Lidl’s protein products sell out in minutes on TikTok
Lidl made a surprise appearance on TikTok this week, becoming the first supermarket to launch on ‘Shop’. A limited run of a few thousand high-protein products was clearly in high demand for gym-goers. All its products sold out in just 18 minutes.
Kantar Insights media head, Hannah Walley, says retailers are quickly recognising just how useful TikTok Shop can be for engaging new customers online.
She noted: “Our data shows there’s real appetite from consumers to explore shopping on the app – 46% of users are open to trying TikTok Shop or have already bought through it.”
Google brings ‘Circle to Search’ to iPhone
Google’s ‘Circle to Search’ is finally making its way to iOS devices. After initially launching as a Pixel device exclusive and then expanding to other Android phones, Google has now added the much-advertised feature to Apple’s mobile OS.
There is one caveat, though. It’s only available on Chrome or Google Apps rather than being baked into the system like on Android.
A funny aside is that Google isn’t using the ‘circle’ branding on iPhone, merely stating that users can trigger it using “whatever gesture comes naturally.”
Instagram DMs get big upgrades
Instagram DMs got a glow-up last week with new features designed to make them more competitive with rivals like WhatsApp and iMessage.
Users can now schedule direct messages by long-pressing the send button and selecting an appropriate time and date. Meta says you can lock and load a text up to 29 days in advance.
There are also new music-sharing, “pin”, and translation (for 99 languages) features.
In what appears to be a nod to other more music-focused apps such as TikTok, Instagram will now let users share 30-second previews of songs in group chats and broadcast channels.
Google AI Overviews change regularly
A new study by SEO software company Authoritas has found Google AI Overviews are more volatile than organic listings.
Over a three-month period, around 70% of AI Overviews changed for identical queries. In general, the webpages served in AI-generated answers have a much higher volatility score compared to organic rankings.
The study also found that ranking well in organic SERPs is not a strong indicator for appearing in AI Overviews. In fact, web pages outside the top 10 organic results ranked in AI Overviews 40% of the time.
Duo’s shock death drives language app downloads
Duolingo killed off its mascot—Duo the owl—a couple of weeks ago. It proved to be a marketing masterstroke after app downloads soared in the aftermath.
The company’s CEO recently revealed that Duo was actually killed by a Cybertruck in a tragic accident.
The day after the news broke, web searches for Duolingo spiked 58%, and Android app downloads soared 58%. It’s also translated to a 25% jump in global monthly active user numbers on Android devices.
