NEW YORK — Meta Platforms touted its strengths in artificial intelligence (AI) and video in pitching advertisers for greater budgets this week, explaining that the previous technology drives consumption and superior performance for the latter, including on the TikTok look-alike Reels. The comments were shared as part of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts, a series of presentations on the most recent ad innovations and programming updates from digital publishers and platforms.
“Over the past twenty years, we’ve built some of probably the most sophisticated AI the world has ever seen,” said Simon Whitcombe, vp of the Facebook and Instagram owner’s global business group, on a Times Square stage Thursday afternoon. Whitcombe added that Meta’s AI helps brands engage consumers after which spur them to motion.
“[Perhaps] most significantly for everyone in this room today, it’s also led to a considerable increase in video consumption, especially on Reels, where individuals are connecting with one another and brands each day,” the manager said, noting that Reels videos at the moment are shared 4.5 billion times every day.
To support that momentum, Meta unveiled a Reels trending ads feature that permits brands to place their messages near popular creator-led videos, either the top-performing overall or based on specific topics resembling beauty, sports or fashion. The concept mirrors TikTok’s Pulse suite of products that situate campaigns near cream-of-the-crop videos from premium publishers or user-generated content. Pulse was central to TikTok’s NewFronts showcase earlier in the week.
Reels trending ads, which Whitcombe said got here highly requested from the industry, will begin a “small test” soon, though specifics on the timing and scope weren’t shared. Also coming soon are video ads on Threads, Meta’s micro-blogging app that has quickly accrued 350 million monthly lively users and last month expanded its promoting offerings globally.
“We know advertisers desire a more video-rich experience on all of our platforms, not only static images,” said Whitcombe.
Beyond video announcements, Meta revealed several creator-oriented solutions, resembling a way to discover trends bubbling up on Instagram and the early stages of a Creator Marketplace API that aids brands in discovering and matching with the correct influencers at scale.
Addressing AI anxiety
Generative AI, a strategic focus for Meta, unsurprisingly factored into its NewFronts roadshow as well. The company is bringing an existing AI-powered video expansion tool that adapts creative assets for various formats to Facebook Reels. Additional AI bells and whistles on display included a creator content-recommendation interface that was already available on Instagram but is now coming to Facebook.
“Video expansion is a wonderful example of how AI is not going to replace creativity, but quite enhance it,” said Whitcombe to a packed audience of brand marketers and agency executives. “Our suite of gen AI creative tools are going to help mark a brand new era of creativity, which advertisers and agencies — all of you in this room — could have a key role in shaping.”
Whitcombe’s argument that AI serves more as assistant than existential threat follows recent comments from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that took a distinct tack. Speaking to Stratechery, the business chief envisioned a future where Meta’s AI does so much of the heavy lifting typically handled by marketing services providers and ad-tech vendors, resembling coming up with creative, targeting demographics and measurement based on the advertisers’ stated objectives, The Verge reported.
“I feel that’s going to be huge, I feel it’s a redefinition of the category of promoting,” Zuckerberg told Ben Thompson of Stratechery.
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