The Full Monty: Now You See It, Now You Don't — March 5, 2018
The invisible killer of brands; expect an AI bestseller by 2049 (no, not by Isaac Asimov); smart speakers coming from Facebook; automakers increasingly getting into autonomous and ride-sharing; personalization is important — but not quite important enough; what's ailing ad agencies; social sharing is down 50 percent; Amazon's warehouse is totally random, and that's okay; a weekly TV news show from the NYT; Spotify filed for an IPO, but its margins need work; choosing between DDoS and extortion; UberHealth is here; measuring what matters in email newsletters; empathy powers innovation; and more in the Now You See It, Now You Don't edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust Partners for the week of March 5, 2018.
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Top Stories
They say that high blood pressure is "the silent killer." However, what will ultimately defeat CPG brands is not a silent killer, but rather an invisible one.
When you use an Amazon Echo, unless you've established some loyal relationship with a brand, you'll likely ask for the category of product you wish to buy (batteries, razor blades, laundry detergent, etc.). And what does Alexa do? It gives you those products that Amazon has predetermined that you should choose from — and more often than not, it's Amazon Choice and private labels.
Heh. Just think about that for a moment: Amazon Choice. That's exactly what it is: Amazon's choice! Not yours.
When you surrender your products to third party services, you are at their mercy. And with voice, it's sneaking up on us. It may not even be apparent that this is happening, which is what makes it so insidious. We don't have a visual layout of our options any more; with the web, consumers could browse around and find the best deal or product for them. While voice-enabled ordering may save time for consumers, it might be detrimental at the same time, as consumers are more likely to choose whichever recommendation they hear first or second.
So we face some tough decisions ahead: at the very minimum, brands must strive to make the processes and selections with voice-activated services as simple and easy as possible. Less is more. But at the same time, brands need to fundamentally re-think their relationship with customers and with third-party distribution and sales platforms.
Do you really want to be giving up both your data and your sales advantage to a voice-enabled retailer? Maybe we can get a voice vote on that.
When you use an Amazon Echo, unless you've established some loyal relationship with a brand, you'll likely ask for the category of product you wish to buy (batteries, razor blades, laundry detergent, etc.). And what does Alexa do? It gives you those products that Amazon has predetermined that you should choose from — and more often than not, it's Amazon Choice and private labels.
Heh. Just think about that for a moment: Amazon Choice. That's exactly what it is: Amazon's choice! Not yours.
When you surrender your products to third party services, you are at their mercy. And with voice, it's sneaking up on us. It may not even be apparent that this is happening, which is what makes it so insidious. We don't have a visual layout of our options any more; with the web, consumers could browse around and find the best deal or product for them. While voice-enabled ordering may save time for consumers, it might be detrimental at the same time, as consumers are more likely to choose whichever recommendation they hear first or second.
So we face some tough decisions ahead: at the very minimum, brands must strive to make the processes and selections with voice-activated services as simple and easy as possible. Less is more. But at the same time, brands need to fundamentally re-think their relationship with customers and with third-party distribution and sales platforms.
Do you really want to be giving up both your data and your sales advantage to a voice-enabled retailer? Maybe we can get a voice vote on that.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / MACHINE LEARNING
- Experts predict that AI will write a best-seller by 2049. Looks like you still have time to write the great American novel before we put the infinite monkeys theorem to the test.
- Why are we teaching humans how to code and machines how to learn? Algorithms get better at anything that can be scored and iterated—including most of what we teach in schools. At the same time, thinking about thinking is a critical skill, but most of the people who work in that field are applying their knowledge to better algorithms, not better students. Via Mitch Joel
- China has shot ahead of the United States in patents for deep learning. Get cracking, U.S.!
- When it comes to reviewing legal documents, AI wins over humans. Don't go killing all the lawyers just yet...
- Move over, Google and Amazon: Facebook is working on a pair of smart speakers for this summer.
AUTONOMOUS / MOBILITY
- Toyota is starting a self-driving software company (TRI-AD) in conjunction with automotive supplier Aisin Seiki and Denso, and together, they plan to invest $2.8 billion into TRI-AD in the coming years and hire around 1,000 employees in order to develop software systems that can power fully self-driving vehicles. The autonomous wars are accelerating.
- The list of OEMs trying their own hands at ride-sharing services is getting longer. It's a classic case of "if you can't join them, beat them."
BLOCKCHAIN
- Women in cryptocurrency are pushing back against "blockchain bros".
READ THIS BOOK
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester is an extraordinary tale of madness and genius, and the incredible obsessions of two men at the heart of one of the greatest literary achievements in the history of English letters.
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
STRATEGY / MARKETING / CONTENT
- Nine in 10 marketers agree on the importance of personalization. But the majority (84 percent) also agree that the potential hasn't been fully realized yet.
- And in terms of personal data, consumers have become more comfortable sharing location details, but they want something of value from mobile apps in return.
- A sea change in what has long defined the consumer marketplace – the idea of “mass market” – is in the past, and in its wake are fragmentation and niches. Find your niche, appeal to your audiences.
- WPP said net sales fell 0.9% on a like-for-like basis last year. WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said "The major factors influencing this performance were probably the long-term impact of technological disruption and the short-term focus of zero-based budgeters, activist investors and private equity." He's wrong. More likely is the disintermediation of agencies by Google and Facebook and digital competition from consultants.
- When the world's largest holding company posts its biggest stock decline in almost two decades and predicts no growth for 2018, there will inevitably be questions over whether the holding company model is irreparably broken.
JOURNALISM / COMMUNICATIONS / REPUTATION
- New data shows that social sharing is down by 50 percent over the last two years. What's the cause? A number of factors, including more content and competition, more private sharing (email, Slack, messaging apps), and Facebook algorithm tweaks. And search is back!
- Check out the entire report from BuzzSumo.
Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.- Walmart introduced Eden, a high-tech fresh food initiative. This follows the filing of a Walmart patent two months ago that allows shoppers to see 3D renderings of their fresh produce prior to purchasing them or pickup. It also allows Walmart associates to monitor and care for fresh produce. Amid the retail wars, watch the grocery space. Walmart is quite advanced here. [Disclosure: Walmart is a Brain+Trust client]
- A fascinating look at Amazon’s random warehousing of items and how it actually increases efficiency.
- Amazon is in talks with banks including JPMorgan Chase about building a checking account-like product it could offer to customers. As a reminder, in the May 15, 2017 edition, we share the news that Walmart was rolling out something similar.
- JC Penney cut 360 jobs following a lackluster holiday shopping season.
- Nieman Marcus is turning to technology to solve some of its home delivery woes of high-end home goods and designer furniture. The white-glove retailer can't afford mishaps with such large-ticket items.
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Platforms
News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.- Twitter rolled out a Bookmark feature for saving tweets. The function only works on the mobile app and is not meant to replace the like/favorite feature.
- Twitter is wondering whether Twitter is bad for society — and CEO Jack Dorsey is starting new research to find out.
FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP
- Under fire for Russian abuse of its service during the 2016 presidential election, the spread of fake news and more, Facebook has promised to buckle down and get smarter in its approach.
- A deep dive into the denial of Facebook executives about the scale, impact of public perception of Russian interference on the service. Tone-Deaf: How Facebook Misread America’s Mood on Russia.
- For the paranoid among us: Facebook is not eavesdropping on you via your microphone. It doesn't need to.
- Facebook is working on Messenger Broadcast, which will allow brands to send a blast out to users who have previously interacted with them on Messenger.
- As part of its push to move to more voice search, Facebook is testing Voice Clips as a status update option with a small percentage of users in India.
- Recall this from August: The End of Typing: The Next Billion Internet Users Will Rely on Video and Voice
ALPHABET / GOOGLE/ YOUTUBE
- Google is trying to one-up Slack by inviting G-Suite users to use Hangouts Chat.
OTHER
- Pew Internet Research found that a majority of Americans use Facebook and YouTube in its Social Media Use in 2018 study, but young adults are especially heavy users of Snapchat and Instagram. No surprises there.
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.VIDEO
- Get ready for the Edison Research/Triton Digital Infinite Dial webinar, which will unveil the annual study of consumer behaviors around media and technology. It takes place on Thursday, March 8 at 2 pm Eastern. Via Tom Webster
- The New York Times is planning a weekly TV news show. The company is hiring a producer and is in talks with various streaming services about a distribution deal. Does this mean we'l have the Failing New York Times TV Show?
- CBS announced the launch of CBS Sports HQ, a new 24/7 streaming network for sports, highlights and analysis.
AUDIO
- Spotify filed for an unusual IPO on the NYSE as SPOT, without an initial offering price and a warning that "the public price of our ordinary shares may be more volatile than in an underwritten initial public offering and could, upon listing on the NYSE, decline significantly and rapidly."
- Everyone wants to build a giant consumer subscription business, just like Spotify. Only others may have a more enviable cash position from which to build.
- As Spotify prepares to go public, here's a look at their business model from Stratechery. Their margins are very thin and recording labels are in the driver's seat. Makes you wonder if this is the right company to back for an IPO.
- Program of the Week: This week's show is Akimbo by Seth Godin. Each episode is about 20 minutes long and focused on a single topic (no interviews, it's more like an audio blog post), followed by a little Q&A from the previous week's episode. Thanks to Josh Spector for the suggestion. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Difference from Brain+Trust Partners!
Regulatory / Security
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.SECURITY / HACKING
- Attackers have seized on a relatively new method for executing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks of unprecedented disruptive power: victims are being asked to pay a ransom to call off crippling cyberattacks.
- Facebook has a new feature that you may wish to know how to disable: its facial recognition feature.
- Palantir deployed a predictive policing system in New Orleans that even city council members don’t know about. That's creepy.
ON-DEMAND ECONOMY
- GM is bringing Maven Gig to Austin — freelance ridesharing drivers can rent an electric Bolt starting at $229 a week.
- Uber has launched UberHealth, which will allow hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other health care organizations to order and schedule car rides for patients.
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.- A Guide to Page Value: how to track which pages, or groups of pages, users see before a transaction.
- When it comes to measurement, the most important key performance indicator of the Quartz Email newsletter is the total number of active subscribers per issue.
- A fascinating long read: The Lottery Hackers. The lottery is like a bank vault with walls made of math instead of steel. It pays to know numbers.
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that in order to spark innovation, you first need empathy.
- One on Ralph Waldo Emerson, who cautioned against being too busy and just skating by on the surface: living with presence and authenticity. Via BrainPickings
- For centuries, lexicographers have attempted to capture the entire English language. Technology might soon turn this dream into reality – but will it spell the end for dictionaries? Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?
- And a look behind the most famous photograph ever taken.
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Upcoming Brain+Trust Speaking Engagements
In March we'll be at:- SXSW
- IBM Think
- The National Automobile Dealers Association annual meeting
Can we speak for your organization or event? Drop us a line.
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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March 06, 2018
artificial intelligence, content marketing, innovation, measurement, privacy, retail
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