The Full Monty — May 15, 2017

Sometimes technology makes you WannaCry; a look at the NYT Story[X] R&D lab; using machine learning to prove customer lifetime value; self-driving car battles; the voice-enabled speaker market is on the move — even for the elderly; what keeps advertisers up at night; remote working is all that — except when it's not; innovations in retail drive shopping changes and competition; but Sears stopped innovating years ago; Twitter and the NFL's daily programming; Facebook and Google's aim to improve ads; Snap lost $2B in Q1; TV still has the power to reach people at scale; audio branding comes to hotels; trends in virtualization security; the threats to Uber's future; four types of analytics to investigate; how to identify an exceptional leader; a plum job opening; ; and more in the WannaCry edition of The Full Monty. We're sure you subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, and don't forget check out where Brain+Trust is speaking (final section below).

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Programming Note:
We have new section headers. They're related to the previous ones, but track more closely to the work we do at Brain+Trust Partners and to the issues facing leaders today. If you have feedback, please feel free to let us know.

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and autonomous everything.

The New York Times has had an R&D lab since 2006 that has explored the future of technology and its role in our life, with a particular focus on how we get information. Relaunched as Story[X], here is an interview on which areas are most ripe for experimentation, and what technology news organizations aren’t paying enough attention to.
Airbnb is using automated machine learning to improve its business, including visualizing data before embarking on a modeling exercise. And just in case you think this is merely a play zone for data scientists, marketers should pay attention: Airbnb uses machine learning to build customer lifetime value models (LTV) for guests and hosts.
Cisco acquired conversational AI startup MindMeld for $125 million to enhance its collaboration suite.
When applied properly, wearable technology is more than fancy gadgets and do-dads that tell you your BMI and the time. Case in point: Microsoft's wearable technology gives hope to Parkinson's patients.

Uber's future doesn't depend on regulatory success, culture change, or intellectual property. The real threat to Uber is self-driving cars.
Which is why the Waymo lawsuit is so critical to Uber currently. And a federal judge just referred the matter to a federal prosecutor rather than arbitration and a federal judge has ordered Uber to return "pilfered" files to Waymo. Don't take the law into your own hands; you take 'em to court.
Lesson learned, as they taking any more chances with acquired technology: Uber hired University of Toronto AI expert Raquel Urtasun to oversee development of new AI research lab.
Meanwhile, Lyft and Waymo have reached an agreement to collaborate on self-driving cars. Not content to win only in court, Alphabet's self-driving car division is out to ensure its dominance over Uber.
Apple isn't working on its own autonomous vehicle; it's developing an entire autonomous operating system.
The world's first all-electric autonomous container ship will launch in 2018 as autonomous technology continues its expansion in the transportation sector.
The voice-enabled speaker market will grow 130% this year according to an eMarketer report. And Amazon currently controls 70% of it, ahead of Google Home's 24%.
Microsoft is entering the voice-enabled speaker market with its Invoke smart speaker bringing Cortana technology to the home.
SNL demonstrated its keen understanding of the Greatest Generation with this faux ad for an Amazon Echo Silver edition. It does point out one flaw in audio bots and the user experience: that there's no search, dropdown or other visual menu options; users are left to struggle their way through via speech.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

Industry developments and trends, including retail, fake news, customer experience, content marketing, and influencer relations.

What's on advertisers' minds these days? Mostly ad blocking. And viewability of ads.
Christopher Penn has 8 digital marketing tasks to help small businesses grow, from search optimization to analytics to CMS. Penn's tips are always worth digging into and implementing.
How Wendy's got involved in the world's most retweeted tweet. Sometimes a man just needs his nuggs. Wendy's has continued to show personality and savvy in social media, demonstrating how humanizing the company can boost its profile. As of last week, sales at same stores were up 1.6% YoY, beating analysts' forecast of 1.1%.
IBM's Smarter Workforce unit spoke at a conference, extolling the virtues of a remote workforce, saying that work-from-home talent tended to be “more engaged, have stronger trust in leadership and much stronger intention to stay.” They evidently didn't get the memo from IBM's marketing leadership, who just recalled all marketing staff to six offices. The truth is out there.
Not all success stories are heroes' journeys. An unlikely headline: Marketer suppresses instincts, commissions market research, follows recommendations, and achieves increased share.

THIS WEEK IN RETAIL:

Sears is in a world of hurt. It was more influential in 1900 than Amazon is today. And yet, we're witnessing the long, hard, unprecedented fall of Sears.
Whole Foods is replacing half of its board, as it comes under threat from other grocery chains and an activist investor.
There are so many headlines about brick and mortar retailers in deep trouble. But many — such as Walmart [a Brain+Trust client] — are fighting back by innovating to compete with Amazon.
Case in point: Walmart's Jet.com opened a boutique grocery store concept of the future in New York.
And Walmart may be on a path to become the next big bank in the United States with its incentivized plan to help customers squirrel away money.

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Platforms

News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.

TWITTER / PERISCOPE

Twitter announced a new deal for year-round NFL content that includes a 30-minute live digital show that will air five nights per week.
Number stations have found a home on Twitter. What are number stations, you ask? A number station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. And these are now appearing on Twitter, the 21st century broadcast channel.

FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

You're sick of sites with crappy ads. And so is Facebook. Now sites that have a less-than-optimal user experience will be downgraded by Facebook's algorithm. And there was much rejoicing. Now go check your site.

SNAP

Snap, Inc. made its first financial results disclosure, for Q1 2017. Figures showed a $2 billion loss related the the awarding of shares and options to employees and CEO Evan Spiegel. Absent that one-time fee, the company lost only $188 million.
Several studies show that existing Snapchat users are staying loyal to the social network, despite Instagram stunting its growth.
Snapchat added several new creative tools to help keep up with Instagram, including infinite loops, draw with emoji, unlimited viewing time, and a "magic eraser."

ALPHABET / GOOGLE

Believe it or not, Google's ad blocking technology may save the ad industry. While the tool blocks ads that annoy people, it may cause advertisers to address the suboptimal experience they're forcing on consumers. Now go check your site.

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

VIDEO

Apple is announcing that Amazon Prime will be available on Apple TV.

While addressing advertising executives, TV network executives say that television is still where advertisers ought to be putting resources. Well, it is Upfronts season...

Where do Americans watch TV? There's still a preference for watching it on a large, flat screen mounted to the wall That's right, on television — 75% of viewing is via set-top boxes, TV connectors and smart apps connected to a TV. Smartphone and tablet viewing account for 4% and 5%, respectively.

AUDIO

Similarly, old boring radio remains strong. But 60dB aims to update the radio experience by mimicking the process, but providing more personalized and short-form content.
The creators of the mp3 are declaring it dead. Now in favor? A similar format called AAC, which has more efficiency and functionality. We were kind of rooting for Ogg Vorbis. Because it's fun to say. Try it: Ogg Vorbis.
American Public Media's “Marketplace” is expanding its staff, producing more audio podcasts and figuring out other ways to reach listeners and generate more revenue. In our head, we're hearing more "We're In the Money" and less "Stormy Weather."
Businesses ought to pay attention to their audio branding. Case in point: some hotels are getting soundtracks.
Program of the Week: Since we're talking about Marketplace, this week's recommendation is "Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly," a podcast about the economy, technology and culture. Hosts Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood will use their expertise to connect the dots on the topics they know best, and get help from listeners and experts about the ones they want to know better.. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
And don't forget to subscribe to our show via email or on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.

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Regulatory / Security

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

THIS WEEK IN HACKING:

The big news in the world of security last week was the WannaCry malware infiltration that initially hit 16 UK health institutions by using NSA techniques to hold computer data ransom for bitcoin.
It was the ransomware attack that experts had been warning about. Major institutions in Spain were affected as well as England's NHS, followed by other businesses in Russia, China, and some 150 other countries.
The spread was temporarily slowed by a security expert who found a kill switch embedded in the software. Namely, a web domain that hadn't yet been purchased.
But it's not over yet, as more disruptions are feared. Microsoft is blaming government secrecy for its inability to do more; the company issued software patches, but ironically, in China, where software piracy is rampant, these patches won't work.
The Guardian has a constantly-updating chronicle of the events as they unfold.

Expect to hear more about virtualization security. Here are five trends to expect from the industry:

The number of attacks on corporate players will continue to grow.
Corporations will invest more in hybrid cloud protection — private IT infrastructure and public cloud infrastructure.
Powerful yet resource-efficient security solutions will need to be tightly integrated with enterprise mobility systems — a major challenge.
Ransomware will become a headache for virtualized desktops.
Virtualization security will focus more on integration between infrastructure and security solution.

The US is planning to ban laptops from all flights entering the country from Europe, according to European security officials.
President Trump just signed an order for a full review of the country's digital defenses.

COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY

In addition to its collaboration with Waymo, Lyft is putting the pressure on Uber with a new VP of brand marketing and a roster of agencies.
Despite its market dominance, there are a number of big threats to Uber's future. From financing to Waymo, they're all ranked in this article. Oh, and #DeleteUber.
Uber suffered a setback to its global expansion plans on Thursday when a senior adviser to Europe’s highest court recommended that the ride-hailing company comply with the region’s tough transportation rules, rather than an intermediary between drivers and passengers.
9 tips and tricks for getting the most out of Uber. Now that you've got that out of your system, #DeleteUber.
The term "coworking" used to mean something different than what it means today. Now it's less about human interaction and more about infrastructure.
It's referred to as the "gig economy," the "sharing economy," and other terms. Whatever you call it, The New Yorker wonders, is it working?

Measurement / Analytics / Data

The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.

IBM heralds a future in which the masters of data are kings: demand for data scientists will grow 28% by 2020. Start recruiting efforts now.
All analytics are not equal. Here are four types of analytics to investigate, from scored analytics to behavioral analytics, and learning analytics to the future of machine learning.
Nasdaq's Corporate Solutions CCO Measurement Survey elicited a number of fascinating insights. Katie Delahaye Paine looks at six points, including: the importance of lead generation, the difference between business goals and activity metrics, and more.

Mental Nourishment

Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.

If you want to know if someone is an exceptional leader, look for these seven signs.
Interestingly, effective leaders now need to manage up, down, and sideways. Top-down management is dead.
Humans are strange creatures. No matter how much things change, human nature is constant. And in this case social proof means that we still look to others for what we should think and do.
It's a changing world and thus we'll need to adapt our workforce accordingly. By 2020, these 10 employee skills will be in huge demand. From new media literacy to social intelligence, cross-cultural competency, design thinking and more.
You would think that in the digital world, with all of its mechanisms for feedback and data gathering, that emotional intelligence would be easy. Some people still struggle with it.
And finally, if you like music and you're in the corporate library space, you might want to check out the librarian job opening at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Upcoming Brain+Trust Speaking Engagements

Keynote at the CEO Communications Summit at Concordia University's John Molson School of Business in Montreal, June 13-14, 2017. (Scott)
Keynote at Health:Further in Nashville, August 23-25, 2017 (Frank and Scott)
Can we speak for your organization? Drop us a line.

Brain+Trust Partners doesn't believe in gobbledygook — we use common sense strategic guidance to help you master the evolving marketplace. From strategy development to technology and data vendor selection, to digital transformation and streamlining processes, our focus is on the customer experience. And our decades of experience working for major brands means that we deeply understand the challenges you're facing. Let us know if we can help you.

Top photo credit: The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve by William Blake (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Monday, May 15, 2017