Monday, January 29, 2018

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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The Full Monty, a Brain+Trust Partners publication, exposes you to virtually everything you need in business intelligence at the top of every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing.

We've got all of these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — in The Full Monty Magazine on Flipboard. You might also be interested in the Brain Trust magazine, as well as Salmagundi by Christopher Barger and Saddle Up by Tim Hayden.

We're going to be making some slight changes to the newsletter in the near future, and we'll be asking for your feedback to ensure that we're not doing so in a vacuum. Please stay tuned for more.




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.




Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / MACHINE LEARNING

    AUTONOMOUS / MOBILITY


    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.

     Auto:Motive 20/20 by Brain+Trust Partners

    BLOCKCHAIN / BITCOIN




    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.

     Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

     



    Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

    Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.

    STRATEGY / MARKETING / CONTENT

    JOURNALISM / COMMUNICATIONS 



    Retail Apocalypse

    Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is  is undergoing a historical metamorphosis. 


    SPONSOR

    Want to know what 500 marketers (budgets up to $10 million) believe and how those beliefs influence their behaviors when it comes to hiring and firing agencies just like yours?

    Don't miss 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.

    If you're seeing this, maybe you'd like to see your company's name here too. Let us know.


    Platforms 

    News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.

    TWITTER / PERISCOPE

    FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

    SNAP




        Media

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

        VIDEO

        AUDIO



        Regulatory / Security 

        Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

        SECURITY / HACKING

          ON-DEMAND ECONOMY

          • The sharing economy delivers consistently on one thing: entitlementIt’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.



          Mental Nourishment

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



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          Upcoming Brain+Trust Speaking Engagements

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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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