Groove Jones’ Post

Recent news broke that Meta is shutting down its Spark AR Studio platform. Spark AR Studio enables social media creators to make custom AR (Augmented Reality) effects for use on Facebook and Instagram. Since its launch in 2017, it has gained over 400k creators who have published millions of AR effects and experiences. So why is it sunsetting? Read more about why Meta is making this move in this article:

BRIFW just launched their 13th weekly report: "Is it the end of the AR filter era?" discussing how Meta 's decision to shut down Meta Spark Studio affects creators and the tech market as a whole. I was invited to collaborate on this article, bringing my vision to the matter: "Particularly, I notice that agencies and big brands are only now beginning to understand this (AR possibilities), and the end of Spark is a cold shower on the vast possibilities the platform offers, not to mention the work of thousands of creators that will simply be erased from the platform." Check the entire article (in PT-BR) here: https://lnkd.in/djga-eY5

Dive into the juicy details of Meta's latest experiment with the "Threads Bonus Program" – it's raining incentives for creators! Want to know more? Tap below 👇

I'm not gonna lie, over the last few years I have been keeping a distance from Meta's products personally. My friend Andrew Deutsch told me recently that he had been enjoying using Meta's Llama image generator, which was a bit surprising to me. I have been so buried in comfyui, stable diffusion model finetuning, and custom workflow dev lately that I hadn't really tried it out. So, I gave it a spin yesterday and was quite surprised by a few things that I think it is doing really well compared to some of it's competitors. Clearly a lot of thought went into what kinds of things it would surface to the user around the core act of generating a image. First thing that impressed me is a feature that will generate a video which shows you how the model interpreted your prompt as you type. To use this, you start your prompt with "Imagine:" (hat-tip to Midjourney?) and it will show you the images as you type, but then after you run the full generation, you are asked if you want to create a clever video showing you an animation of the prompt development. For example, if I type out the prompt: "Imagine: a magical pineapple floating above a crowded dancefloor in a brooklyn warehouse rave with a diverse crowd. the pineapple is emanating energy and light with diffuse streams. the people are crowded around the pineapple worshipping it." It will create this video! (doesn't nail the "diverse" token in my opinion, and there are plenty of issues in the individual images, but alas ignore that for a moment) What I like about this is how it surfaces the impact of each token in the prompt and how those tokens drive broad or detailed changes in the output. It's also a easily digestible demonstration of how word order and choice in prompting can impact things. In this way, users are being naturally educated about how prompting actually works in these kinds of generative systems. It is admittedly quite confusing, so every bit of information helps! This is a pretty fun way to improve peoples understanding of the underlying system with a fun piece of content. If you're motivated to give it a try you can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eMBYFu9n I must say that got me interested in downloading the weights and testing it out locally when I have the time.

Meta is out with Movie Gen a state of the art model. Its answer to Runway and OpenAI’s Sora. Highlights: 1. Video Generation: Create high-quality, 16-second videos from text prompts 2. Personalized Videos: Generate videos featuring a specific person based on their image and a text prompt. 3. Precise Video Editing: Edit existing videos using text commands, from minor tweaks to major overhauls 4. Audio Generation: Produce high-fidelity audio, including ambient sound and music, synced to video content Why it matters? Meta owns the world’s largest creator platforms, if Instagram brings these tools to everyone. It’s going to become a standard. Amazing release from Yann LeCun Ahmad Al-Dahle and the team. Full breakdown coming soon.

This year, I've taken a big interest in high-volume hook and multi-variant testing. In Meta, we leveraged a new style of creative at Sono Bello that allows us to swap out the first 3-5 seconds of a video and keep our main RTBs in the end. This allows our team to rapidly test, optimize and iterate off the learnings. Here's one of my favorites... #socialmediamarketing #creativetesting

Get ready for a change on Facebook and Instagram! Meta has announced the shutdown of Spark AR, their platform for creating AR filters. This means no more custom AR effects for Instagram! 💔 Creators and users alike are wondering what's next for AR on these platforms. Any guesses? #GrowYourBusiness #CapeConsulting #DigitalMarketing #SocialMediaManagement #CapeHotNews

🚨 Meta Spark Shutdown 🚨Unexpected Meta Spark Shutdown announcement has left many AR creators feeling frustrated and uncertain about the future. In this video, I break down what went wrong, how Meta’s decisions impacted the community, and what alternatives are out there. If you're an AR creator looking for answers—or just curious about the future of AR content creation—this is for you. Watch the video and let me know how you are feeling about all of this. https://lnkd.in/e_eNtCeR #MetaSpark #AugmentedReality #TechNews #ARCommunity #ARCreators

#MarketingPills 1. #Meta Discontinues Spark AR Studio: Meta has announced the discontinuation of its Spark AR Studio platform, which allowed creators and brands to develop custom AR effects for use across Meta's apps. As Meta prepares to introduce its own advanced AR experiences, including the launch of new AR glasses next month, the company has decided to phase out the AR creation tool.   2. Meta Enables Crossposting of Threads Between #Facebook and Instagram: After months of testing various forms of Threads crossposting, Meta has officially made this feature available to all users. However, users must manually activate the crossposting option within their post settings.   3. #Instagram Introduces Story Comments to Foster Engagement: Instagram is enhancing engagement on its platform by rolling out a new feature that allows users to comment on Stories. These comments will be visible to everyone who views the Story, encouraging greater interaction.   4. #LinkedIn Introduces In-Feed Video Carousels: LinkedIn has launched new video carousels that offer an expansive, side-scrolling display of video clips, providing a more dynamic and engaging content format for users.   5. #X Launches Beta Version of Connected TV App: X has officially released the beta version of its new X TV app, marking a significant step toward becoming a video-first platform. This connected TV app is positioned as a major development in X’s evolving video content strategy. #Marketing #Updates

Don't be too dramatic within Meta & limit your changes. Significant edits cause your campaign to reenter the learning phase, which can produce a period of volatility. Changes such as pausing and relaunching ad creatives as well as increasing budgets by more than 20% every 2 - 3 days risk producing a less stable performance whilst the platform explores the best way to deliver your changes.