The Full Monty: Principled Stand – July 30, 2018

Standing for something means nothing to the market; when robots go rogue; Ford's new autonomous unit; Uber puts the brakes on self-driving trucks; CMOs have more responsibility for customer experience, but not the underlying technology; the best university websites; why you need human engagement for brand trust; when a stranger decides to destroy your life; Waymo and Walmart pair up for autonomous delivery; the future of social media in 10 years; MoviePass may be passé quite soon; WGBH goes for emerging platforms; the chief cyber security role in the federal government is unfilled; WeWork's cash infusion; go for small data; how to speak Freddish; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Principled Stand edition of The Full Monty for the week of July 30, 2018.

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Top Story

You probably heard about the precipitous drop in stock price of Facebook and Twitter after their quarterly earnings call last week.

The dip in revenue, slowing user growth, and lower profit at Facebook were partially the result of the Cambridge Analytica issue that arose at the end of March. Facebook has been working hard to try to correct the error, but there was a breach of trust that needs to be addressed.

Similarly, Twitter – which had a very positive Q1 – slipped a bit, acknowledging that it actually lost one million users over the previous quarter, but that the company was putting efforts into eliminating fake and questionable accounts and addressing things to make the platform more amenable to civil conversation. And then its stock dropped 20 percent.

This is the world in which we live now: when companies are being penalized in the market for doing the right thing. Because growth and ad dollars are all that matter.

More thoughts on this in Episode 40 of The Full Monty podcast, airing this Wednesday. 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

In the past 25 years, dozens of people have died at the hands of robots. But as robots get smarter, who’s to blame when they go rogue?
Amazon proved why its facial recognition software shouldn't be made available to the police.
A.I. is the new space race and America needs a "Sputnik" moment to light a fire under it.
A.I. and machine learning are benefiting winemakers by predicting their seasonal yields faster than humans. Estimating yields early can help winemakers plan out their resources for the season. By plugging data into machine learning models, the A.I. systems can predict yields at an accuracy of around 80 to 90 percent.

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Ford announced it has created Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, which will house the company’s self-driving systems integration, autonomous vehicle research and advanced engineering, AV transportation-as-a-service network development, user experience, business strategy and business development teams. All for the low low price of $4 billion.
GM launched its Maven car-sharing program in Detroit and Ann Arbor. The peer-to-peer network will work with 2015 vehicles or newer. Does anyone have a Corvette they'd like to share with me?
Waymo announced that it will begin a pilot program with Walmart to shuttle customers to and from stores to pick up their groceries.
Uber says it will stop development of self-driving trucks and instead focus its efforts on self-driving cars; Uber Freight is unaffected by this decision. Unsurprising, given how things wound up with the Otto acquisition, plus Uber's other woes.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

The Death of Don Draper: Now that people carry media around with them everywhere, advertisers have less incentive to create memorable brands. Instead, they concentrate on forcing our attention towards the message or offer of the moment. And it's all driven by algorithms.
The CMO has gained more responsibility for the customer experience in recent years, and brand marketers have made CX their top priority this year, but as more CMOs control CX, they don't control the CX technology. Unless something changes, this isn't going to end well.
Peeling a back the onion: why marketers bombard you with the same ad repeatedly. Ah, the wonders of retargeting.
Convince and Convert has the best 25 university websites. Great detail and principles for customer experience in any industry – not just #HigherEd.
The top five methods by which marketers can drive revenue and improve margin.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

Some brands went after IHOP when they made their IHOB announcement, but held their keyboards when Papa John slipped up. Companies need to know when talking smack about a competitor is in good taste. If you ask us, snark and schadenfreude don't sell.
Often, customers don't discern brand from product, so experiences are essential. If you're serious about brand trust, a new survey indicates just how much human engagement influences consumers in the quest for trust.
When a Stranger Decides to Destroy Your Life: It was the online version of road rage; instead of pulling a gun on another driver, one Facebook user decided to drop a bomb on another's reputation.

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 is moving toward being a top apparel retailer in the U.S.

Related: Groceries are Amazon's fastest-growing category.

Amazon reported Q2 earnings last week and it made a tidy $2 billion in profit – from cloud-computing business, advertising offerings, and services it provides to sellers.
A handy parts-finder allows you to take a picture of something you need and Amazon will find it for you.
ICYMI above, Waymo announced that it will begin a pilot program with Walmart to shuttle customers to and from stores to pick up their groceries.

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Platforms

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

What will social media look like in 10 years? It's anyone's guess, but it will provide more certainty and personalization, with the importance of gathering data in a regulated way.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook's stock got hammered after it reported a slowing of revenue growth, profits, and users. The stock closed down 19 percent on Thursay to $176.26. As of today, it still hasn't recovered, closing at $171.06. The effects of the Cambridge Analytica scandal are beginning to be felt – we said it would take a quarter to begin show.
Reporters wanted to know what Facebook plans to do about misinformation on its platform, but the Facebook didn't answer.
With about a third of the world's population as its user base, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Facebook train is slowing.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter said it was deciding to make a priority of handling of suspicious accounts and reducing hate speech and other abusive content, over projects that could attract more users. You can guess how the market reacted.
Twitter finished its review of proposals for improving the health of discourse on the platform and is working with two academic teams on echo chambers.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Pinterest is getting close to $1 billion in ad sales and it may go public next year.
LinkedIn thinks it's Alexa. It has a blog post on digital voicemailing within its messaging system in which it asks, "Why use voice messaging?" Why, indeed?

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

Walmart has hired former Epix CEO Mark Greenberg to develop a subscription video service to take on Netflix and Amazon.
Former Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg closed a $1 billion funding round for WndrCo’s “NewTV,” a mobile video platform that will specialize in short-form content.
MoviePass had a "service outage" last week when it couldn't afford to pay for tickets. The jury is out on the long-term (or at this point, the short-term!) viability of the service.

And just as we were getting ready to publish we learned that MoviePass's CEO called an all-hands meeting where he announced that tickets to major movies will not be available on the app. MoviePass may be going the way of Napster.

WGBH (public television) is embracing new habits by experimenting with various forms of video in its Emerging Platforms Initiative. This should be interesting – it sets up the opportunity for public television to forge new relationships with viewers and members.
Shareholders gave Disney and Fox permission to complete Disney's acquisition of Fox. It looks like the Simpsons predicted the future yet again.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Spotify added 8 million paid subscribers last quarter, bringing it to 83 million paid subscribers and 180 million active monthly users.
Spotify hired Dawn Ostroff as chief content officer, where she'll be responsible for "all aspects" of the streamer's content partnerships across music, audio and video.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Last Seen, the story of the largest art heist the world has ever seen. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was robbed of 13 pieces of art worth an estimated $500 million total in 1990. And it's still an unsolved crime. 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

A former homeland security advisor said that amid threads of additional Russian hacking in the 2018 elections, there is no one at the top post for cyber security in the National Security Agency. Any volunteers?

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

WeWork has closed a $500 million round of funding. Given that it has $18 billion in leases and it's making property values rise for its landlords, we can't see how this ends happily.
Uber and Lyft are overwhelming urban centers, and cities need to act fast. The roads are getting more congested, not less.
The U.K.’s Digital Culture Media and Sport Select Committee published the first interim report from its fake news inquiry and called for more oversight of companies like Facebook. The report warned of a ‘democratic crisis’ being created by the spread of misinformation.
After seeing the legal and regulatory issues that Uber, Facebook and others are facing, some tech innovators are reversing course, now asking for permission rather than forgiveness.

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.

We get all wrapped up in what big data can do for us, when there's plenty of small data that can already make things happen.
Measuring marketing attribution is very important to the vast majority of marketers, with email and paid search being the easiest to analyze. Measuring content and video is more difficult.
The complete list of CRM conferences to attend in 2018.

Mental Nourishment

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

This story is insane: how an ex-cop and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers rigged the McDonalds Monopoly game in the 1990s to win all the major prizes. Until the FBI came calling...
We hear about authenticity all too frequently these days. Maybe we just need to get back to the basics and embrace the reality.
America's corporate travel industry reveals five trends in online services.
Mr. Rogers had a language – Freddish some called it – that he applied to his work. The same concepts can apply to your own presentations.

Bonus: 4 leadership lessons from Mr. Rogers

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Top image credit: The Fighting Temeraire. 1839, by Joseph Mallord William Turner (public domain)

Monday, July 30, 2018