Episode 04: Cameras and CEOs

They say seeing is believing. But do our cameras deceive us? And what happens when our access to certain elements of our favorite devices is cut off? How we see and respond to the world with what we perceive.

CEOs need to be more digitally savvy. They need it to keep them level with customers and to help inform strategy. But are enough of them doing it?

Be sure to catch The Naked Truth trivia question.

Links

• The July 25 edition of The Full Monty newsletter
• The Financial Times is blocking ad blockers in a unique way: it is blocking certain words in its stories. 
• Disruption is in the news. Unilever acquired upstart Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion in an effort to better compete against Procter and Gamble's Gillette brand. Check out the article Dollar Shave Club and the Disruption of Everything.
• And Dave Delaney lightens the mood and enlightens us with 50 Life Lessons from Comedians in his takeaways from reading Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow.

Credits

Theme song: "The Liberty Bell," by John Philip Sousa, performed by the United States Marine Band and shared under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.
Incidental music: "One More Stripper" by APAMusic, royalty-free license from Pond5.com.
Voice over: Toni Deckers
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.

Episode 03: Pay Attention

We told you all about our perspectives on the Pokemon Go hoo-hah lately. But in the rush to be part of this craze that's sweeping the nation, many people breezed past a couple of critical issues in the signup process that could come back to haunt them later on.

Uber has used questionable business tactics to achieve their goals. But when is enough enough? What's the tipping point when their ethics will drive customers away?

Be sure to catch The Naked Truth trivia question.

Links

• The July 18 edition of The Full Monty newsletter
• If you're looking to move consumers from the "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.
• A new study from comScore shows that ads on premium sites perform better. The report 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.

Credits

Theme song: "The Liberty Bell," by John Philip Sousa, performed by the United States Marine Band and shared under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.
Incidental music: "One More Stripper" by APAMusic, royalty-free license from Pond5.com.
Voice over: Toni Deckers
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.

Episode 02: Live Video Censorship and Augmented Reality

Social change is never easy. In fact, it's usually messy. Facebook has a role to play, and it's up to them to determine the balance between agitator, conspirator, censor and intermediary. It's a delicate balance and one that will take time for them — and us — to figure out.

 Pokemon Go has recently taken over the collective interest of the Internet. The game brings people together in real life. What people subsequently do in real life is related to the app, but it's likely that the positive of humanity will shine through even outside of it.

Be sure to catch The Naked Truth trivia question.

Links

• The July 11 edition of The Full Monty newsletter
• The Pew Research Center's report on the Modern News Consumer
• What NPR has learned from its foray into live video.
• Seth Godin's an important piece on jobs, the economy and how the current education system isn't structured to support what we've built

Credits

Theme song: "The Liberty Bell," by John Philip Sousa, performed by the United States Marine Band and shared under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.
Incidental music: "One More Stripper" by APAMusic, royalty-free license from Pond5.com.
Voice over: Toni Deckers
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.

Episode 01: Video and Careless Sharing

We're witnessing a rebirth of television, simply on new platforms. In its earliest days, television was only broadcast live. You had to watch a show when it was on. Over time, we've grown accustomed to recording our favorite shows - first on VCRs and more recently on DVRs. So LIVE is a novelty. What's old is new again.

How often do you share links online? Probably every day. And multiple times a day, at that. But of the content you share, do you actually read all of it? Or do you simply share a link because you liked the headline?

Be sure to tune in for the Naked Truth trivia question and subscribe to us on iTunes.

Links

• The June 27 edition of The Full Monty newsletter

 

Credits

Theme song: "The Liberty Bell," by John Philip Sousa, performed by the United States Marine Band and shared under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.
Incidental music: "One More Stripper" by APAMusic, royalty-free license from Pond5.com.
Voice over: Toni Deckers
Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.

The Full Monty — July 25, 2016

The Full Monty exposes you to the business intelligence that matters at the top of every week. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And please share this with your colleagues if you find it valuable.

[Programming note: this is the final edition of The Full Monty that will appear on this site; we're moving the newsletter over to fullmontyshow.com next week, where it will be joined with The Full Monty podcast. We'll still be making regular posts and commentary here in our main feed.]
 

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Summary: Digital disruption may shake up the C-suite; visual and video continue to be forces of marketing nature; Facebook's 10-year plan; Twitter bans a troll for life; Verizon asks Yahoo if it can hear them now; how a viral video led to a $1 billion takeover; Airbnb gets former mayors and an attorney general; a human is the new bot at the NYPL; how marketers are using VR and AR; programmatic ads coming to Spotify; thinking differently about B2B content marketing; hacking the car; philosophy in comics; The Full Monty goes audio; plus our trivia challenge, podcast pick, a limerick and more.

Virtually everything you need in business intelligence. If you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — by subscribing to The Full Monty Magazine at smonty.co/fullmontymag.

 

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.

 

Industry

• Digital disruption is coming. Are your executives ready? According to a global study, the C-suite is woefully underprepared. They're particularly lacking in technical savvy and need to invest in ongoing innovation.
• Does your CEO understand your social strategy? If not, you don't have one. If you'd like to get their attention, there are ways to speak their language and validate your approach.
• A new report from Forrester Research says that CMOs are taking on a more strategic role within their organizations, gaining responsibility for a wider array of profit and operations targets and capturing a greater influence in the brand experience. Let's hope they tie this strategy experience together with the need for more innovation in the first story above.

 

• Design and technology company Monotype is acquiring Olapic, a startup that helps brands promote themselves with user-generated photos. Another notch in the belt of visual communications.
• The Financial Times is blocking ad blockers in a unique way: it is blocking certain words in its stories. We're likely to see additional creative ways to outsmart ad blockers int he future.
• The New York Times established T Brand Studio 2 1/2 years ago as a way to help agencies adopt and develop creative digital storytelling methods for ads. It was so successful that they're turning T Brand Studio into an full-fledged agency of its own. The Times set a goal of doubling its digital revenue to $800 million by 2020, and this is one of the ways it plans to get there.
• Viacom Lab is experimenting with new technology to engage viewers. The strategy is that every execution must be fan-centric or it isn't considered. Given the wide range of media properties under the Viacom umbrella, there could be some creative and highly scalable results.
• Clinton assembled a team of Silicon Valley stars; Donald Trump has Twitter. Hillary Clinton's chief technology officer has assembled a team of more than 50 engineers and developers who left lucrative careers at places like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The difference between the two campaigns is stark. We'll see which is more effective in November.
• Walt Mossberg says "We've reached peak app," and has deleted half of his iPhone apps. Should you?

 

---

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Some of the results are going to really surprise you.

---

Platforms

• Facebook / Instagram

  • In an exclusive with The Verge, Mark Zuckerberg lays out the plans for Facebook 2026: basic connectivity, bots, AI, AR, VR, and the test flight of its Internet drone.
  • Messenger now has a billion active users — Facebook's third app to reach that milestone. Don't mess with Messenger. It's a powerhouse of Facebook and it demonstrates the importance of messaging apps. 
  • Last month, we reported that Facebook wasy paying celebrities and influencers to use its Live video feature. Now Facebook is setting aside $2.2 million to pay YouTube and Vine stars to use Live video. Video is the future, and Facebook is betting on it.
  • Speaking of which, you can now stream up to four hours of Live video at once, along with being able to hide those annoying comments and reactions. Of particular interest for broadcast entities.
  • Instagram's new Business Tools give you the opportunity to create a business profile, look at audience insights, and promote content specifically to audiences that you choose. Stay tuned for the rollout in the months ahead.

• Twitter / Periscope / Vine

  • Ahead of Twitter's quarterly earnings call, eMarketer estimates the growth of the user base at 10.9%.
  • Taking some of the mystery out of the process, Twitter will allow anyone to apply for a verified account. However, the company says "an account may be verified if it is determined to be of public interest." Whatever that means.
  • Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative troll known as @nero, has been banned from Twitter for life, due to his unrelenting attacks on various individuals on Twitter. His account had been suspended twice previously, and he overdid it this time with racist remarks directed at a cast member of the new Ghostbusters movie.
  • Related: a former Google employee is creating a hate-free social network that is based on civility and respect. Can it work? Not during an election year.

• Snapchat

  • Snapchat is working on real-world image recognition that would allow related filters, ads and coupons automatically to be applied to them.

• Yahoo

  • Verizon is set to buy Yahoo's core business for $5 billion. It's hard to believe that Yahoo was once valued at $125 billion. Can you hear me now?
  • Yahoo promised "not to screw it up" with its acquisition of Tumblr. With another $482 million write-down, it has now written down $710 million of the $1.1 billion transaction.
  • Whatever happens, please save Flickr. Flickr is one of the few acquisitions that didn't suffer from the Yahoo reverse Midas touch.

• Microsoft / LinkedIn

  • The company introduced Microsoft Stream, a new business video service that democratizes access to and discovery of video at work. The future is video.

 

---

Trivia question: What unique branding tool did Hillary Clinton's campaign release last week?*

---

Collaborative / Autonomous Economy 

• Unilever acquired upstart Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion in an effort to better compete against Procter and Gamble's Gillette brand. It's Dollar Shave Club and the Disruption of Everything. The implications of this go far beyond the competition: fewer Gillette razors also mean less TV advertising and no margin to be made for retailers, who themselves are big advertisers.
• You too can create a business and sell it for a billion dollars, thanks in part to a viral video.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI&w=640&h=360]

 

• While we're on the subject of disrpution, it's a good time to stop and read about why marketers need to understand what blockchain is. Privacy, secure transactions, automation: marketing will be run on blockchain technology.

• Transportation

  • Uber's momentum is palpable, having reached two billion rides just six months after reaching one billion rides. Remind us about Uber's profitability again?
  • Uber is losing $1 billion a year in China. Intentionally. Investors think Uber is fighting a losing battle against Chinese competitor Didi Chuxing.

• Lodging

  • Airbnb has formed an adivosry council of former mayors: from Houston, Philadelphia, Rome, and Adelaide, Australia. It hopes to add more mayors, especially from Asia, Latin America, and other regions. That's one way of being more successful with regulations and laws at the local level.
  • Former attorney general Eric Holder is joining Airbnb to help end a racial discrimination problem with hosts.
  • In the Mission district of San Francisco, locals are Airbnb shaming hosts that they say are to blame for the growing gentrification and unaffordability of the area. They're posting flyers with the names and images of hosts.

• Autonomous Vehicles

  • Elon Musk's master plan, Phase II, is electric trucks and solar-powered vehicles. We're hoping for a wind-powered car too. Make it amphibious and we'll have our summer taken care of.

• AI/Bots

  • The New York Public Library has a human Google service: call (917) ASK NYPL and a live librarian will try to answer your question using 120 years of digital archives. Are there dead librarians that can do this? 
  • Google is using machine learning to make digital comic books easier to read with its Bubble Zoom technology. 

 

Virtual Reality / Audio

• Virtual / Augmented Reality

  • Only 7% of game developers were working on augmented reality in 2014; in 2015, that number grew to 20%. The article cites Pokemon GO as the reason for the growth — which is patently false, since the game has been out just a few weeks. But it will likely have a positive effect in the year ahead.
  • ZipCar is using Pokemon GO to introduce people to its service: for one day only, it offered free rides to Pokemon players in Boston. Smart integration of a service with the game.
  • Pokemon GO has caused people to crash cars, find dead bodies and become mugging victims. But what's Congress concerned with? That the game uses too much data (according to them). Maybe they could turn their attention to YouTube and Netflix instead.
  • A look at how marketers are using VR and AR.
  • What are the game design considerations for creating a VR experience that will be compelling for not only the primary player, but also the spectators who may be watching it on a livestream?

• Audio

  • Now Americans will have the benefit of the hearing the Beeb with the BBC iPlayer radio app being released in the US.
  • NPR isn't promoting its podcasts on the radio. However, its digital presence NPR One and the show Invisibilia are cross-promoting each other and Invisibilia is using NPR One as the home for extra content.
  • Apple Music is getting serious about matching music — something it was under fire for botching — as it begins to roll out iTunes Match.
  • Spotify is starting programmatic ad buying, which lets advertisers target its 70 million nonpaying users by age, gender, genres, and playlists globally.
  • And French music subscription service Deezer is coming to the US amid a crowded field.
  • Program of the Week. This week's recommendation is Behind the Numbers, a freewheeling conversation from eMarketer about digital media and marketing, and how digital is transforming business—and even life. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts
  • Reminder: The Full Monty show will be launching very soon.

 

---

Sponsor — Content Marketing World

Time is running out! Content Marketing World is back for a 6th year, where you can learn and network with 4,000+ of your marketing peers in the largest content marketing event on the planet. September 6-9, 2016 in Cleveland, OH. 

Use the code MONTY200 to save $200 off of the main event and all-access registrations. Just click here to get started.

Questions? Ask the CMWorld event team. Hope to see you there!

---

Content / Customer Experience / Influencer Marketing

• Looking to improve your video marketing efforts? Start by focusing on feelings, drivers, targeting and distribution.
• You'll also want to read up on four proven ways to maximize the value of your video marketing.
• Is your content what consumers really want? Time for a reality check.
• If you're in B2B marketing, it's so hard to find content, right? Wrong! Gini Dietrich has many concepts and tactics to help you think differently about B2B marketing.
• For customer acquisition and retention, email marketing wins in both categories. It may seem old school, but it works.

 

Privacy / Security / Legal

• With so much attention on the connected car and autonomous driving, car-hacking has the industry's highest level of attention.
  • Not convinced? Here's how hackers use laptops to steal cars. 
• There's a huge security bug in iPhones currently. Update your software to iOS 9.3.3immediately.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, alleging that security researchers are restricted from doing their jobs.
• New technology for blocking smart phones at concerts is in the works.

 

Measurement / Metrics / Data

• An enterprising reporter rewrote some of the lyrics to Paul Simon's classic "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" to develop 50 ways to measure your analytics. Effective tactics, but boy, she doesn't have a grasp of meter. The great irony is that her first name is Melody.

"The problem is all inside your figures," she said to me.
"The answer is easy if you think more than numerically.
I'd like to help you in your struggle to count your impact perfectly.
There must be (at least) 50 ways to measure success for a news article."

• The most important part of a data-driven marketing effort is personalization. While it comes easily for email marketing, it's not quite so simple for web content. 

 

---

* Answer to the trivia question above: 

• Hillary Clinton's campaign released Trump Yourself, which connects your Facebook account with some of the more outré things that Donald Trump has said over the course of the campaign. See how his insults apply to people like you.

---

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

• This will melt your brain. In the face of increasing complexity, experts are ever more likely to be taken by surprise when systems behave in unpredictable and unexpected ways. The World Depends on Technology that No One Understands. 
• Dave Delaney lightens the mood and enlightens us with 50 Life Lessons from Comedians in his takeaways from reading Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow. 
• You've probably been a fan of Calvin and Hobbes at one point. Did you know that the erstwhile comic strip about the boy and his stuffed tiger is actually great literature. An example of the best books changing with us as we age.  

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600.0"] Source: Wikipedia[/caption]

---

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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 credits: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Calvin and Hobbes 

--

 

The Full Monty — July 18, 2016

The Full Monty exposes you to the business intelligence that matters at the top of every week. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And please share this with your colleagues if you find it valuable.

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.

Virtually everything you need in business intelligence. If you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — by subscribing to The Full Monty Magazine at smonty.co/fullmontymag.

If you're around at 9:30 pm ET on Sunday evenings, you can get a preview of a couple of topics from the week's via the live video on Facebook. If not, you can always catch the replay here.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fscottmonty%2Fvideos%2F10153654283696625%2F&show_text=0&width=560

 

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

Coming up shortly, The Full Monty podcast will launch as a companion piece to this newsletter. You'll get commentary, analysis and trivia in 15 minutes or less. Please sign up to be updated on the progress of the project: fullmontyshow.com.

 

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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Sponsor — Content Marketing World

Content Marketing World is back for a 6th year! Learn and network with 4,000+ of your marketing peers in the largest content marketing event on the planet taking place September 6-9, 2016 in Cleveland, OH. 

Use the code MONTY200 to save $200 off of the main event and all-access registrations. Just click here to get started.

Questions? Ask the CMWorld event team. Hope to see you there!

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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. 

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

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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.

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* 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.

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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.

 

Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to to have trends on digital communications, marketing, technology and business delivered to your inbox each Monday.

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)

 

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The Full Monty — July 11, 2016

The Full Monty exposes you to the business intelligence that matters at the top of every week. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And please share this with your colleagues if you find it valuable.

The role of live video and robots in last week's shooting events; Pokemon Go takes over the world; important aspects of the modern news consumer from Pew; Walmart goes all-out with its payment app and storytelling; Messenger goes crypto; streaming sports on Twitter; Memories are the new standard for Snapchat; AI with a side of emotion; curated content works; it pays to know your influencers; don't leak data; CEOs need to lead digital strategy; The Full Monty goes audio; plus our trivia challenge, podcast pick, a NEW limerick and more.

Virtually everything you need in business intelligence. If you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — by subscribing to The Full Monty Magazine at smonty.co/fullmontymag.

If you're around at 9:30 pm ET on Sunday evenings, you can get a preview of a couple of topics from the week's via the live video on Facebook. If not, you can always catch the replay here.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fscottmonty%2Fvideos%2F10153638985301625%2F&show_text=0&width=560

 

Join Me

• I'm hosting an online seminar for MarketingProfs THIS WEEK — on July 14: Making the Customer the Center of What We Do.
• 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.

 

Industry

• Last week's shootings put technology in the spotlight. 
  • Facebook Live was used to broadcast the aftermath of Philandro Castile's shooting by Minnesota police. His girlfriend had the sense to turn on live video and explain what had just happened.
  • The company promotes Live video heavily, but is now struggling to deal with the effects of such videos being available. Is it right to broadcast live videos of this nature? What about the 13-18 year-olds who are on the platform (at least the ones who haven't left for Snapchat)? Is it ethical to expose them to this content?
  • The video was not available for a short time, causing some to accuse Facebook of censorship; the company says it was a technical glitch. It was later restored with a graphic violence warning. Facebook's position is that it only removes content if it celebrates or glorifies violence, not if it’s only graphic or disturbing. We have to hand it to Mark Zuckerberg for staying true to his vision of making the world a more open and connected place. He is unflinching, even in uncomfortable situations like this. Does Zuckerberg's quest for an open society justify such shocking and graphic videos being shown to everyone?
  • Aside from the shocking nature of such videos and the question of censorship, there's another issue at play: are news stories and personal experiences in Facebook's feed being ranked based on format or on importance?
  • Related: Mark Hughes was unfairly targeted as a suspect in the Dallas shootings, with police tweeting their need to find him. But Twitter and TV worked in tandem to clear him.
  • And the Dallas Police Department became the first to use a robot to kill a suspect. Once technology is involved at this level, does this eliminate or reduce the humanity in subduing criminals? Perhaps there are lessons from the use of military drones in strikes against terrorist cells.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920.0"] Thank you for your cooperation.[/caption]

 

• Too many details to share here — you should check out the report in its entirety — but the Pew Research Center has a report on The Modern News Consumer. From the pathways to news (less print, more online and still a lot of TV), to the issue of trust (there's some but not a lot), loyalty (split, although TV wins again), social engagement (drops with more required from readers), digital distinctions (happening upon news rather than seeking it out), attitudes of young adults (follow news less closely, are more skeptical).
  • Here's a quick summary of five key findings about the traits and habits of US news consumers.
  • Related: Pew looks at the State of the News Media in 2016.
• Despite the overall good news for television and the news media, there's still a demographic gap. Nielsen's latest quarterly look at TV viewing habits of the 18-24 year-old demographic shows a year-over-year decline of roughly one-and-three-quarter hours per week - that's 15 minutes less per day. between 2011 and 2016, Q1 traditional TV viewing by 18-24-year-olds dropped by more than 10 hours per week, or by almost one-and-a-half hours per day.

 

• Comcast plans to integrate Netflix with its set-top box. It's a sign that streaming is mainstream and that even behemoth's like Comcast can't stop the competition, instead undertaking a collaborative strategy for mutual benefit: Netflix gets distribution, Comcast retains customers.
• And streaming video — live or otherwise — is huge in China, where at any given hour, millions of people are streaming their own reality shows.
• Video matters. Just ask the team at Supercall, where cocktails are the new food videos.
• Walmart is making its Walmart Pay — competitor to Apple Pay — available to all 4,600 of its US stores. This might well be enough to put Walmart on par with the other main Apple and Payment options. [Disclosure: Walmart is a client]
• The thing with advertising is, marketers and advertisers love the medium. Consumers? Not so much. How do we make consumers love advertising in a new media landscape where they have the power to opt out of ads they never liked in the first place?

 

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Download this FREE 16 page report, full of information, insight and guidance on how to best approach prospects based on the findings.

 

Some of the results are going to really surprise you.

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Platforms

• Facebook

  • NPR has been using Facebook Live for two months; here's what they've learned. Not exactly who you'd think would be using the medium, but their lessons are valuable to every business considering video.
  • Gawker engineered a way to include the most 10 recent comment threads from its sites in its Instant Articles. Ingenious.
  • Messenger is getting end-to-end encryption and will support self-destructing messages, like Snapchat. Between Whats App and Messenger, Facebook is ensuring it's the definitive resource for those who don't want their messages discovered.
  • A brief history of Facebook Messenger. Four out of 10 mobile phone users will use it, making Messenger the leading over-the-top (OTT) mobile messaging app.
  • With its new OpenCellular network, Facebook is creating an open-source wireless access platform. Expect remote areas to be powered by such configurations.
  • Facebook's former CTO is joining Twitter's board.
  • Facebook is getting Tesla's VP of product technology, who also used to work in engineering at Apple. Reporting directly to Elon Musk can have the effect on people.

• Yahoo

  • Yahoo is integrating its news, weather, finance and monkey bots to Facebook Messenger. Monkey?  

 

• Twitter/Periscope/Vine

  • Twitter streamed Wimbeldon last week, giving us a glimpse of what live sports will look like on Twitter.
  • Based on this success, it should be no surprise that Twitter is in talks to stream MLB and NBA games and to get streaming rights from Turner Broadcasting. This will certainly keep Twitter in competition with Facebook for live video domination.
  • Is your CEO on Twitter? Great! Just make sure they don't melt down like Elon Musk, who gave a lesson in how not to handle crisis communications.
  • Twitter has been blocked in China for seven years. Which makes it all the more surprising that it has 10 million users there. Twitter's China strategy is focused on offering Chinese companies and media a gateway to global audiences by advertising on its service.

• Snapchat

  • South Korean Snapchat clone Snow has self-destructing messages, “stories” video sharing, and is gaining traction in China, where Snapchat is blocked.
  • Snapchat introduced Memories, an archive of your past snaps. While this may seem to be in conflict with its initial intent, the fact is, more people are using Snapchat to capture memories.
  • And with this pivot to the center, Snapchat, with its more than 200 million active users, could position itself to truly take on Facebook.
  • Three publishers already have plans to use Memories to improve the quality and longevity of their content.
  • Some Discover publishers are being sued by 14 year-olds over their choice of racy content in their stories.

 

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Trivia question: Bastille Day (aka French National Day) is celebrated in July 14, to commemorate the date in 1789 when the notorious prison was stormed. In what year was it first celebrated?*

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Collaborative / Autonomous Economy 

• Transportation

  • Uber is taking a $1.5 billion leveraged loan to support its global expansion. Such a loan will ensure that the investors' shares aren't diluted. But it only demonstrates what a money-sucking enterprise the ride-hailing industry currently is. And P.S., let's hope these banks know what they're doing.
  • Lyft is launching Lyft Premier, a luxury ride service that will feature Audi, BMW and Mercedes vehicles. Ooh, fancy! Sounds like they need some mustache wax now.

• Autonomous Vehicles

  • The UK, Germany and Switzerland are the next test markets in which self-driving robot delivery vehicles will be tested.
  • Alphabet's self-driving car division has a general counsel. Given the myriad of legal, regulatory and insurance-related issues that need to be addressed, this is no easy job.

• AI/Bots

  • Scientists are on the verge of creating an artificial intelligence system with emotions. It will understand the context of conversations and keep up with events. Make sure the police robots get some of this, please.
  • A new robotic butt makes detecting prostate cancer easier. It beats volunteering. Either way, it's still going to be a digital experience.

 

Virtual Reality / Audio

• Virtual Reality

  • Unless you live under a rock, you probably heard about the launch of Pokémon Go, a new augmented reality app. Since you're addicted, here are six tips for the ultimate beginner. The app requires users to get out into the real world (gasp!) and walk to where the creatures are located, by combining the app, your phone's camera and GPS. Kids and couch potatoes out moving around — sounds great! But there are some downsides. Such as?

  • One player managed to find a dead body adjacent to a Pokémon creature. And police are warning that muggers can use the beacon technology to attract victims to a location. And one player even landed in the emergency room because he wasn't watching where he was going. Not really that much different than people dying from selfies. It's a human trait: give us technology and we'll find a way to hurt ourselves with it.

  • But there's a touching and kind human element to Pokémon Go that shows that it can bring out the best in people.

  • Our take: potential huge upsides for local businesses, if there's a way to integrate. Think Foursquare meets geocaching meets augmented reality.

  • Niantic Labs' (the creator) stock is way up on activity — activity that shows that daily active users of Pokémon Go surpass that of Twitter. Proof that if given a compelling and fun way to use a new technology, people will adopt it.

  • VR, on the other hand, is constrained by the way that the public perceives it:

This is the future @oculus @LeapMotion #VR pic.twitter.com/1z7VscNsLO

— Eva (@downtohoerth) February 19, 2016

This is the future @oculus @LeapMotion #VR pic.twitter.com/1z7VscNsLO

— Eva (@downtohoerth) February 19, 2016

• Audio

  • Audio book company Audible is creating a podcast subscription service. Will paying for podcasts make them more mainstream?
  • Amazon Echo will now offer the option to play Pandora and Spotify for audio, rather than only Prime Music.
  • Everyone thought ebooks were going to kill print books. It didn't happen. The real medium to watch? Audiobooks. Now if you could only listen to a version of this newsletter...
  • Program of the Week. This week's recommendation is Major Nelson Radio and was suggested by Michael Powell. Direct from inside the Microsoft Xbox team, Larry Hryb (Xbox Live Gamertag: Major Nelson) discusses Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox 360, gaming, technology, other Next Generation Consoles. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts

 

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Sponsor — Content Marketing World

 

Content Marketing World is back for a 6th year! Learn and network with 4,000+ of your marketing peers in the largest content marketing event on the planet taking place September 6-9, 2016 in Cleveland, OH. 

 

Use the code MONTY200 to save $200 off of the main event and all-access registrations. Just click here to get started.

 

Questions? Ask the CMWorld event team. Hope to see you there!

---

Content / Customer Experience / Influencer Marketing

• Curated content can do wonders for your Facebook reach. The key? Do the work and understand that you need to share more than your own content.
• An unlikely suspect, Walmart is doing storytelling at scale through its Walmart Today site that focuses on strategic reputational stories.
• People who tell good stories are happier in life and love. Great lessons for brands here as they attempt to build relationships with customers.
• Having the right content team makes all the difference: a quick guide to staffing and process flow for content teams.
• Once you find out this UX secret, it may ruin apps for you.
• In this latest confessions entry, Digiday finds that influencers may charge more if you're difficult to deal with. It pays to know your influencers.

 

Privacy / Security / Legal

• Enamored with your wearable device? You might not be after you read this article that explains how your wearable may be leaking personal data.
• Be careful about the information you intentionally share online. This video demonstrates how easy it is to get your data.
• A man who thought Google's mapping car was watching him was arrested for setting the car on fire. Remember that quote from Catch-22, kids: "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."

 

Measurement / Metrics / Data

• When mobile is increasingly important, there are benchmarks for mobile metrics, including mobile survey response rates, percentage of customers that companies interact with, and average customer engagement rate.
• And a solution like Zignal Labs' mobile command center may be just what you need when you take your show on the road.

 

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* Answer to the trivia question above: 

• The French didn't waste any time and began celebrating French National Day on July 14, 1790.

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

• An important read on jobs, the economy and how the current education system isn't structured to support what we've built — by Seth Godin.
• Getting intimately involved with digital strategy is now an integral component of every CEO’s job.
• You may go glamping, but don't do it in your budgie smugglers, lest you end up sleeping with the fishes. These and 997 other words and phrases made it into the Oxford English Dictionary this year.
• A tale of mystery and intrigue from The New Yorker which also happens to be about a former friend and colleague from my Sherlock Holmes world, who would have turned 63 this week.

 

Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to to have trends on digital communications, marketing, technology and business delivered to your inbox each Monday.

 

These limericks are often quite jaunty;

We're wary of making them flaunty.

You're used to the snark,

But now we'll embark

On creating 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: Alan Levine

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