The Full Monty: Our Digital Nature – July 9, 2018

The joys and dangers of unplugging; the state of A.I. in 2018; fully autonomous cars are going to take a while; the biggest challenge of email marketers; some entities still can't spot a fake influencer; brick and mortar isn't dead; Amazon and Facebook launch print publications; Twitter gets serious about abuse; Reddit turns to advertising; why Netflix is big and only getting bigger; addressing the podcast metrics problem; Facebook's latest risky business; asking the right questions about data; the truth behind major business failures; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Our Digital Nature edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust Partners for the week of July 9, 2018.

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Top Story

It's the summer. At least it is in the northern hemisphere. Sorry, Australia – you just enjoyed your warm months.

Typically that means that business slows a bit, as vacations kick in and projects get shelved or at least aren't pursued quite so aggressively. And if you're lucky and have some time off, it means you might spend a good amount of time outdoors and enjoying nature.

But are you unplugging during that time? And does it even matter? Can you stand to be disconnected from the office for a week, or is there a nagging feeling that deep down, management may find a way to replace you? Experts have a few different takes on digital life – when it is a hindrance and when it advances our aims.

The essay is short this week in part because of that summer slowdown, but also because the longer commentary will be contained in Episode 37 of The Full Monty podcast. If you'd like to follow along with the rest of this commentary, please be sure to subscribe on the player of your choice.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

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

Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

A report that's worth flipping through: the State of Artificial Intelligence in 2018.

Artificial intelligence startup Noodle.ai raised $35 million to grow its A.I.-as-a-service. Get ready for the new acronym: AIaaS.
There are two types of machine learning – businesses that don't understand the difference will fail at machine learning.
Google's Duplex A.I. may be good enough to put call center employees out of work.

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Some A.I. experts say fully autonomous cars may be further away than expected and that it may be years before self-driving systems can reliably avoid accidents. Do the math. And consider the multivariate use of cars between geographies, family size, etc.
While Ford Motor Company may be phasing out car production, they're getting serious about electrification.
Baidu announced it is partnering with Mobileye on its Project Apollo autonomous driving project, which now has over 115 partners.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Marketers who use email to communicate have a number of challenges – particularly to stand out in the inbox – yet few are employing competitive intelligence as a means to gain an advantage.
GDPR was supposed to end programmatic-based retargeting advertising. Yet, retargeting is growing. What's going on? When properly informed, a majority of users have shown a willingness to opt in.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

Most information conveyed to the mind is visual. So why are corporate blogs ugly and outdated?
Business reporting is getting harder, particularly when brands won't allow even well-intentioned journalists have access to executives and sites.
Wandering Girl, the famous fake Instagram account, is back to shed light on the growing issue that comes with self-proclaimed social media influencers. Watch as lazy marketers get scammed by a fake influencer.
Here are 10 influencer marketing strategies you need to know.
I had a conversation with Adam Fraser of EchoJunction (the third in our series). We talked about a wide range of topics, but touched on social media, privacy, culture and the role of trust in business today. I hope you listen in.

The 4th annual Digital Summit Detroit is coming up Sept 12-13. Keynotes
include Chelsea Handler, Scott Dikkers (Founder of The Onion), and Evernote CMO Andrew
Malcolm. Plus over 50 in-depth digital marketing sessions led by brands including
Waze, BuzzFeed, Jaguar, Discover, Salesforce, and more.
Register with promo code MONTY and get $50 off your pass.

Retail Apocalypse

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

Amazon continues to set the pace for U.S. retail e-commerce and will account for more than 80% of the overall market’s expected growth this year.
Walmart is testing a variety of automation, from mobile device payments to cashierless kiosks, to provide a variety of solutions that match customer comfort levels.
Related: Walmart has a new secret weapon against Amazon: a chief customer officer – a newly-created position.
Brick and mortar isn't dead: just look who's lining up to fill the now-empty Toys R Us stores. Familiar names.
As long as you'll still be going to the store, it's a great time for an introduction to queuing theory, the mathematical study of waiting in lines.
Also retro: Amazon plans to send a physical holiday toy catalog to millions of U.S. households this year as it incorporates traditional retailers' strategies. I wonder if they'll use the U.S. Postal Service for delivery?

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Platforms

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

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook is shutting down a handful of apps you don't use. Care to guess which they are? Never mind. You probably didn't even know they existed.
WhatsApp is the latest Facebook property that's become embroiled in fake news. After a wave of fake news in India, WhatsApp is offering $50,000 to researchers to study the problem.
Facebook still hasn't worked the kinks out of its automated hate speech flagging system: it removed a post containing the Declaration of Independence in the lead-up to the holiday.
And just as Amazon is getting into the toy catalog business, Facebook is producing a quarterly print magazine called Grow, aimed at busy executives.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter continues to get serious about abuse, spam and bots on its site and has cracked down on 70 million accounts in the last two months, effectively doubling since last year.
There's only one catch: this will almost certainly mean a decline in user numbers.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

YouTube says it will invest $25 million in grants to news organizations looking to expand video operations as part of Google's larger $300 million Google News Initiative.
Reddit wants to turn to advertising with its particularly large audience. How will they respond? I'm sure there'll be an r/ subreddit soon enough.

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

Netflix is now the most popular TV streaming service in the U.S. And it's only likely to get larger.
Netflix is trying out a new pricier tier: Ultra, which is aimed at gauging price sensitivity to Ultra HD and HDR features.
Speaking of pricier: MoviePass is introducing surge pricing at $2 to $6 at peak times.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

RadioPublic is living up to its name and giving anyone a chance to become an investor in their platform, for as little as $50.
Podcast metrics are still all over the place, but networks are hoping to gain some command over them.
The RIAA has opened its sales database. Here's a peek at U.S. music sales from 1973 to 2017, all formats.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Ways of Hearing, a 6-part series hosted by musician Damon Krukowski, exploring the nature of listening in our digital world. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.

Privacy / Security / Regulatory

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.
So many stories in this section this week – more available in our Flipboard magazine.

Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ

Facebook is taking a risk as it pushes its facial recognition software. Does Facebook have enough trust at this point to try something this risky?
This VPN promises absolute privacy with its zero logging policy.

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Uber is investing in Lime as part of a $335 million financing round.
VW unveiled its WE vehicle on-demand service for electric vehicles, starting with car sharing, then other transport modes like scooters, launching next year in Germany, and then globally beginning in 2020.

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.

Interpublic Group confirmed rumors that it will pay more than $2 billion to acquire Acxiom, an Arkansas database marketing company that collects and distributes information drawn from an estimated 2.2 billion consumers around the world.
How to ask the right questions about data and insights via Avinash Kaushik.
Automated machine learning and automated data science are two separate things. Don't confuse them.
How to calculate the ROI of chatbots. Isn't there a bot that can do that?

Mental Nourishment

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

Part of being a good leader is asking the right questions, but we don't always get training in that area. Here then, from HBR, is how to ask great questions.
And part of maintaining a curious mind is to constantly learn. Here's how Louis L'Amour managed it.
You may think you know how some major companies failed. Companies like Blockbuster, Xerox and Kodak. But you'd be wrong. Pundits usually think that if these companies only paid more attention to consumer needs and trends, they'd have survived. The truth is a lot more complex and nuanced than shorthand / popular versions of these downfalls indicate.
Eleven short stories you can read in under 10 minutes, but that will stay with you forever.

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Top image credit: At the Seaside by William Merritt Chase, c. 1892 (public domain)

Tuesday, July 10, 2018