Meta to lure advertisers with new AI technology

Meta hopes to lure back advertisers with its latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology by helping them make the best Facebook and Instagram Reels to appeal to its 3 billion daily user base.

The tech giant introduced its new AI technology, named AI Sandbox, which will be released by the latter half of this year. The service is currently in the stage of beta testing. The service provides generative AI-powered ad tools for marketers to reach out to its reels-friendly consumers.

Currently, three tools are offered on the service: text variation, in which a marketer types in a text description about its product and the service offers multiple text explanations that is more catchy and understandable to consumers; background generation, in which a marketer describes advertisement background in text and AI generates equipped background images; image outcropping allows marketers to adapt their horizontal advertisements on vertical videos using the AI service without making additional adjustments.

Based on the first quarter of this year, Meta’s monthly active users on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp were 3.8 billion, and daily users on the apps were 3 billion. For reels, 2 billion clips are being shared every day among users. The tech company saw a drop in annual advertising revenue for the first time last year, falling 1 percent on year to $113.6 billion due to the tech winter that has swept around the world.

“The number of reels shared daily has doubled compared to six months ago,” said Meta Korea’s director Kim Jin-ah at a press event in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Wednesday. “Korean users follow the trend as more users peruse reels as their content — not only for entertainment, but it also offers marketing values for businesses.”

Reels definitely help businesses attract potential customers, argues Meta.

Sixty-four percent of 120,000 users followed a company’s profile after watching its reels, according to a recent survey conducted by the company. Sixty-one percent purchased a service or a product from a company after watching its reels. The survey reported a 20 percent jump in sales for a company if it uses reels in its marketing campaign.

“Reels have transcended the realm of content to become a language of its own,” said Park Ki-young, head of the creative shop department. “Any business will be able to form a close bond with their consumers if they make their reels with the purpose of giving entertainment, contain relatable elements, and be easily comprehensible.”

Other open-source AI models created by Meta were also introduced during Wednesday’s session, including “LLaMA,” which offers text paraphrase or simplification, solves mathematical questions and answer reading comprehension questions, and “Imagebind,” another generative AI service that can recognize relationships between six modalities such as video, audio, and text without human supervision to create desirable outputs.

“Humans have progressed using tools,” said Choi Young, head of vertical, e-commerce and retail at Meta Korea. “In digital marketing, AI is substituting roles to set up campaigns. The role of humans now lies in asking the right questions to achieve adequate results. AI has now become a critical tool which gives marketers more time to focus on the development of their products.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]