Source MMM Validation Framework which is now available for free to North American marketers and agencies.