New Be All You Can Be ads arrive amid Army marketing leadership change

After successfully salvaging the first campaign of the Army’s “Be All You Can Be” rebrand, the service’s top marketers are back with new advertisements and new leadership.

The next rounds of advertisements — anchored by three cinematic spots collectively dubbed “First Steps” by Army Enterprise Marketing Office leaders — debuted Monday morning, said the office’s interim director, Ignatios Mavridis. First Steps is the second campaign in the “Be All You Can Be” rebrand, which launched in March.

“It tries to be an authentic portrayal of what it means to be a young soldier,” Mavridis told Army Times. “It’s an up close and personal campaign.”

The marketing chief added that the three new cinematic ads and images launching Monday won’t just be on television — the Army has also secured streaming platform buys and “out of home” advertising, such as billboards and posters. The new ads can be viewed at the bottom of this story.

While the featured cinematic ad is a minute long, Mavridis said all three are available in “30-, 15- and six-second spots.” That will allow them to appear in small slots such as during long YouTube videos or on other social media platforms, he said.

The longest of the new cinematic ads, “First Arrival,” depicts Army recruits as they leave home and arrive at basic training, and the second, “First Patch,” shows family members placing patches on their newly graduated soldiers at the conclusion of training. The third spot, “First Target,” shows a new tank gunner engaging a live fire target for the first time.

Notably, none of the advertisements appear to feature a celebrity, as the first round of “Be All You Can Be” commercials did. Although celebrity endorsements are a common marketing technique, they come with risk, as the Army learned when its on-screen narrator,

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How the generative A.I. boom could forever change online advertising

Sebastien Bozon | AFP | Getty Images

Shortly after ChatGPT hit the market last year and instantly captured headlines for its ability to appear human in answering user queries, digital marketing veteran Shane Rasnak began experimenting.

As someone who had built a career in creating online ad campaigns for clients, Rasnak saw how generative artificial intelligence could transform his industry. Whether it was coming up with headlines for Facebook ads or short blurbs of ad copy, Rasnak said, jobs that would have taken him 30 minutes to an hour are now 15-minute projects.

And that’s just the beginning.

Rasnak is also playing with generative AI tools such as Midjourney, which turns text-based prompts into images, as he tries to dream up compelling visuals to accompany Facebook ads. The software is particularly handy for someone without a graphic design background, Rasnak said, and can help alongside popular graphic-editing tools from Canva and Adobe’s Photoshop.

While it’s all still brand new, Rasnak said generative AI is “like the advent of social media” in terms of its impact on the digital ad industry. Facebook and Twitter made it possible for advertisers to target consumers based on their likes, friends and interests, and generative AI now gives them the ability to create tailored messaging and visuals in building and polishing campaigns.

“In terms of how we market our work, the output, the quality and the volume that they’re able to put out, and how personalized you can get as a result of that, that just completely changes everything,” Rasnak said.

Rasnak is far from alone on the hype train.

Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, the leaders in online advertising, are all betting generative AI will eventually be core to their businesses. They’ve each recently debuted products or announced plans to develop various tools

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Minor UI change discovered in pre-release One UI 6.0 test firmware, allegedly

Last updated: May 23rd, 2023 at 11:25 UTC+02:00

Samsung began testing its Android 14-based One UI 6.0 update earlier this month. It’s an early build to which nobody but Samsung engineers have access, but a new rumor claims to have uncovered one of the UI changes that are present in this One UI 6.0 pre-release firmware.

Earlier this month, it was found that the company is testing One UI 6.0 on a handful of flagship phones. The list includes the Galaxy S23 series (S918BXXU1BWE2), the Galaxy Z Flip 4 (F721BXXU2DWD7), and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 (F936BXXU2DWE1).

Now, a new rumor that may be a bit too ambitious to be taken at face value claims that this pre-release firmware brings at least one design change (via @tarunvats33). Namely, it makes the Quick Toggles in the notification shade bigger. There are no screenshots to prove this claim, and even if it is true, it’s not that much of an exciting UI change.

Nevertheless, One UI 6.0 should bring more UI changes in general, so if Samsung intends to enlarge the quick toggles, this will be one minor UI tweak of many.

When will Samsung release One UI 6.0

One UI 6.0 doesn’t yet have an official release schedule, but the company is certainly working on the firmware behind closed doors. And judging by Samsung’s release schedule for One UI 5.0 last year, the One UI 6.0 public beta program could go live around August.

The first flagship to gain access to the beta will be the Galaxy S23 series. After that, Samsung may expand the beta to more devices, including the Galaxy S22 series, the latest foldable phones, and even the Galaxy A53 and/or A54.

Samsung should be ready to release the first stable

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Google Contacts is getting a long-overdue change on the web

Users can finally add or edit contacts directly from their Workspace apps


If you use Google Contacts on the web, you might be frustrated by the fact that you can only create new contacts on its dedicated site and nowhere else. Of course, you could always pick up your favorite Android device and put in the details, but that can be quite inconvenient if, say, you have a work contact, but only your personal phone nearby — and we all want to stay kosher with our work and personal communications. Thankfully, Google’s finally making it easier for desktop and laptop users to add contacts in apps such as Gmail or Google Docs.

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On its Workspace Updates blog, Google says an update has begun rolling out to all users that will introduce a quick button for Contacts on the right-side pane in Workspace apps. Clicking on it will show your list of contacts — letting you get in touch with them instantly — and gives you the option to add a new one.

Google Contacts - Gmail -anim

Users should also be able to edit a contact by selecting one and hitting the edit icon on the top right.

Google warns that users won’t be able to add contacts within the open detailed view section of an individual email thread.

The rollout began on February 17, but the new button could take up to 15 days to appear for some users. Every Google Workspace user will eventually see this change in addition to legacy G Suite customers as well as personal accounts.

The inclusion of this feature will no doubt make it infinitely easier to add or make modifications to an existing contact. Considering the contacts experience provided by industry rival Apple’s ecosystem, it’s safe to say that Google has

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