The Full Monty: Secret Weapon – August 6, 2018

What matters to the world's most successful company; judging your personality based on eye movements; voice is changing everything; the auto industry is extremely difficult to disrupt; the human side of digital transformation; CMOs are concerned with data breaches more than ever; avoiding fraud with influencers; as Amazon and Walmart battle, consumers win; Facebook and Instagram want to help you spend less time with them; the digital arms dealers of the modern age; MoviePass may be a passing fad; the manifesto for growth for podcasts; behind the scenes with a Twitter troll; Uber and Lyft try to make nice with NYC; the CDP craze; too much STEM and not enough humanities could be damaging; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Secret Weapon edition of The Full Monty for the week of August 6, 2018.

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Top Story

There was lots of celebration in the tech industry last week, as Apple's earnings announcement coincided with its stock valuation of more than $1 trillion, making it the first company ever to reach that milestone.

You'd think there was celebration in Cupertino as well. Interestingly, Apple CEO Tim Cook calmly reminded employees not to be distracted. He thanked them for their service and honored them as the reason Apple is so successful.

"While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it’s not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values."

More thoughts on the importance of a simple message and the secret weapon in every successful company's arsenal in Episode 41 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

Tractable is using A.I. to assess damage from auto accidents, which could help speed up insurance payouts. The London-based company developed technology that can identify car damage using only images, to determine which parts need to be repaired and automate the appraisal process.
A global team of researchers has used machine learning to discover a connection between personality and eye movements. The system was used to detect four personality traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and neuroticism. Your mother was right: look people in the eye when they're talking to you.
Tech's next biggest thing: "hearables" – the voice assistants that are baked into your phone and increasingly finding a way into your home. Google, Amazon, and Apple all have high-priority projects that are tied to voice technology.
Alexa and Siri are changing SEO as we change when and how we search for things.

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Decreased price versus inflation, low margins, better vehicles, and other reasons make the auto industry extremely difficult to disrupt. Even if you are Elon Musk.
The folks at Otonomo ask "Do our cars and phones define us?" via Edison Research data about ownership and habits.
Waymo is partnering with Phoenix's Valley Metro to link autonomous cars with the public transit system.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

While everyone stresses over the technology behind marketing, let's not forget about the human element: "not focusing enough on the human side of digital transformation and [instead focusing on] tech-enabled marketing" is a major oversight. Couldn't agree more.
"Digital transformation" is a misnomer. That makes it sound like it's all about systems. Intelligence transformation represents what needs to happen: continuous learning and evolving.
Christopher Penn's The End of Digital Marketing sounds like it might be one of those click-bait headlines that overstates a position. But the truth is, it's a practical look at what we're dealing with in marketing today.
Want your content to stand out? Here are a number of solid tips from experts to combat invisible content syndrome.
CMOs are agonizing over data breaches as they're proliferating at a time when marketers are becoming increasingly reliant on user data.
If you want customers to love your company, make sure your employees love it first.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

The CEO is really the chief communicator, and as such, Americans think that CEOs should speak out to defend their companies' values and take "brand stands."
Fraud has been an issue with influencer marketing previously (purchased followers, fake engagement, etc.). But now influencer platforms are making fraud more easy to detect.
Perhaps it's time to try a microinfluencer: marketers are taking more interest in microinfluencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers. It's not the size of the influencer; it's what they do for you and how they do it: authenticity and engagement.
Social platforms may come and go, but newsletters are immortal. And more certain. Thank you for subscribing to this one.

Retail Apocalypse

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

The rivalry between Amazon and Walmart is fascinating to watch – and indicates the future of many industries, from cloud computing to streaming media to grocery delivery.
How Walmart plans to use VR to improve the customer experience.
Walmart is testing robots to aid in the preparation of grocery delivery orders.
The retail apocalypse is hurting teen summer employment, and having fewer employees is also hurting retailers.
U.S. consumers are concerned about the quality of products they purchase online.

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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 and Instagram realize how well they've designed their platforms. That's why they've announced tools to help you fight your addiction to them: a daily usage reminder, an activity dashboard, and a feature to mute notifications.
Facebook announced that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections. Sadly, not fake news.
Changes to Facebook's API mean you can no longer auto-post tweets to Facebook. It's about time.
WhatsApp introduced group calling for voice and video globally on iOS and Android, with end-to-end encryption and support for up to four users.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter said that its smaller network (thanks to its housecleaning recently) is actually good news for advertisers. Why? Because it means access to a healthier, cleaned-up network, rather than paying for views or engagements generated by bots and others.
Two executives have been given promotions at Twitter, aimed at creating more engaging content. They'll work for sports partnerships and news partnerships within the company.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Kara Swisher has penned her first op-ed piece for The New York Times. The longtime and erstwhile editor of Recode indicated that the naive or unconcerned Silicon Valley companies are learning at our expense: “Facebook, as well as Twitter and Google’s YouTube, have become the digital arms dealers of the modern age.” Strong and accurate words.

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

MoviePass is raising prices and restricting movies. The monthly fee has gone from $9.95 to $14.95 and precludes customers from using it to see blockbuster movies. The economics just aren't there.
Amazon and Comcast are partnering to bring Amazon Prime videos to X1 customers. It means potentially fewer sales of Fire Sticks or similar devices, but getting viewers to pay for more content is great news for Amazon and getting them to avoid cutting the cord is great for Comcast.
Yahoo Finance is launching a full-day, live video streaming network by the end of the year.
A brief history of streaming video from YouTube to Netflix to Hulu and more.
Seems like the number keeps increasing: Americans are spending 11 hours a day consuming some form of media.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Tom Webster is the VP of marketing for Edison Research and knows a thing or two particularly about audio media. Here's a long but worthwhile post about Podcasting's Next Frontier: a Manifesto for Growth. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for manifestos.
If your life needs organizing or optimizing, there's probably a podcast bro out there to help you.
YouTube Music is about to get better; it'll have improvements every two weeks.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is 99 % Invisible, recommended by Tom Shea. It's about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our 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

As privacy and fake news issues mount, Facebook's security chief is leaving the company. Facebook claims that security is baked into everything now. But not having a centralized leader for it? Seems a little odd.
A Russian troll stole a professor's photo for a fake Twitter profile. The professor decided to message him and ask why he was chosen. Minutes later, he got a reply. A fascinating look at the underbelly of social media hacking.
John McAfee's "unhackable" crypto-wallet was hacked within a week.

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Uber and Lyft are facing deeper regulatory crackdowns in New York City, so they've gone to some extraordinary lengths to try to ingratiate themselves with some of the city powers:

They offered to create a $100 million "hardship fund" for taxi drivers (the very same drivers they're putting out of business).
Together, the two have spent $1 million lobbying New York politicians.

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.

Why customer data platforms (CDPs) are hot right now.
Legacy systems are stifling marketing analytics for a number of reasons: they're siloed, they don't deal in real-time data, and they exist within siloed organizations.
Zignal Labs' Josh Ginsberg explores how bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda with Kara Swisher on Recode Decode.
The Kellogg Company has been using Nielsen Catalina Solutions to connect offline data to its digital campaigns. And there are challenges with merging disparate data.

Mental Nourishment

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

There is a crisis in the humanities, as the percentage of all U.S. college degrees in those disciplines trends down below 5%. Look no further than the Facebook crisis to understand that we need humanities and STEM majors to make platforms that serve humanity, not the other way around.
Because The Full Monty arrives in your inbox, you might benefit from some powerful email productivity practices you can adopt.
Points-obsessed travelers are terrified of losing their perks: an object lesson in the massive Marriott/SPG merger.
How to stop saying "Um," "Ah," and "You know." It's a matter of being comfortable with silence.
When you're known for one thing in the market, and you suddenly begin doing something else, your integrity is at stake, and the market may react negatively. Even if you're doing the right thing.

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Monday, August 6, 2018