Follow at Your Own Discretion — September 25, 2017
It's time for the Four to lead us somewhere worthwhile; using AI and big data to drive success at Coca-Cola; five industries that will be transformed by voice; it's hard to insure self-driving planes; top attributes of good customer experience; the C-suite finally realizes the power of social media; Toys R Us writes a new chapter (11); Walmart makes it possible for all customers to shop online; Amazon is making Whole Foods like a traditional grocery store; Twitter heads to Washington; Facebook details a plan to address election interference; the music industry is growing; Equifax still can't get it right; Uber loses London; how to write a proper cease and desist letter; measuring PR with a communications stack; the difference between open- and closed-minded people; and more in the Follow at Your Own Discretion edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust for the week of September 25, 2017.
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Top Stories
- The Four — Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple — have been granted cult-like and carte blanche status for some time. L2 founder Scott Galloway argues that the worm has turned and it's time they accepted more responsibility as they touch the third rail (politics) and continue to gain massive scale that affects wide swaths of the economy. For example:
- Amazon should make its second headquarters in Detroit to commit to revitalizing the heart of America;
- Apple should stop with the tax avoidance already;
- Facebook needs a Night Watch and a CEO who identifies as American rather than global and who will stand up to Russian meddling;
- Google is the most vulnerable as the war on tech in Europe escalates; it needs to demonstrate good corporate citizenship.
- Facebook and Google’s advertising platforms are out of control. That used to be a good thing. Now…not so much. John Batelle looks at how we got here: Facebook took nearly all the world-beating characteristics of Google’s AdWords and added the crack cocaine of personal data, while programmatic rose. What does the future hold? At stake is not only the fundamental advertising models that built our most valuable tech companies, but also the essential forces and presumptions driving our system of democratic capitalism.
- As Amazon wields a growing power as a search engine, it is also becoming a more compelling advertising platform and, as a result, is posing the first real challenge to Google and Facebook.
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Autonomous
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and autonomous everything.- With more than 500 brands being sold across 200 countries, you'd better believe that Coca-Cola is using artificial intelligence and big data to drive success. Social media, mobile applications, cloud computing, e-commerce, and big data combined make AI the only possible solution to make sense of it all.
- Artificial intelligence isn't just for CPG companies; Apttus is putting AI to work on contract management to reduce bottlenecks in the sales process.
- Voice is on the rise. Here are five industries that will be transformed by voice.
- Amazon is working on Alexa-enabled smart glasses. The company is said to be developing a pair of normal-looking eyeglasses that tether to your smartphone and allow you hear, and presumably speak to, Alexa via a bone-conduction audio system. Being able to tap Alexa as your digital assistant without opening an app to do it could be a big differentiator for Amazon.
- A Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard says that the news industry needs to pay attention to voice technology. As you would imagine, NPR is already there.
- Apple is hiring engineers with psychology skills, because people are using Siri as a therapist.
AUTONOMOUS
- Intel is working with Waymo to build fully-autonomous vehicles. It's Intel inside, not you.
- A startup called iSee thinks a new approach to AI will make self-driving cars better at dealing with unexpected situations.
- Lloyd's of London wants to insure self-driving ships and airplanes. Regulators and the public don't think this is a good idea. This is why we can't have nice autonomous things.
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| Hey, you'd trust Otto, wouldn't you? |
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
- As mentioned above, there's a duopoly on the ad market—and together they'll grab more than 60% of the digital advertising spend in 2017.
- Forty-seven (47) percent of consumers today report that if they continuously encounter a poor customer experience, they’ll spend money with a competitor. The top attributes of good customer experience are as follows:
- Fast response times to issues, needs or complaints (75%)
- Consistency of experience across channels (56%)
- Knowledgeable staff ready to assist whenever and wherever the customer needs (52%)
- A person to speak with, regardless of time or location (36%)
- Relevant communications, promotions, recommendations and products (36%)
- And here from the Content Marketing Institute, are the content marketing trends to watch for 2018. They include original content, acquisitions, marketing as a profit center, increasing content budgets, and a turf war ramping up between PR/communications and marketing.
- Why is digital communication so much easier than face-to-face? According to Psychology Today, interactions with humans require more emotional and cognitive effort — so we opt for what's easier: computers. See why we don't hand-deliver this newsletter to your door? Not to mention it would be too heavy.
- Snickers knows there's lots of anger online. So it used displays of anger/hunger (aka "hangry") online to drive down the price of candy bars.
- Faced with organizational challenges, more and more companies are hiring an executive to manage their digital transformation. [You could hire Brain+Trust too]
- New research conducted by Grisdale Advisors indicates that C-suite executives are finally realizing the potential of social media:
- 66% report that they use it professionally, and 70% of those say they create content of a daily weekly basis.
- Many executives plan to use it even more in the future, but need tools and coaching to help manage time constraints and complexity.
THIS WEEK IN RETAIL:
- Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The toy retailer was $4.9 billion in debt and the holiday season is approaching.
- But it's more than just financing that's at stake; the challenge ahead for Toys R Us is how to grapple with the changing digital landscape and sell toys in an increasing digital world. Toys R Us was not built to handle toys on-demand. And when kids (and adults) want toys now, they want them now!
- Walmart is will make it possible for shoppers on food stamps to order groceries online, thus removing a long-standing hurdle. This is significant in that it makes the service available to all customers, regardless of income level. As some poorer customers are more dependent on working long hours, this kind of convenience is indispensable.
- Walmart also announced will begin testing a new service that will allow customers to have their packages delivered inside their home instead of left on the doorstep. It's a partnership with August Home. Jet.com is doing a similar trial with users of smart access provider Latch. This is part of a strategy that all brands should be thinking about: a frictionless customer experience. [Disclosure: Walmart is a Brain+Trust client.]
- Amazon is freezing brand representatives out of Whole Foods in an effort to make it more like a conventional supermarket. Well, that was fun while it lasted.
- What does Best Buy know that other retailers don't, as it thrives in the shadow of Amazon?
- Our fears are misplaced in focusing on what Scott Galloway calls the Four. We should instead be worrying about the One: one firm that will come to dominate search, hardware and cloud computing, that will control a vast network of far-flung businesses, that can ravage entire sectors of the economy simply by announcing its interest in them. You can probably guess who that is.
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Platforms
News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.TWITTER/ PERISCOPE
- On Wednesday, Twitter will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. And you thought the weekend's tweets were out of control...
FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP
- Facebook will share some 3,000 political ads purchased by Russian sources with Congress, and will end untraceable political ads.
- As part of its follow up from the Russian influence, Mark Zuckerberg took to live video to lay out his 9-point plan for addressing the election interference. Here's a brief breakdown of the plans.
- Blaming algorithms obscures the true source of Facebook's ad problem: the structure of the company's ad business and the decision-making of those who run it. It's self-service gone awry (see Batelle's piece in Top Stories for more).
- The ad scandal isn't a bug; it's a feature. The same digital platform that offers us social interaction, news, entertainment and shopping all in one place makes its money by making it cheap and easy to send us commercial or political messages, often guided by algorithms.
- After an algorithm-led creation of nefarious and questionable search terms, Facebook is putting more humans to the task of reviewing ad-targeting options.
- Facebook now lets advertisers put ads in front of people who visited their real-life stores and those of their competitors.
SNAP
- Snapchat remains woefully behind in its decision to embrace influencers. In a recent survey, no influencer selected Snapchat as the most important platform.
ALPHABET / GOOGLE / YOUTUBE
- YouTube is dropping its paid channels monetization option, replacing it with a sponsorship model whereby users can support creators for $4.99 a month. Sounds an awful lot like Patreon. Which reminds us: do you support us on Patreon yet?
AR/VR
- Ford and Microsoft are joining forces on car design using HoloLens, disrupting the traditional automotive design process. Being able to reconfigure on the fly and view the vehicle the way a customer would are eminently more affordable with VR.
- Houzz has an ARKit that brings 500,000 objects to life so you can see how they'd look in your home. AR stands to transform the DIY and home design industries.
- If you'd installed iOS 11 yet, here are 9 ARKits that you should download and try.
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.VIDEO
- Fox has partnered with Twitter to bring streaming content to the social media platform. Ghosted and Mick will be available for viewing on Twitter, while the platform will also be the home of a streaming Empire pre-show.
- As part of its ongoing effort to bring in more TV ad dollars, YouTube is offering advertisers sponsorship and custom brand-integration opportunities for its free-to-watch, long-form original video series.
AUDIO
- Spotify, Apple Music and other services have 30 million U.S. subscribers, and streaming revenue is up 48 percent so far this year.
- The Recording Industry Association of America reports music revenues are up across the board, with retail jumping to $4 billion, 17% more than last year, and wholesale up 14.6% to $2.7 billion.
- Spotify is opening up a self-serve ad studio that can generate audio promos to its 90 million listeners.
- Libsyn, the largest podcast hosting platform, is redesigning its stats system to allow for IAB compliance, new features and the future expansion of stats reporting.
- Program of the Week: This week, check out Up and Vanished, suggested by Jason Peck. It's an investigative podcast that follows a case that went cold with no leads: the murder of a teacher in a small Georgia town. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
Regulatory / Security
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.SECURITY / HACKING:
- After its massive breach of 143 million records, Equifax has been directing victims to a fake phishing site for weeks. They can kiss trust goodbye.
- For CIOs trying to determine how to prepare in the wake of the Equifax breach, make cybersecurity a top priority, focusing on data. Update systems relentlessly. Cybersecurity should be a top concern of the C-suite.
- As cars go increasingly digital—and connected—cybersecurity experts worry that they also are becoming a lot more vulnerable. From Bluetooth to embedded internet modems and wifi routers, to even HD radio and NFC, the car is becoming a more attractive target for hackers.
- With all the attention on security breaches in the past couple of weeks, it bears reminding that AI is far more effective at deducing your passwords than humans or traditional software. Upgrade your passwords. We use Dashlane, and you can get $20 toward a premium subscription (affiliate link).
ON-DEMAND ECONOMY
- Uber will lose its license to operate in London because of its questionable business practices. It's a significant blow, as the capital is one of the first major cities in which Uber made a concerted effort, particularly against The Knowledge. But as Dara Khosrowshai, Uber's new CEO said in a memo, "There is a high cost to a bad reputation."
- Read Transport for London's full statement here.
- UberEats stands out even from the rest of the company’s fast-growing — and unprofitable — business. The delivery service, available in more than 120 markets globally, sometimes eclipses Uber’s main ride-hailing business.
- Airbnb is getting into the food business as well: you can book restaurant reservations through the platform. Part of Airbnb's plan to go wider in the hospitality industry.
- A Chinese sex doll-sharing service was suspended after police deemed the displays to be 'vulgar.' Note: they only suspended the service after the displays were deemed vulgar. Evidently the business model was acceptable.
LEGAL
- If you're going to write a cease and desist letter, try following the example of Netflix's counsel, who wrote a friendly and humorous missive to fans of Stranger Things, who had created a pop-up bar without the proper licensing and permission. See? Even lawyers can be human.
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.- Turning insights into outcomes requires more than just the right technology. Here are seven rules for spinning analytics straw into golden results.
- Gini Dietrich explains how to measure PR with a communications stack and wave buh-bye to AVEs.
- Restoration Hardware bid on 3,200 keywords and found that 98% of its PPC sales came from just 22 brand terms. A valuable lesson on why it's important to occasionally look at your analytics.
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.- Here are 11 habits of likable people. Seems pretty straightforward. How many of these do you practice?
- Most people think of procrastination as a negative attribute. In fact, procrastination can be a great way to work on mastering life skills. Hey, as long as you're here, you should read it.
- Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella says that culture is what the 'C' in CEO stands for. As the CEO sets the tone for all stakeholders, culture is a critical part of business transformation.
- Because you're so likable, here are 9 email newsletters that will make you smarter. I think they left one out...
- As you might imagine, there are stark differences between open-minded and closed-minded people. And it turns out that they way they approach obstacles and challenges defines much of what separates them. The ability to change your mind is a superpower.
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Upcoming Brain+Trust Speaking Engagements
- MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum in Boston, October 3-6, 2017 (Tim and Scott)
Brain+Trust Partners helps smart, risk-taking executives discern the real from the hype. 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.
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