The Full Monty — November 7, 2016

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It's been a long run during the U.S. presidential election. To celebrate, it's the Election Edition of The Full Monty. How the White House is managing its digital transition; the difference between confidence and pride, as Descartes wrote; Facebook's responsibility for news consumption in a post-factual world; the a drop in desktop display ad revenue; why Gannett gave up on tronc and what it means for journalism; the changing role of the CMO; what you can expect to hear from leaders; the changing role of work and our place in it; the misplaced focus on customer acquisition; and more in this week's edition of The Full Monty. Trivia and the poem of the week can be found exclusively on The Full Monty podcast.

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.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

• I'll be speaking at the Richmond AMA chapter on November 16.
• And at a client event in Miami on November 29.
• Attending the CMO Data Summit December 5-7.
• Social Media Marketing World 2017 in San Diego, March 22-24, 2017

Industry

• Election Day arrives in the United States tomorrow. And not a moment too soon for most Americans (and the world). Here are a few digital links related to politics:
  • President Obama has served for eight years — an eon in digital timelines. Here's the White House digital transition plan for preserving the history of presidential social media while ensuring the accounts pass off securely and smoothly to Obama's successor.
  • One more digital move before Obama leaves: the White House launched Code.gov for showcasing federal open source projects; the website currently houses nearly fifty code repositories from ten federal agencies.
  • Most people today don’t get their news by going to the home page of CNN or the New York Times. They open a social media app — most often Facebook — and read news stories that pop up in their news feed. Which leads one to ask: is Facebook's abdication of editorial responsibility causing irreparable damage to our democracy? Here's an example: a "news" story that was shared from the Denver Guardian, a paper that doesn't exist.
  • Uber has endorsed its first political candidate and is using is considerable database to throw its support behind him. When do we get the Uber for politicians?
  • Donald Trump's aides have revoked his Twitter access, lest he do any additional damage in the remaining 48 hours of the election. Or it could be Melania Trump's first attempt at stopping cyberbullying.
• There's cause for concern among those in the digital advertising business:
  • The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) said that overall, online ad revenues increased by 19.1% year-over-year during H1 to $32.7 billion, though growth was not distributed evenly across formats:
    • Desktop search spend decreased by 12%; share of total spend declined to 27%;
    • Mobile search spend more than doubled (a 105% increase);
    • Total search spend inclusive of mobile increased by 19%; share of total spend stands at 50%;
    • Desktop display spend dropped by 7%; share of total spend declined to 19%;
    • Total display inclusive of mobile increased by 26%; share of total spend stands at 43%;
    • Desktop classifieds revenues dropped by 29%, while desktop lead generation revenues inched up by about 2%; and
    • Social ad spend enjoyed a 57% rise, to $7 billion.
  • Meanwhile, if you back out the revenue generated by Google and Facebook, it looks like the rest of the digital industry is shrinking.

• Digital journalism is one of the most difficult industries to navigate. A few items of note here:
  • A bit of a jolt last week, when Gannett terminated its intention to buy Tronc, scuttling the potential marriage of some 100 dailies and 1,000 weeklies. This puts Tronc, the newspaper chain made up of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and others in a particularly challenging spot of trying to determine what to do with its digital strategy. Not an easy task for a failing industry.
  • Is Michael Ferro the guy for the job at tronc? He rejected some of Gannett's early offers and found an additional willing investor. But his team created this video that was roundly mocked by John Oliver (covered in Episode 7 of The Full Monty). 
  • Newspapers are rethinking "from around the web" ads at the bottom of articles. Slate and the New York Times have removed OutBrain and Taboola from their sites, as they rethink how third party content affects their brands. While the revenue is welcome, the reasons for abandoning them include questionable content and sites that may not reflect well on the news sites where they're inserted. You're judged by the company you keep.
  • At the New York Times, print ad revenue is down by 18.5% but digital subscriptions are up by 30%. Looks like paywalls aren't a deterrent after all.
  • Increasingly, it's not enough to get engagement in apps; Mic is sending iPhone lock screen notifications that include videos and the Guardian will push up-to-the-minute election results to lock screens on Tuesday. The lock screen is the new home page. There's still ad space left on the inside of my eyelids, if anyone would care to bid.
• With the rise of companies like Dollar Shave Club, Uber, Airbnb and more, the expanding role of the CMO involves combating disruption. Sounds like a job for Brain+Trust Partners.

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Platforms

TWITTER / PERISCOPE / VINE

• Amid all of the cutbacks, Twitter is doubling down on these things: live video, news, and trends. But what about Moments?
• Twitter has developed a direct message bot to help companies deal with customer service issues more effectively.
• The latest experiment is @replies with no indication who is being replied to. This is a recipe for disaster. You can RT me on that.
• Periscope is featuring selfie masks in its live video, starting with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump masks. Because until now, they were the only platform that hadn't copied Snapchat.
• Don't cry for the Vine founders. They already had another app lined up: a video app called HYPE, for live video broadcasts that lets users add music and animations to their videos. 

FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

• Facebook reported earnings last week. Top-line growth is double that of any other company: third-quarter revenue soared 56% to $7 billion and its quarterly profit nearly tripled to $2.38 billion. But there's a downside: Facebook is running low on ad inventory and can't keep up the growth.
• Desktop ad revenue grew (while it fell for some of the digital advertising industry - see above) by 18% because of Facebook's ability to block ad blockers. 
• Admiral Insurance will analyze the Facebook accounts of first-time car owners to look for personality traits that are linked to safe driving. The insurer's algorithm looks at social media usage to identify safe drivers in unprecedented use of customer data.
• Instagram is making it possible to shop from within the app. Get your lists ready!
• WhatsApp is testing Status, an Instagram Stories-like feature. Don't you mean a Snapchat-like Snaps feature?

ALPHABET / GOOGLE

• YouTube is upgrading its comments feature to give account owners more control. The idea with the new features is to give creators a better way to connect with their community on its service, while making interactions with fans feel more personal.

SNAP

• In an age when automated technology is creating faster ways to buy, sell and create digital media content, Snapchat is making advertisers wait for its manual review process.
• Snapchat is on a hiring spree as it prepares for an IPO, raiding everyone from Google and Facebook to old media for talent. If you send them your resume, just make sure it doesn't disappear after 10 seconds.

MICROSOFT / LINKEDIN

• Microsoft launched Microsoft Teams, an Office chat app that rivals Slack. Given that it's aimed at the installed user base of 85 million people who use Office 365, it's got a shot at taking them on. But Microsoft isn't playing up any kind of hubris in the matter, knowing that it has a ways to go. 
• Conversely, you were Slack, with just 4 million users, you'd think you wouldn't take out a newspaper ad passively-aggressively aimed at your competition.

Collaborative/ Autonomous Economy

• The "gig" economy means that people are earning a living in a variety of ways, and there are challenges and rewards in doing so. McKinsey looks at the issue in depth in Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy, finding that in the U.S. and Europe, 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population—engage in some form of independent work.
• Will gig economy workers take a renter’s or an owner’s attitude toward the organizations they inhabit and increasingly lead?
• Are there too many regulations for new businesses? Or do these upstarts need to adhere to the existing law more closely? It's a debate worth considering.

TRANSPORTATION

• Pretty soon, you won't need to own a car to drive for Uber, as GM will allow Uber drivers to rent from its Maven program on a weekly basis.
• Senator Al Franken is questioning Lyft and Uber. The lawmaker wants to know why it's essential to include real names and photos of passengers requesting rides.
• A new ride-sharing firm in Boston is charging $1 to compete with Uber and Lyft. Fasten your seatbelts...
• Uber's redesign is courtesy of machine learning, with the ability to predict where you may want to go, what you might want to eat and more.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

• Comma.ai, the autonomous driving startup, is shutting down amid NHTSA's request to learn more about its safety, rather than hunker down and actually answer those questions. Once again proving that Detroit may be a better home for leading autonomous vehicle development. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / BOTS / BLOCKCHAIN

• The AP wants to use machine learning to automate turning print stories into broadcast. The experiment is part of a larger effort by the news agency to incorporate automation into its journalism. Collectively, AP writers spend about 800 hours a week converting print to broadcast.
• Here's one idea about how AI would cover an AI conference. How meta.
• Virtual assistants that can read social cues and nonverbal signals are less jarring—and surprisingly persuasive. The chatbot with social skills will convince you to buy.
• Samsung plans to launch an AI assistant with seamless third party integrations on the Galaxy S8 and expand voice-assistant services to appliances and wearables. Hopefully the first command will be to tell you what to do with an exploding device.
• Check out my appearance on Fanatics Media with Mark Fidelman, where we discuss AI, Yahoo, BuzzFeed and more.
• If you thought that was scary, wait until you check out the guy who hacked into his Alexa with a Big Mouth Billy Bass.

Virtual Reality / Audio

VR/AR

• By 2026, the VR hardware and software market may hit $38 billion.
• NFL Films is producing an exclusive nine-part VR video series for YouTube and Google's Daydream about life in and around the NFL, to debut November 24. Will this help ratings?
• Go inside Intel's Santa Clara VR lab, where the company is working on its Project Alloy headset, a “merged reality” experience, and more.

AUDIO

• A new startup, 60dB, named for the volume at which a human speaks and founded by a former Planet Money reporter and two others with backgrounds at Netflix, is being teased as a “service for high-quality, short-form stories.” Users open the app, and it take signals from what subjects and types of stories and even people they’ve indicated they like, and 60dB will refine that feed of stories over time.
• Radio still accounts for half of music listening; streaming is on the rise, but that accounts for just 17% of time spent with music.

• Program of the Week. This week, our recommendation is Planet Money, via Austin Baker. Planet money is the economy, explained, with stories and surprises. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts
• And don't forget to subscribe to ours via email or on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or  SoundCloud.

Content / Customer Experience / Influencer Marketing

• Most marketers are still focused on customer acquisition. If you want to stretch that marketing budget, now is the time to focus on data, audience centricity, and lifetime value of customers.
• Similarly, marketers need to give content marketing more time to demonstrate effectiveness. Those who are lagging lack strategy and enough time dedicated to content marketing. Content marketing is like your 401(k) plan - expect to see results, but only in the long term.
• New 2017 B2B marketing content research shows that there is no silver bullet. But there is a common theme: focus. One content type, one main platform, and consistent delivery over a long period of time will yield results.

Privacy / Security / Legal

• Ride-hailing startup Flywheel is taking Uber to court, claiming an unfair monopoly. Dominating with 70% of the market, Flywheel says Uber is illegally driving taxis out of business through a price war that licensed cabs cannot win.
• Google's legal team has responded to antitrust charges from the EU with a condescending blog post that points the finger at Amazon.
• A federal jury has found that Rolling Stone, a reporter and the magazine's publisher are liable in a defamation lawsuit over a 2014 article about an alleged rape at the University of Virginia. 

Essential Watching / Listening / Reading

• On the difference between pride and confidence. Whereas pride is predicated on making oneself feel big by making another feel small, Descartes insists that the confidence derived from nobility of soul is predicated on enlarging the well-being of others through kindness and magnanimous action.
• Sharpen your pencil. The next hot job in Silicon Valley is speechwriting.
• When you're writing those speeches, take note of these six phrases you'll often hear from leaders.
• Past leaders of the United States are a curious bunch. Here are the favorite books of the 44 U.S. presidents. And to go along with it, presidential trivia and an infographic of presidential slogans over 175 years of campaigning.

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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 to work.

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