The Full Monty — July 18, 2016

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Commitment must be earned, not bought; Facebook as a traditional media company; premium site ads perform better; the success of GE and the folly of Verizon; Instant Articles in Messenger; Twitter signs three more streaming deals; Snapchat's ad sales strategy; final bids for Yahoo; more questionable practices from Uber; Consumer Reports wants Autopilot off; predictable Pokémon GO happenings - including security and legal risks; predictive analytics is helpful - to an extent; treating politics like sports; The Full Monty goes audio; plus our trivia challenge, podcast pick, a limerick and more.

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Join Me

On July 26, I'll be speaking at the 12th Public Relations and Communications Summit, hosted by ExL Events at Pfizer Headquarters in New York City. Use my code C769SPK and receive a 15 percent discount.
Planning further ahead, I'll be keynoting at Brand ManageCamp in in September and Pubcon in October in Las Vegas.

Special Announcement

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Industry

New research from Edelman shows the importance of moving consumers from "Involved" to "Committed" stages of the relationship, and that the communications function has a role to play, as commitment cannot be bought, it must be earned.
Livestreaming had its Gulf War moment in the police-related shootings in the last few weeks, emerging as a viable alternative to cable.
- As we get more news and information from Facebook, should it be treated more like a broadcast network? Especially when it convinced so many publishers that they had to participate in Instant Articles and place their content on Facebook's platform (that is, before Facebook reversed course and focused the algorithm on people).
A new study from shows that ads on premium sites perform better. comScore's The Halo Effect: How Advertising on Premium Publishers Drives Higher Ad Effectiveness shows a 3X increase in mid-funnel effectiveness and 67% higher brand lift on premium sites that charge premium prices. Two cliches come to mind: "location, location, location and "you get what you pay for."
An analysis of more than 3,800 Digital Ad Ratings campaigns run in Canada showed that ads targeted to 18-49-year-olds were on-target 71% of the time. This plus other key points about marketing in Canada, such as 1 out of 6 Canadians have ad blockers installed, and smartphones and tablets account for a majority of traffic to e-commerce sites.

As you contemplate a digital transformation, here are seven questions to ask. They include: is this a digital upgrade or transformation? Have you put walls around your digital team? Do you know how to measure the value you intend to create?
Wherever you are on the spectrum of digital readiness, it's important to identify and embrace authentic informal leaders within your company. These include people who are exemplars, networkers, early adopters, or pride builders, all without having the formal title or authority.
GE CMO Linda Boff talks about the bets she is making GE is placing in social, content marketing, and brand strategy: GE and the Art of Brand Reinvention. It's fascinating to watch a blue chip company continue to evolve and embrace new communications methods, particularly in the B2B space.
Verizon has increased its data limits — and more critically its pricing — sponsoring the hashtag #IGotVerizon on Twitter as part of the campaign. As you can imagine, that ended as only such a tone deaf marketing ploy could: with thousands of outraged customers online. And then a Verizon spokesperson had the gall to try to convince everyone that it wasn't a price hike.
Mad Men was a great show, as it depicted the advertising industry in its heyday in (mostly) the 1960s. If Don Draper were around today, these 25 GIFs capture what Mad Men would be like.

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Platforms

Facebook
- Messenger now features Instant Articles for Android devices; iOS will be here in a couple of weeks. Facebook keeps marching forward on its desire to keep people within the app.
- The Wall Street Journal is wary about putting all of its eggs in Facebook's basket. Even publications like the New York Times that are creating daily Facebook Live videos still hold back much of their content from Instant Articles, citing concerns over reader data and giving away too much content for free.
- Carolyn Everson, Facebook's top marketing executive, describes the social network’s ambitious efforts to forge enduring and meaningful relationships — with employees, industry partners, and everyone on Earth.
- When it comes to breaking news, it's not Facebook or Twitter; there's something special that makes them more powerful when used together.

Twitter/Periscope/Vine
- Twitter will be streaming several Bloomberg TV programs in a new deal announced last week. More evidence that broadcasters need to move beyond a single medium with their video programming, just as many are using Facebook Live.
- On the heels of its success streaming Wimbeldon, Twitter signed a deal to bring Pac-12 university sports to its streaming service. This includes at least 150 games from the 12 schools for the 2016-17 academic year. Increasingly, livestreaming is the medium of note for sports viewing.
- Twitter has also secured the rights to stream the Democratic and Republican conventions. The Daily Show has an extensive multimedia coverage plan for both as well. It's not surprising that Twitter is focusing on livestreaming sports and politics; the American media treat both in the same way.
- Twitter is opening Gnip's Audience API so that any brand can access demographic and interest data about anyone who sees its tweets or visits its site. This is the kind of data that has been sorely lacking in Twitter analytics for some time, and a step closer to making it more competitive with Facebook. All that was required to activate it was the imminent collapse of Twitter.
  - As Vine's userbase fails to grow, nearly all of the top product and business leaders have left over the past four months. But Twitter has bigger problems to solve that are going to take longer than six seconds.

Snapchat
- Snapchat has hired a Hollywood special effects artist as an "augmented reality designer." Augmented reality is the new battleground for social (see Pokémon GO below).
- If Snapchat's advertising sales strategy of structuring around industry verticals sounds familiar, it should: it's Facebook's. Ah, the benefit of being a fast follower.
- Here are 10 Snapchat hacks to help your snaps stand out, including complementary color schemes, combining filters, adding a soundtrack and using Snapchat hands-free. But wait, there's more!
- You already do Snapchat on your own. But if you need to think about it for your business, you'll want to follow these three tips.

Yahoo
- Final bids are due for Yahoo's core Internet business today. Check the eBay status to be updated by text 15 minutes before the auction ends. And if Verizon wins, don't tell them they overpaid.

Google
- Google has unlocked new travel and shopping experiences on search and YouTube. The features are designed to improve the mobile experience and give users more control over what they see.

Trivia question: According to a spoof report on Medium this week, after more than three years as a fugitive, what were the circumstances in which Edward Snowden was captured?*

Collaborative / Autonomous Economy

The collaborative economy is solving all of the wrong problems. A valet on a scooter to part your car? Check. A smart button and zipper that will alert you when your fly is down? Sure. An app that lets us brew coffee from anywhere. Absolutely. These are the pressing issues of the 21st century?
Transportation
- Look out, Via, Lyft and other competitors — including the New York City subway. Uber is using Standard Oil-like techniques to put you out of business this summer.
- Uber hired a research firm staffed with veterans of the CIA and NSA to secretly investigate the plaintiff's attorney in a class action lawsuit it's facing. The presiding judge has already ruled the evidence constitutes "a reasonable basis to suspect the perpetration of fraud." Uber is a great service and a well designed app. But what's the tipping point with business practices that make you decide to stop using something? This may be it for some customers.

Lodging
- Airbnb and American Express are partnering in an effort to attract more business travelers. Uber similarly has a partnership with Amex in which cardholders get 2X points for Uber rides and can use points to pay for rides. Alert your corporate travel team.
  - Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the short-term rental business, to determine if it is driving shortages and increasing costs.
Autonomous Vehicles
- Following its highly publicized accident involving Autopilot, the SEC is investigating Telsa for failing to disclose a material development to investors.
- Meanwhile, Consumer Reports called on Tesla to disable Autopilot feature. This is the same company that gave Tesla an unprecedented 103 on a scale of 100. CR said that the name "Autopilot" and the aggressive marketing around it "promoted a dangerously premature assumption that the Model S was capable of truly driving on its own." We agree. And since when is it acceptable to launch a car that is still in "beta-testing" mode?
AI/Bots
- The US government says that if you make less than $20 a hour, a robot will take your job. Great. Because this newsletter gig pays way less than that.
- Not to worry; this is an equal opportunity future. There are $200,000 a year jobs on Wall Street that will be affected by robots as well. According to McKinsey, jobs related to data collection and analysis are most at risk. The downside is there will still be managers.

Virtual Reality / Audio

Virtual Reality
- Pokémon GO is seeing more engagement than Facebook and has more daily active users than Twitter. Evidently, Snapchat is still safe. And they can't find a robot to play Pokémon for me either.
- You knew it was coming: the Definitive, Super-Awesome Guide to Using Pokémon GO to 'Catch' More Customers.
- You knew it was coming, part 2: brands will be getting in on the Pokémon action. Makes sense for brick and mortar locations; too bad Amazon is left out in the cold on this one.
- It's likely that the first corporate deal for Pokémon will be with McDonalds, according to this bit of code that was unearthed.
- Always willing to shamelessly flaunt itself try the latest thing to lure new customers, T-Mobile is giving customers a year of free data to play Pokémon GO.
- And yes, Pokémon GO nearly claimed its first victim, as a 28 year-old man drove into a tree while playing.

Audio
- As its podcast listeners have grown, NPR’s listening on traditional terrestrial radio has been trending up as well, with an overall gain of 16 percent for its signature news magazine programs “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” in 2016’s first quarter. Could podcasts be the savior of radio?
- eMusic is launching eStories, an audiobook service that will compete with Audible. Suddenly paid audio is a hot commodity.
- Inside the small teams at Spotify, Google, and Apple that make tens of thousands of playlists listened to by tens of millions of people around the world. Curation is still very much a human function.
- Program of the Week. This week's recommendation is Freakonomics, suggested by Alex Hultgren. Host Stephen Dubner has surprising conversations that explore the riddles of everyday life and the weird wrinkles of human nature—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts

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Content / Customer Experience / Influencer Marketing

Technology can make you a smarter marketer. For example, try auditing your content, maximize your keyword research and five other ways to become a smarter content marketer by using technology.
Nasdaq's newly launched Influencers tool caters specifically to marketing professionals and thought leaders around the industry, helping companies connect with influencers on the topics they choose.
Want to see how some of the best brands do it? Here are eight examples of brilliant conent marketing from brands. Denny's FTW.
The three-act story structure is a classic. But when trying to tell a story, don't start with the three acts; start with the transitions that bridge each act.
Want better brand stories? Start with a little humor.
The Miami-Herald has reorganized its beat coverage by topic instead of geography, with each team responsible for a beat functioning like an independent startup. Consider altnernative thinking like this as you organize your own internal teams that are responsible for content creation.

*Create teams and content that ma**tch customer needs rather than your org chart*. [TWEET THIS]

Privacy / Security / Legal

With all the furor over Pokémon GO, perhaps it's not surprising that some people missed a major security risk in the game: iOS users who signed up with their Google accounts were required to give full access to their accounts to Pokémon / Niantic Labs. The company and Google later corrected this error. Even so, some people didn't even care and kept playing anyway. It's that crazy.
And for those who didn't read the Pokémon GO Terms of Service closely, they also gave up certain legal rights.
Google is notifying customers that it is the target of 4,000 state-sponsored cyber attacks per month. No mention of which state(s). Our guess is China, North Korea and Vermont.
Don't go sharing your Facebook, Netflix, or HBOGo passwords. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it is a federal crime — one that violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Unless it's the new season of Game of Thrones, then I'm your man.

Measurement / Metrics / Data

How much do marketing tools matter? The answer is spatula.
Most social marketers in North America find measuring ROI to be a challenge. According to research, well over half said they felt this way, topping other potential obstacles like securing budgets and tying efforts to business goals.
Here's a simple guide to setting up analytics for startups and companies with growth goals - in just 5 steps.
Predictive analytics is proving to be quite effective for conversions, but less so for customer insights.

* Answer to the trivia question above:

The CIA captured Snowden while he was walking the streets of Moscow’s Arbat District, where he was lured out in the middle of the night by a Very RarePokemon placed just a few hundred feet from where American intelligence agents suspected him to be staying.

When You Have the Time: Essential Watching / Listening / Reading

Silicon Valley's co-working boom is actually a symptom of the soul-crushing loneliness that the tech industry induces.
The way the media covers politics is partly to blame for the rise of Trump. As are we, the consumers of the news.
A writer's life largely consists of luck and privilege. Or so says this individual who became a writer at the age of 16.
Sometimes, it's important to slow down and appreciate the finer things. Such as The Suit that Couldn't Be Copied.

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These limericks are often quite jaunty;

We're wary of making them flaunty.

You're used to the snark,

But now we'll embark

To make an audio Full Monty.

I speak to groups and advise brands and agencies to help them embrace the fundamentals of human communication in the digital age. You can join these other top-notch clients by reaching out if you'd like to put my experience and digital smarts to work on a project, to consult with your group, or to address an audience at your next corporate or industry event.

Image credit: Thomas Hawk, "If I Expect to Get On With My Life" (Flickr)

Monday, July 18, 2016