The Full Monty: It's Simplicity Itself – August 27, 2018

There's wisdom in simplicity and brevity; Dorothy Parker looms large (again); A.I. as a force for good; older Americans are getting into voice assistants; Apple is benefiting from Tesla's employees; get ready for Gen Z overload; the triumphant return of SEO; the world's oldest customer complaint; don't let your CEO tweet unsupervised; a whole section on content marketing; retail's excellent second quarter; direct-to-consumer models are everywhere and driving interest; the New York Public Library's unlikely story time; the Pew Center on whether social media can make people change their views; the #MoviePassing countdown continues; T-Mobile customer data got hacked; b's security chief thinks it may be too late to save the 2018 elections; Uber is focusing on scooters and bikes for short distances; Lyft is providing free transport for Election Day; how analytics will drive retail merchandising; curious minds and the limits of knowledge; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the It's Simplicity Itself edition of The Full Monty for the week of August 27, 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. And check out The Full Monty on Flipboard.

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Top Story

In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote:

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

It doesn't get much briefer than that, does it? More poignantly and in context the quote went like this:

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad."

Well, Lord Polonius certainly knew how to cut to the chase, didn't he?

In this week's podcast and on my blog, I'll be covering why the simple beats the complex and why the human mind yearns for the past.

One of the reasons The Full Monty (the newsletter) exists is to put a multitude of relevant links together in one place, with context. It's about simplifying the digital news and saving you time.

Similarly, I restructured the podcast The Full Monty so it would be approximately five minutes long each week. Again, short and to the point.

Does this work for you? I'd be interested in getting your feedback.

And because she was popular last week, we'll include another quote from Dorothy Parker, who paraphrased Shakespeare:

"Brevity is the soul of lingerie."

– Dorothy Parker [Tweet this quote]

Every week, I see content fly by my feed, and it's like a roulette wheel of content sharers. Here's who got my attention this week: Tamsen Webster, Mitch Joel, Gini Dietrich, Nick Westergaard, Karyn Cooks, Sara Fischer, Kris Hoet, Kelley Kassa, Geoff Livingston, and Tim Hayden.

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.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

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

Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

How artificial intelligence can be a force for good: an editorial calls for the regulation of A.I. so that humans can harness the technology's potential for good and mitigate its risks. (Science)
Here's one way: a statistical model to evaluate a patent's value based on its likelihood of being litigated. (Yet2)
At a Transform 2018 breakout session in Mill Valley, executives explained that when considering A.I. solutions, companies should question the cost-benefit ratio. (VentureBeat) Avoiding GMOOT / shiny object syndrome is always a good idea.
A new facial recognition system at a Washington, DC airport caught a man trying to enter the country with false documents. (The Verge)
Sony's robotic dog sold out almost instantly in Japan, and is slated to come to the U.S. next. (Quartz) All the loyalty and affection with none of the house-training or cleanup required.
According to a new report by the Center for the Digital Future, older users are embracing digital assistants. The study found that 31 percent of Americans over age 65 and 27 percent of those over age 75 use voice assistants on smartphones and smartspeakers. (USC Annenberg School) We're relieved to hear they're not living up to the stereotype (bonus if you remember this from the May 15, 2017 edition of The Full Monty).

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Drive.ai is expanding its pilot test of self-driving cars from Frisco, Texas to Arlington, Texas. (VentureBeat)
Apple has hired 46 ex-Tesla employees this year. These include engineers, interns and global supply chain managers at a time when Apple is ramping up work on its stealthy vehicle initiative, Project Titan. (Investopedia) Last we saw, Apple's intention in the automotive industry was geared more toward a platform rather than vehicles.
Waymo has one of the most advanced systems of autonomous vehicles being tested today. And yet, there's still a huge team of humans involved. (The Atlantic) "It's still magic, even if you know how it's done." – Terry Pratchett

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Generation Z is set to outnumber Millennials within a year. (Bloomberg) Be on the lookout for marketers who do a find and replace in all of their materials.
Get ready for relationship targeting, as a New York City ad tech firm looks to influence in-market buyers by also directing ads at friends and family. (MarTech Today) Bet your family can't wait to get all of those retargeting ads that annoy you on a regular basis.
Facebook's news feed was a firehose of traffic since about 2011. Now, attention is turning to Google and SEO is rising in importance. (New York Magazine) Good fundamentals should never fade. We're seeing a resurgence not only in SEO, but in email and newsletters as well.
IBM's Chief Marketing Officer Study has the modern marketing mandate. Summed up, it's this: growth and change. (IBM)
The world's oldest customer complaint was discovered, having taken place in Mesopotamia 3,800 years ago. (Quartz) No word on how many of those years they had to remain on hold.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

Is your CEO tweeting without supervision? (eMarketer) C-level social media can be dicey. I have some experience there.
Purveyors of fake news are getting more sophisticated in their approach, figuring out ways to get around rules and detection systems. (Axios)
A report from Sprout Social looks at the importance of transparency in brand communications on social media. (Social Media Today) Put simply, transparency increases trust.

Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ

With Content Marketing World coming up next week, here's a special section. And if you'd like a discount on registration, use code SPKR100.

How to win internal support for content marketing and get the whole team engaged in your thought leadership program. (Managing Editor)
Five ways A.I. can help content marketing drive business outcomes. From predictive analytics to content personalization and more. (MarTech Advisor)
If you're looking to help your content marketing team improve, here are five tools to help them become more competitive. (Content Marketing Institute)
Did you know that Marriott has a Content Marketing Center of Excellence? And this infographic has a few gems about them. (Contently)
Have you heard of the ketchup conundrum? It's the only condiment that doesn't have dozens (or any!) brand extensions. What that has to do with your content marketing. (Spin Sucks) Leave them wondering, but don't leave them wandering.

Retail Apocalypse

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

Target posted earnings last week, and they were the company's best in 13 years. (CNBC)
In addition to Target, Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot and Macy's all cited excellent second quarters, signaling optimism in consumer spending in this extended bull market. (Recode) The question in the back of everyone's mind is: how long can it go?
One chain isn't part of that optimism, though: Sears is closing 46 more stories. (CNBC)
With its Mattress Firm division laid out flat, Serta Simmons is merging with bed-in-a-box company Tuft and Needle. (USA Today) Yet another move of a big brand into the direct-to-consumer space. Entirely necessary as they compete with segment leader Casper.
Amazon's dive into groceries has kickstarted the grocery e-commerce world, forcing brick-and-mortar retailers to forge online partnerships with up-and-coming startups. (The Hustle)
Costco has rolled out Apple Pay at their 750 stories. (Macrumors) Having just wrestled the exclusive credit card rights from American Express, Visa must be livid.
Threads, a London-based luxury company that sells all of its goods through messaging apps, just raised $20m to expand its platform. (Techcrunch) The future of ecommerce is chat.

It's the end of the summer, but it's not too early to think about the holiday retail season. Check out this 2018 Retail Forecast for Women's Footwear. It's got the most popular, searched-for brands, types of footwear, and retailers for the 2018 season. If you download it, it will help you determine the optimal weeks to begin your most aggressive marketing and advertising and have a measurable impact on sales.

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Platforms

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

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

A three-month investigation into Facebook's content moderation practices and the logistical nightmare of trying to police the speech of two billion people. (Motherboard) TL;DR: it can't be done.
Facebook has created a suite of tools to help advertisers make mobile videos, including a creation kit that transforms text and images into six- or 15-second videos using one of four mobile-optimized templates. (MarketingLand)
There's a rating system within Facebook that rates users on trustworthiness on a scale of 0 to 1. (Washington Post) Black Mirror, anyone? Mine goes to 11.
Facebook is removing over 5,000 ad targeting options that could have been misused to place discriminatory ads across its platform. (Techcrunch)
The New York Public Library has published a digital version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an Instagram story–with more to come. (NY Public Library) “How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards!"
30 case studies on how businesses use Instagram Stories. (Agility PR)

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Amazon is paying a group of its warehouse employees in the to enthusiastically defend the retailer on Twitter, and it's creeping customers out. (The Drum)

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 14 percent of U.S. adults said they had changed their views over the past year because of something they saw in their social feeds. (Pew Research)
A YouTube couple is accused of faking evacuating their home amid the California wildfire. (Jezebel) On the surface, making such a video isn't a problem; when you're doing it for advertising dollars, YouTube just might view that as fraudulent behavior. The thumbnail for their video is below. #Ethics

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 (this week!)
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
Which marketing conferences should you attend? Christopher Penn has some suggestions.

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

The largest U.S. media conglomerates are reinventing part of their operations as a direct- to-consumer business model; the “Netflix effect” is the reason Disney and Comcast chased 21st Century Fox with such fervor, and was a big part of AT&T’s motivation for scooping up Time Warner. (Variety)
Movie subscription service MoviePass has pulled the plug on annual subscriptions, telling those subscribers that they will have to adhere to the same terms as monthly subscribers. (Variety) The countdown to #MoviePassing is now measured in months, not years.
Livestreaming service Twitch is partnering with The Pokémon Company International to run a Pokémon movie and TV show marathon. (VentureBeat)
Twitch Prime, the streaming video site’s Amazon-style benefits program, will no longer include ad-free viewing as a complimentary perk starting on September 14th. It will be part of a paid package, however. (The Verge)
The acquisition of new U.S.-based customers for some streaming services is slowing considerably, according to estimates from broadcast research firm Frank Magid & Associates. There are a number of reasons, but one is that traditional pay-TV from cable and satellite services are becoming more sophisticated and are adding streaming packages and integration into their set-top box deals. (Axios)

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Have you subscribed to Nick Quah's Hot Pod newsletter? It's a weekly email (and syndicated via Niebman Labs) that's chock full of news, gossip, moves, and developments in the audio business.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Household Name from Business Insider. The surprising stories behind our biggest, household name brands. Host Dan Bobkoff finds tales of tragedy, love, strange histories, unintended consequences, and accidental success. And in each episode, we find out how these brands changed our lives - for better or worse. 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.

Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ

Hackers got a hold of T-Mobile customer data (but no financial information) in a breach that affected approximately two million customers. (Engadget)
Facebook, Twitter and Google got together last week at Twitter's HQ to discuss their plans to prevent foreign influence and disinformation campaigns during this year's midterm elections. (Engadget)

Facebook removed 652 Pages, groups, and accounts on Facebook and Instagram tied to inauthentic behavior out of Iran and Russia. (Reuters)
Facebook's former security chief warned that it's already too late to protect the 2018 election. (Business Insider)
This is what a filter bubble looks like. The middle is a lot weaker than it looks, and this makes public discourse vulnerable both to extremists at home and to manipulation by outside actors such as Russia. (MIT Review)

Venmo is waking up to the dangers of making payments public. (Quartz)

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Verizon Wireless temporarily stopped throttling the data of firefighters and other first responders on the West Coast and in Hawaii and will soon introduce a new unlimited plan "with no caps" and with priority access for first responders. (Ars Technica) One example of the reasons Net Neutrality was needed
Uber's CEO told the Financial Times that the service is planning a shift from cars to electric bicycles and scooters for shorter journeys. "During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-ton hulk of metal to take one person 10 blocks.” (Financial Times)
Safr, a new ride hailing app geared toward women, will open in Washington, DC. (DCist)
Uber Freight is expanding its business to shippers to move truckloads of goods around the country. (Fox Business)
With an estimated 15 million citizens who were registered but didn't vote because of lack of transportation, Lyft is providing free and discounted rides to polling places on Election Day this November 6. (Lyft) Now vote with your wallets on the ride-hailing app of your choice.
You may not have known this, but Uber was actually invented in the 'Eighties. And we have the video to prove it. (YouTube)

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.

How analytics and digital will drive next-generation retail merchandising. As merchandising in retail continues to evolve with the integration of analytics and other digital solutions, merchants need to become much more nimble and ready to fulfill customer needs. (McKinsey)
LinkedIn will begin allowing economics researchers to mine data from its vast trove of personal and professional information. Chief data officer Igor Perisic said the company is putting controls in place to protect user privacy, and will only allow approved researchers to view aggregate, anonymized data. (Bloomberg)
Just one in seven of the North American professionals polled said that they are able to identify audience members extremely well. The U.S. marketing identity sector will grow from $900 million in 2018 to $2.6 billion in 2022. (eMarketer)
Don't get too attached to that data. Campaign data can be reused to target ads, but its usefulness doesn't last too long. (eMarketer)
The technology you chose for your marketing stack matters a great deal; but even more, there are other elements that come into play to really make your martech drive groth. (McKinsey)

Mental Nourishment

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

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Allegedly said by the acerbic wit Dorothy Parker, the notion of curiosity as a defining trait was the theme of Episode 43 of The Full Monty.
Leonardo Da Vinci was the original curious mind, as showcased by his to-do list. (My Modern Met) Notice how many of his items were questions, as he constantly yearned to expand his knowledge.
Daniel Ellsburg on the limits of knowledge. A fascinating read that goes beyond you don't know what you don't know to you don't know what you know (and you don't know whom to trust). (Mother Jones)
Check out the Digital Futures Initiative, a digital citizenship training resource for educators and parents to help students overcome online challenges.
BTW, Procter & Gamble would like to trademark LOL, WTF, NBD, and FML. (AdAge) Yeah, we'd go with WTF and SMH on that one.
Two sites to help you become better at reasoning and logical arguments: Your Bias Is and Your Logical Fallacy Is.
Because summer is ending, here's A Brief History of Freeze-Pops. (Eater)
A PSA that you should familiarize yourself with the communications policies of your employer, lest you lose your job over social media posts: Security Guard Who Documented His Farts for Six Months at Work Loses His Job. (Lad Bible) Our inner 12 year-old is still giggling at his Instagram handle: Paul Flart.

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Top image credit: Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, 1942 (public domain)

Monday, August 27, 2018