The Full Monty: You Report, You Decide — January 29, 2018
Facebook puts the ball in our court; announcing the new Brain+Trust Partners podcast; UX and AI belong together; AI isn't killing jobs, it's killing business models; connected cars require a reimagined ecosystem; what the future holds is in Auto:Motive 20/20; how digital transformation maps to strategy and culture change; ad agencies are in trouble; a dip in ethics means a dip in trust; the Amazon Go master strategy; Jack Dorsey's resignation letter; an Netflix surpasses expectations; Spotify is going public, but not before getting sued; update your software now; creepy tracking; data visualization can be powerful; slow down and observe more—and maybe read; and more in the You Report, You Decide edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust Partners for the week of January 29, 2018.
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Top Stories
Over the course of the last year, it's become apparent that social media has gotten out of control with respect to fake news. It's run wild, with very few checks and balances, and the creation of ads, accounts and bots to fuel the fire has in turn placed great scrutiny on the role that these platforms play in the media — in some cases, causing them to rethink their roles and to acknowledge that they are in fact media platforms.
Part of the challenge that they face — Facebook, in particular — is the oversaturation of users' feeds with too much brand content. While a digital supply on a never-ending scrolling page would seemingly be infinite, Facebook needs to balance what users want, what its business model requires, what investors expect, and what advertisers will tolerate. It's not an easy thing to do. So in its most recent announcement, Facebook said that it is going to dial back the brand and publisher content that people see, from about 5% to 4% of their feed. Some of the reaction has been apocalyptic and reactionary, but it's more of the same: paid promotion is required in the mix of content.
But buried in the latest announcement of was how Facebook will be dealing with fake news. In addition to showing less news overall (hey, if Facebook shows fewer news stories, there will be fewer fake news stories in there, right?), Facebook has decided that it needs to address the problem of users not being able to tell truth from fiction. Its solution? To ask people to rank publications they trust.
Let's pause on that for a moment.
Rather than taking some sort of position of authority (which admittedly Facebook might be accused of bias), or relying on a third-party expert (Zuckerberg says this "would likely not solve the objectivity problem" — wait, WHAT?), Facebook's non-solution is to ask the very people who can't tell what's true to rank publications they think are truthful.
Facebook had an opportunity to step up and take a leadership position — to put its virtual foot down and own its responsibility as a media platform. But they've decided to take a weaker position by sharing responsibility with everyone, effectively making no one responsible in the process. Now is the time for principled leadership with strong convictions, not half-solutions that will only extend and exacerbate the problem.
Part of the challenge that they face — Facebook, in particular — is the oversaturation of users' feeds with too much brand content. While a digital supply on a never-ending scrolling page would seemingly be infinite, Facebook needs to balance what users want, what its business model requires, what investors expect, and what advertisers will tolerate. It's not an easy thing to do. So in its most recent announcement, Facebook said that it is going to dial back the brand and publisher content that people see, from about 5% to 4% of their feed. Some of the reaction has been apocalyptic and reactionary, but it's more of the same: paid promotion is required in the mix of content.
But buried in the latest announcement of was how Facebook will be dealing with fake news. In addition to showing less news overall (hey, if Facebook shows fewer news stories, there will be fewer fake news stories in there, right?), Facebook has decided that it needs to address the problem of users not being able to tell truth from fiction. Its solution? To ask people to rank publications they trust.
Let's pause on that for a moment.
Rather than taking some sort of position of authority (which admittedly Facebook might be accused of bias), or relying on a third-party expert (Zuckerberg says this "would likely not solve the objectivity problem" — wait, WHAT?), Facebook's non-solution is to ask the very people who can't tell what's true to rank publications they think are truthful.
Facebook had an opportunity to step up and take a leadership position — to put its virtual foot down and own its responsibility as a media platform. But they've decided to take a weaker position by sharing responsibility with everyone, effectively making no one responsible in the process. Now is the time for principled leadership with strong convictions, not half-solutions that will only extend and exacerbate the problem.
- Facebook announced that it would be de-prioritizing what users see in their feeds, putting less emphasis on news and brands, and more on friends and family.
- As far as addressing fake news, Facebook's plan is pretty straightforward: surveys to ask users what they trust.
- There's a stark difference in the way that Twitter and Facebook are addressing fake news. Facebook is skirting the issue while Twitter is tackling it head on.
- Is Facebook's solution simply a PR play? When one analysis is titled The Lies Facebook Tells Itself (and Us), it might seem so.
- Reactions to Facebook's approach are... passionate.
- The sign in Facebook's corporate offices indicated its culture: Move Fast and Break Things. But has the company just done that to itself?
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / MACHINE LEARNING
- Despite the dire predictions, artificial intelligence isn't killing jobs; AI is killing business models. In fact, 90 percent of C-level executives reported measurable benefits from AI within their organizations.
- We don't really place UX and AI together, but Google is trying to understand how a human-centered design process elevates artificial intelligence.
- And Google has a high opinion of artificial intelligence, as its CEO Sundar Pichai said AI is more profound than electricity or fire.
- IBM's former chief scientist for big data and developer of the Watson platform, Jérôme Pesenti, is joining Facebook to hold the new position of vice president of artificial intelligence. One might say he has his work cut out for him.
- Meanwhile, Facebook's virtual assistant M is dead. M's core problem: Facebook put no bounds on what M could be asked to do. Alexa has proven adept at handling a narrower range of questions, many tied to facts, or to Amazon's core strength in shopping.
AUTONOMOUS / MOBILITY
- UPS placed an order for 125 electric semis from Tesla. No word on whether Tesla is providing a "track delivery" code.
- Uber is selling its auto leasing business to digital car marketplace Fair.com.
- Uber's CEO says it may commercially deploy fully autonomous cars in the next 18 months, when conditions at locations are perfect — about 5% of time initially.
- Connected cars may be the next marketing battleground, according to Lisa Joy Rosner, CMO of Otonomo. It's all about the data. [Disclosure: Ms. Rosner is on the Brain+Trust Partners board of advisors.]
- Autonomic was purchased by Ford after a year and a half of collaboration on creating building blocks for smart mobility businesses. The two predict that by 2019, the Transportation Mobility Cloud will be the largest connected vehicle cloud globally.
- Ford's vision for the future of mobility includes the re-imagining of what our cities and towns might look like.
- Q&A with Jim Hackett, CEO of Ford Motor Company, on the future of cities, self-driving cars, and computing.
Brain+Trust Partners is proud to announce the publication of Auto:Motive 20/20, a look at what's moving the future of the car industry. Get your copy today.
BLOCKCHAIN / BITCOIN
- The rise of cryptocurrency mining has created a global shortage of high-end graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, driving up prices for retail gamers/buyers. The law of unintended consequences.
- Blockchain is showing there's new life in older tech companies like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle by utilizing the digital ledger to record transactions between companies.
READ THIS BOOK
We need emotional intelligence now more than ever. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry is not a new book, but is one that deserves a read. In it, he delivers a step-by-step program to help you focus on four EQ skills to bring out your fullest potential: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
STRATEGY / MARKETING / CONTENT
- In digital transformation, people, process and technology form the center of the model of change. But in an era of automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, does this model still apply?.
- Chris Penn follows up that first question with a second part on how that model of digital transformation fits with strategy.
- Risk aversion, weak customer focus, and siloed mind-sets have long bedeviled organizations. In a digital world, solving these cultural problems is no longer optional.
- As we look back on 2017, it was not such a great year for holding companies. The reasons:
- The decline in ad spending in the consumer package goods category, one of the more traditionally steady ad spend verticals.
- The rise of digital practices in consulting firms, like Accenture and PwC, which attributed to strains on the traditional agency model.
- The fall of the traditional "agency of record" model, as a result of bringing programmatic and digital teams in-house.
- Agencies need to make a frank self-assessment at what they want and need to be. Trying to fill a role that isn't their strong suit won't serve anyone well. They'd be advised to focus on their strengths and supplement their gaps with arrangements with boutique consultancies.
JOURNALISM / COMMUNICATIONS
- There seems to be a decided lack of ethics in the current environment. Notably, social media "stars" who buy followers to help them make a splash in the influence economy, when in fact, they're buying bots.
- And then there are the publicists who pay journalists to cover the brands they represent. It's payola for journalism.
- So you're probably not surprised to learn that websites stealthily block your ad blockers. Upwards of 30 percent of sites use anti-ad blocking technology that is invisible to consumers.
- No wonder we have trust issues.
Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.- Sears, Macy's and K-Mart will close more stores in 2018 as they try to deal with dwindling foot traffic in malls, a lack of profitability, and the constant drum-beat of e-commerce.
- Voice assistant usage is in the midst of a rapid adoption phase in the US. The number of voice-enabled digital assistant users in the country will swell from 69 million this year to 75.5 million in 2019 as their usage becomes increasingly commonplace. Here's what voice assistant users want to buy online.
- Amazon Go opened in Seattle, boasting no lines for checkout (lines were reserved for those hoping to gain entrance to the store). The strategy and future of Amazon are tied up in Amazon Go. And it's predicated around spending in the short-term for long-term results.
- One of Amazon's master plans for becoming profitable is through its growing advertising network, which is quickly gaining traction to rival that of Facebook and Google.
- Amazon also has its sights squarely set on new business pillars in AI, next-generation logistics, and enterprise cloud applications.
- Meanwhile, Kroger is in talks to acquire e-commerce company Boxed, an attractive target for its B2B business.
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Platforms
News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.TWITTER / PERISCOPE
- Twitter says that Russian bots retweeted Donald Trump 470,000 times in the final months of the 2016 presidential election and that almost 48 million accounts are bots.
- Here's Jack Dorsey's resignation letter as part-time CEO of Twitter. Kidding. It's a parody. Still...
FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP
- Facebook's solution for marketers who are worried about being de-prioritized in the News Feed: get your followers to mark your Page to see your content first.
- Facebook has a group of 100 engineers who work with advertisers and technology to build more effective campaigns on the platform.
- We're a year into the Facebook Journalism Project. How is it going? Participants say the company is listening and is responsive, but some wonder if it's just window dressing.
- Facebook and Universal Music Group announced a global, multi-year agreement under which UMG becomes the first major music company to license its recorded music and publishing catalogs for video and other social experiences across Facebook, Instagram and Oculus.
- One woman's experience on Instagram perfectly sums up what's wrong with the deluge of advertising and its associated algorithms: Towards a Bra-Free Intagram Experience.
SNAP
- Snapchat's year in review provides an insight into just how much the app has evolved over the past year.
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.VIDEO
- YouTube Live and Hulu Live are making strides against traditional cable providers in live streaming. YouTube Live has about 300,000 subscribers, and Hulu's Live TV service has ~450,000; both services trail DirecTV Now and Dish Sling, which have millions of subscribers.
- With so many options, Netflix's subscribers got more choosy about their content in 2017.
- With a better than expected Q4, Netflix blew past Wall Street’s projections with a late-night share surge of more than 10%, putting them into a very exclusive club: they are now one of only 59 companies in the S&P 500 worth at least $100 billion.
AUDIO
- If you think business podcasts could be better, read this. And stroll over here and take a gander if you're about to start a branded podcast.
- Spotify will begin offering news and political coverage to lure listeners away from radio and podcasts from its largest rival, Apple.
- Spotify filed for its long-awaited IPO at the end of December. The company could go public as early as Q1 of this year, but news that it was hit with a new copyright lawsuit from Wixen Music may slow the pace. The plantiff suggests that up to 21% of Spotify songs are unlicensed and seeks $1.6 billion in damages.
- VentureBeat called 2017 the Year of the Podcast. Well, one of these years has to be.
- Program of the Week: Our recommendation this week hits close to home. We're proud to announce the launch of the Brain+Trust Partners podcast The Difference, produced by Jay Acunzo of Unthinkable Media. It's for big brand executives and it looks at the nuances of why some brands thrive while others struggle to survive in the digital age. 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
- Billions of devices are affected by two major security flaws revealed by cybersecurity researchers; the discovery of Meltdown and Spectre mean that you should update your software NOW.
- And a massive data leak exposed the data of about 123 million U.S. households. So like, pretty much everybody.
- IBM is suing Expedia, claiming the travel site built its business on IBM's patents.
- KODAK developed KODAKOne, an image rights management platform and KODAKCoin, a photo-centric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management. It's a smart move — not only because "crypto" makes KODAK relevant again, but because it answers a longstanding need in the digital space — a revenue stream and a secure platform for protecting photographers' work.
- Here are 17 things we learned about cybersecurity in 2017, but probably shouldn't have.
- Facebook knows how to track you using the dust on your camera lens. It may be time to rethink your relationship with Facebook.
- And if you use an Android phone, Google may be tracking your every move. We know, you're not remotely surprised.
ON-DEMAND ECONOMY
- The sharing economy delivers consistently on one thing: entitlement. It’s almost as if there’s no understanding of civics, economics, sociology or history among engineers.
- The fall of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was a lot weirder and darker than you thought.
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.- This map uses data visualization to create the most accurate map of the 2016 election you'll ever see.
- Three things B2B marketers should know about data in 2018.
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.- Why does life seem to get faster as we get older? In short, because we've "been there, done that." Don't let life blow by you as you get older; take time to savor the little things.
- Mobile app HQ Trivia is now regularly clocking more than 1 million viewers per episode. If you haven't caught the bug yet, you will.
- Surround yourself with more books than you can possibly read. It will fill you with doubt and speed up your learning.
- And here are the 100 best non-fiction books of all time to help fill those shelves.
- Thousands of priceless images, books, documents, and more are now at your fingertips via digitization. See what we did there?
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Upcoming Brain+Trust Speaking Engagements
- We just returned from speaking at a big brand event in Orlando.
- We'll be at IBM's THINK conference and the National Automobile Dealers Association annual meeting in Las Vegas in March.
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Brain+Trust Partners helps smart, risk-taking executives discern the real from the hype. From strategy development to technology and data vendor selection, and streamlining processes, our focus is on digital business transformation that improves customer experience and drives efficiency for your company. 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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