The Full Monty: This Time, It's Personal – August 20, 2018

The power of strong links; the purpose of companies in the age of A.I.; more trust needed; autonomous submarines may rule the waves; the top 3 priorities of CMOs; influencers – regulating them, relating to them; the price of character; Walmart's grocery business is a juggernaut; the shift between Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories; TripAdvisor is struggling with many of the same issues as other Big Tech; much ado about Netflix; get ready for MoviePassing; Spotify's growth continues; a teenager hacked Apple's network; using data to improve customer experience; how Sharknado surpassed all expectations; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the This Time, It's Personal edition of The Full Monty for the week of August 20, 2018.

The Full Monty 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.

Announcements

I wanted to let you in on a secret: I'm spending more time creating regular content on my main site. Well, it's not a secret per se, but I haven't talked about the purpose or the cadence.

Each Tuesday and Thursday, you can expect something from me on ScottMonty.com – Monday is a short post, designed to jump start your week and get you thinking. Thursday is a slightly longer piece on the same topic. I'd appreciate any comments or feedback on those, and I'd love to have you on my mailing list there.

Top Story

The top story this week isn't really a single linked article. But it is about the power of strong links.

For years, we've seen influencers, individuals and brands chase more followers. It became a numbers game – so much so that some people even gamed the system and used bots to seek out an follow more people. When Twitter purged its system last month, suddenly follower/following ratios got skewed because of practices like that.

I've always thought that getting the attention and trust of 10 percent of an audience of 10,000 isn't nearly as impressive as getting the attention and trust of 100 percent of an audience of 1,000.

And increasingly, I've been seeing discussions about people focusing on quality over quantity. Of moving past the "platform" mentality that focuses on reach, and rather putting efforts into the "community" mentality that focuses on engagement and strong connections. Because ultimately, those are the connections that are going to make a difference.

This week, I'd like to call out the strong connections in my own network that brought some of the links below to my attention – namely: Christopher Penn of BrainTrust Insights; Tom Webster of Edison Research; Mitch Joel of Six Pixels; Chris Brogan of Owner Media Group; Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com; Richard Binhammer of Binhammer Photographs; Jay Baer of Convince and Convert; Bob Knorpp of The Beancast; and Jessica Smith of Social 'n Sport.

I hand-curate all of the content you see below (plus other stories on Flipboard that don't make the newsletter). If you've got something you think I should see, @ me on Twitter, Facebook, or email.

And thank YOU for being part of this community!

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

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

Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

As different forms of artificial intelligence change how humans do their jobs, the next logical question is: What's the Purpose of Companies in the age of A.I.? (HBR)
You think we have trust problem now? As more processes become automated and algorithms drive decisions, people will rightly question the validity of such actions. Ergo, the future of A.I. depends on trust. (strategy+business)
Google Home shipments outpaced those of Amazon’s Echo products for the second straight quarter as Google grows its smart home business and Amazon's lead shrinks. (AdWeek)
Nearly nine in 10 consumers who have made a purchase via smart speaker say they have opted for a product recommended by their virtual assistant, rather than stick with their preferred brand. (eMarketer) "Alexa, let me make my own decisions."
The World Economic Forum produced a report that concludes that A.I. will disrupt the financial industry by giving early adopters of the technology an advantage over competitors.
Google is reportedly developing a wearable health and fitness A.I assistant called Google Coach. Known internally as Project Wooden, it leverages a user's personal data to recommend workout routines, track progress, monitor nutrition, and generate meal plans and shopping lists. (Android Police)
Uber is using machine learning to determine whether a trip is for business or personal reasons. (Engadget)

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

There's a lot of hype around self-driving cars. Perhaps a more realistic route to autonomous vehicles is in order. (The Economist)
Ford believes slow and steady will win the autonomous race. This strategy also lets the first-movers make the mistakes. (The Verge)
Some investors have told Uber to suspend its self-driving car program, as it costs the company $200 million per quarter. (CNET)
Uber is having internal debates about the future of its self-driving program as well. (The New York Times)
Get ready for autonomous submarines as China looks to dominate the sea. (South China Morning Post). You know what's next, right?

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has traditionally been the largest profitable segment of the business. It looks like now Amazon's advertising business income may surpass AWS. (The Drum)
CMOs want (and need) to deliver business growth. Their top three strategic priorities include securing long-term customer relationships, driving growth, and increasing margins. (MarketingCharts)

"Today, a CMO is not dealing with just marketing and advertising. They’re also dealing with issues of digital transformation, the changing media business and transparency. Everything for CMOs is nasty, tangled and complicated." (Digiday)

There's power in creating a curated newsletter. (Epic Presence) You're proof of it.
A smart and thoughtful piece on Social Musings about what's missing in digital and social that every executive should read. (Social 'n Sport - Jessica Smith) Help is here for executives who need to get a better grasp on digital/social.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation on influencers and their relationships with brands. Once again, it's about transparency and the need to disclose – something that the U.S. has "required" since 2010, but where regulations seem to have no teeth. (Variety)

Influencers are people too. (ScottMonty.com)
Five trends to know for influencer success. (GlobalWebIndex)

What's your character worth? The link between how stakeholders perceive a company and its actual value can be quantified. (PRWeek)

ICYMI, Episode 40 of The Full Monty was about the price of integrity.

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 reported impressive second-quarter results, showing a rise of 4.5 percent in the U.S. YoY. Traffic in its U.S. business was up 2.2 percent, meaning Walmart is doing a better job of luring shoppers to its brick-and-mortar stores. And its e-commerce business delivered a 40 percent gain in sales. (Investors Business Daily) Make no mistake: brick-and-mortar still matters. And the way Walmart – or any retailer – makes the digital-analog connection work for customers, means the difference between success and irrelevancy.
Walmart's grocery business is helping the retailer achieve stunning sales and revenue growth despite myriad competitive and operational pressures. (Retail Leader)
Supermarket giant Kroger and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro are teaming up to test driverless grocery delivery in Arizona. (The Verge) As always, the last mile is the longest.
Kroger will begin to sell its products on Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, the latest in a series of initiatives to bolster its digital business. (CNBC)
If you're in the retail sector, download a copy of the 2018 Retail Forecast: Women's Footwear . It's got the most popular, searched-for brands, types of footwear, and retailers for the 2018 Retail Holiday Season. It will help you determine the optimal weeks to begin your most aggressive marketing and advertising to maximize your ROI and sales impact.

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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 has a plan to protect the 2018 U.S. midterm elections from election tampering. The social network says it’s moving quickly on its plan — which includes a physical war room to monitor the elections from its corporate headquarters and doubling the number of safety and security employees. (Recode)
Is there more upside or downside for Facebook Stories as Snapchat stumbles? (Stratechery)
As big advertisers move over to Instagram Stories, some of the early adopters – small businesses – are moving to Facebook Stories for lower prices. (Digiday)

Infographic: what it costs to reach an audience on Instagram. (The Content Strategist)

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter cited “technical and business constraints” as it ends support for third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific. (Techcrunch) Twitter was once hailed for its flexible and open API that allowed developers to be more creative and prolific than Twitter ever could. But there was a price to that.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been on a media tour, reflecting on Twitter's role in misinformation, abusiveness, and more. (CNN)

Dorsey said he is rethinking core parts of the social media platform so it doesn’t enable the spread of hate speech, harassment and false news. One concept is to put context around false tweets. (The Washington Post)

Twitter is partnering with Adidas to stream high school football games. (The Verge) Friday night bytes.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Google employees signed an internal letter protesting the company’s decision to build a censored version of its search engine for China. In a meeting with employees, CEO Sundar Pichai indicated that it's an "exploratory" program in the "early stages." (The Verge)
LinkedIn is set to launch redesigned Groups by the end of August giving more visibility and control to mobile users. (MarketingLand)
TripAdvisor, the world’s biggest travel site, has turned the industry upside down – but now it is struggling to deal with the same kinds of problems that are vexing other tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter. (The Guardian)

Speaking Engagements

I'm looking to increase my speaking engagements – including executive briefings/workshops and keynotes. I'd be glad to speak to your organization or at your event. Feel free to contact me to discuss it.

Health:Further in Nashville August 27-29
Digital Summit Detroit September 12-13.
Content Marketing World in Cleveland, September 4-6.
Brandemonium in Cincinnati, October 3-4
Pubcon in Las Vegas, October 16-18

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

The Internet just about lost its collective mind last week when news reports said that Netflix was testing commercials that played between episodes of shows. The collective takeaway was that this would be the downfall of Netflix, that ads shouldn't be seen on a paid service (Hello, Hulu Plus? Cable?), and it would ruin the industry (debatable). (The Verge)

Turns out the fears were (mostly) unfounded: Netflix clarified that these are not commercials, but promotions for other Netflix shows. Crisis avoided.

The percentage of users who'll cut the cord from traditional TV services is expected to grow by 32.8% to 33 million Americans. (eMarketer)
MoviePass has less than three months of cash left. It has few options, as burn rate has a negligible effect and its stock price is near $0 after increasing the number of available shares by 9000 percent. (Business Insider)

Probably not the best time to be applying to be their CMO. (PRWeek) Although if they throw in ~~unlimited movies~~ six movies a month, I might consider it.

Amazon is in talks to acquire Landmark Cinemas, an indie 50-theater chain. (Quartz) Maybe they'll buy MoviePass while they're at it.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

For podcast discovery – and because you don't know whether listeners are using Apple or Google (or a variety of other services) – you need one podcast link to rule them all. (Pacific Content)
Spotify user growth continues upward, while Pandora's plateaus. At this pace, Spotify is set to surpass Pandora by 2022. (eMarketer)
Public-radio companies PRX and PRI are merging in a bid to capitalize on the surging popularity of podcasts and other digital formats as listeners and content creators migrate away from traditional broadcast radio. (Current)
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Business Wars Daily. If you've heard the excellent episodic series by Wondery (first mentioned here in February), you'll enjoy this very brief daily update on business rivals and their progress. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.

And don't forget about The Full Monty, our own brief weekly bit of business commentary.

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 new cyber security curation by WIRED informs you of all the ways you can be vulnerable to threats and how to protect yourself. (Flipboard)
A teenager in Australia was able to breach Apple's secure network. (France24)
The U.S. is starting to talk about data privacy legislation. (Martech Today) Whew! Privacy, regulation - our subsections are colliding!

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

As it looks beyond autonomous vehicles, Uber is investing its growth into its next chapter: scooters and bikes. (Recode)
Upset over California cities deciding to prioritize Lyft and Uber for a pilot program, Lime and Bird have halted their scooter services. (CNET) I just returned from Mission Beach in San Diego. I'll have some thoughts on the scooter business soon. Make sure you're subscribed to get updates.

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.

Together, big data and machine learning can do wonders to transform your customer experience processes. (Convince and Convert)
Automakers are figuring out how to monetize your data. The data provide feedback to improve the car's performance, but some OEMs are thinking about in-car advertising: What Your Car Knows About You. (WSJ) Let's just hope that it's relevant and personal.
Customer data platforms (CDPs) are the hot thing in marketing tech right now, but many of their functions are not that novel. (eMarketer) As with anything, it helps to understand history and human nature before jumping off of the shiny object bridge.
Data-driven marketing spending has been surging, and new research from Dentsu Aegis Network confirms the importance that CMOs around the world are placing on data to power their growth initiatives. But not without risk. (MarketingCharts)

Mental Nourishment

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

A truly fascinating interview with Penn Jillette. (Vulture) Read the whole thing.
Speaking of reading the whole thing, Ryan Holiday created The Ultimate List of Books to Base Your Life On. (Medium) All I can say is, "Wow." And I'm gonna need a bigger bookshelf.
Here's another article (with some new twists) about what these screens are doing to our mind, focus, attention and evolution in relation to books and learning. (Slate) Count me as a fan of deep reading.
If you think you have a problem with cellphone addiction, a number of tech companies have solutions for you. (Fast Company)
France seems to be getting to the heart of it: cellphones are now banned in all French schools. "Children don’t have the maturity" for smartphones, a French mother says. "Some adults don’t either." (WSJ)
For the truly mature among us: this weekend marked the end of the Sharknado series, with the self-aware and ever-campy Sharknado 6: It's About Time. (Twitter Moments) For all of its schlock and horribleness, the series was a cult favorite and reminds us of the power of risk-taking in thinking differently.

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Top image credit: Watson and the Shark by Jonathan Singleton Copley, 1778 (public domain)

Monday, August 20, 2018