Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The Full Monty — May 30, 2017



A tech journalist gives us a guide to the future in his swan song; AI is a gift to marketing; the future of the automotive industry is digital; executives need higher confidence in their organizations' Digital IQ; digital display ads are on the outs; ethics and legal considerations for influencer marketing; the first brick and mortar Amazon store is in NYC; happy birthday to the GIF; Facebook is refunding advertisers amid a measurement glitch; Google's personal search option; Pinterest is gaining hold among marketers; opportunities within the a deep dive into the podcasting industry and a look at the many opportunities; mobile ransomware  is up; on-demand workers will double in the next four years; Lyft's moves against Uber; Google Attribution is the holy grail of advertising; becoming more deliberately reflective; and more in the Memorial Day 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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The Full Monty, a Brain+Trust Partners publication, exposes you to virtually everything you need in business intelligence at the top of every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And please click send your colleagues to this page to sign up as well.

We've got all of these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — in The Full Monty Magazine on Flipboard.



Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and autonomous everything.
  • The venerable tech reporter Walt Mossberg has written his last column. And appropriately enough, he takes us to the future beyond the personal computer: AI, AR, drones, robotics, wearables, and self-driving cars. You'll recognize many of those topics as the same that we cover here
  • A look at the challenges and benefits of robots as societal guardians against crime amid Dubai's introduction of fleet of robots with face scanning-tech to its police force; citizens will be able to ask them questions, report crimes, and pay fines. 
  • Forget the notion of AI taking away jobs, Christopher Penn says. The future of marketing is bright with artificial intelligence: instead of spending our time doing menial, repetitive tasks, the future will bring us the ability to design and build the experiences we want for our customers, companies and more.
  • Facebook is updating its bot platform in Messenger. And the overarching strategy keeps the following in mind, via David Marcus: "People, consumers, don’t want bots, they want to interact with businesses or services and they don’t really care whether it’s automated or not automated, whether it’s actually a bot or not a bot. They just want a great experience." This applies for every platform you try.
  • Google has launched a new venture capital program focused on artificial intelligence, to be led by engineers.
  • Apple is working on a dedicated chip to power AI on all of its devices. It would improve the way the company’s devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition.

AUTONOMOUS

  • If ever there was an industry ripe for disruption — and in need of a tech overhaul — the automotive industry is it. The omnipresent software/services approach means that the future of the automobile is actually digital.
  • To wit: BMW and IBM are teaming up to build "cars of the future." The collaboration will see the pair explore ways that IBM Watson’s conversational and machine learning capabilities can be used to primarily create a more personalized driving experience as well enhance safety.
  • Ford Motor Company's new smart mobility chief is Marcy Klevorn, a long-serving member of Ford's IT department . She fills the gap left by Jim Hackett, who was promoted to CEO after the board fired Mark Fields. Klevorn may well be in the running as potential CEO, given the focus that the company is putting on autonomous vehicles and mobility services.



Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

THIS WEEK IN RETAIL:

    OTHER:

    • Lauren Kern, executive editor at New York magazine, is leaving to become the first-ever editor in chief of Apple News.
    • If you want to stop #FakeNews from spreading, there are four ways to fight back and they involve understanding the four elements that make a fake news story work in the first place: emotional appeal, veneer of authority, insertion point into the online space, and social amplification.
    • There was a not-so-super secret login/password combo across a number of online news sites. Now that has gone away. And it had nothing to do with a Trump administration leak. The first rule of media/media is don't talk about media/media.
    • Giphy is determined to build a real business by animating the internet.
      • The file format that has done more to change the web is celebrating a birthday. That's right. The GIF turned 30. And here we thought being a Millennial was all that.



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    Platforms 

    News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.
    • Facebook and Google are in a pitched battle for which platform is superior at driving clicks to websites. It turns out that it depends on the type of content. Facebook is better at moving traffic to lifestyle and entertainment stories; Google succeeds with tech, business and sports.

    TWITTER / PERISCOPE

    • Twitter has hired former Bloomberg executive Todd Swidler to run its live video business. Just another indication of how much of a strategic priority live video is for Twitter as it competes with Facebook.
    • Twitter is doing its best to drive the kind of engagement that brands eagerly seek with users by employing Direct Message cards that shuttle users from public tweets to DMs involving partially automated responses.
    • Donald Trump's iPhone has only one app. Any guesses as to what it is?

    FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

    ALPHABET / GOOGLE

    • Google has added a 'Personal' tab to search results. The personal tab shows results from users' Gmail, Photos, purchases and more. Part of Google's efforts to keep users more closely aligned with their service over others — especially when it comes to communications and visual media. It also bodes well for email marketers.

    SNAP

    • Snapchat is incentivizing brands and media buyers, offering bonuses, discount coupons and media credits for ad buys carried out in the second quarter of 2017. This is widely seen as an effort to goose its Q2 numbers after reporting a multimillion dollar loss in Q1.

    PINTEREST

    • Pinterest is quietly gaining a foothold among marketers. The company has released a number of new features over the past year and has taken a more aggressive strategy with agencies. Analytics, targeting and a variety of advertising options make Pinterest a smart choice.

    VR/AR

    • Augmented reality is expected to get a boost from Snapchat Lenses and Facebook Stories (and likely from fast follower Instagram as well). In 2017, 40 million people in the US will engage with some form of AR at least monthly, up 30.2% over last year. 


    Media

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

    VIDEO

    AUDIO

    • Did you know that many people speak at a pace that is vastly below what your ear and brain can follow? The solution for some podcast listeners: speed listening.
    • An excellent deep dive into the podcast industry as it stands: from growing listenership to measuring listens and ad delivery, the pipeline of talent, new iOS sharing features, and more.
    • Edison Research VP Tom Webster is always generous with his insights. In this case he gives us not his two cents but his five-and-a-half cents on the current state of podcasting. There are many opportunities ahead.
    • Program of the Week: Walmart has launched its own podcast Outside the Box: conversations with thought leaders, innovators and visionaries, from the granular elements of retail to macro explorations about the global economy. (Disclosure: Walmart is a Brain+Trust client.) 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 iTunesGoogle PlayStitcher,  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:


    COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY



    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.


    Mental Nourishment

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




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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: Ft. Henry Bombardment 1814 by Dr.frog at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

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