Welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome. Lots of interesting stuff in this month's issue, from marketing mishaps to new AI tools. Our marcomms team also asked me to promote a very exciting upcoming event with some attention catching content. So look out for that.
Finally, as we're in September, I will once again be climbing a mountain with my friends. Last year it was Cader Idris. This year it's Scafell Pike. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I'll get a clear view from the top, rather than my usual vistas of mist/fog. I'll try to get a nice snap to put at the top of October's Snapshot.
📰 Latest news
- SUPER EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR THE LET'S GET REAL AI CONFERENCE. Attention, caught. It's on 19 March and we'd love to see you there!
- One Further is running their Cultural Content survey - well worth taking part as the findings are always interesting.
- The Arts Marketing Association has recently launched Goose, an AI platform designed to support heritage organisations with marketing and audience development.
- The MIT Technology Review have published their list of 35 Innovators Under 35. Now I know what you're thinking: "but Alec, you're (barely) under 35, why aren't you on the list?". Don't you worry, my mum's sent them a very strongly worded email so fingers crossed for 2026.
🤓 Useful / shareable
- This is a great article on how the BFI's User Experience team is conducting research to develop their cinema website.
- Authoritas recently conducted a study into the drop in click-throughs to websites caused by Google's AI summaries. They found that a site previously ranked first in a search result could lose around 79% of its traffic for that query.
- Related to that, One Further have published a report on the impact of AI Overviews in the cultural sector.
- This looks like a useful event from the Digital Culture Network - 'A beginner's guide to LinkedIn for Arts and Culture'.
💥 Distracting / entertaining / inspiring
- This is an interesting short case study on how the National Library of Scotland is transforming its online presence. Over the last few years we've been supporting NLS with their audience development, so it's great to see how this is all starting to come together.
- I really enjoyed this story about a junior marketer working for Sweet Loren's who accidentally changed the name of the company to 'Ryan' (their name) on TikTok.
- This is a great article by Rachel Coldicutt on taking a strategic approach to AI adoption. The overarching lesson that 'FOMO is not a strategy', isn't just about AI and can be extended to most things.
- You may have seen a recent trend of people making IKEA adverts using AI video. Whilst on the surface they look quite good, this CGI pro has explained why there's still a lot of work to be done in the generative video game.
👍 Something good
- One of the OG YouTubers, Hank Green, has created a new app called Focus Friends. In August it was the number one app in the app store and it features no ads, no data harvesting and no necessary log-in. The idea is that it's supposed to help with productivity and focus. I'm a big fan.
- This is good, but also super useful - Mia Ridge has created a list of useful resources around AI in the GLAM sector.
- Did you know that if you Google the name of one of the original 151 Pokémon on your phone, a little Poké ball will appear in the bottom right side of your screen for you to catch it? Currently, you can collect all of the OGs.
- Did you also know that the scrolling numbers on the iPhone alarm feature isn't an endless circle and that it's actually just a list of numbers that ends at 16 hours and 39 minutes. I'm ok, I promise.
