The Full Monty: Arms Race – September 10, 2018

Twitter steps up; A.I. will contribute to a growing GDP; the unlikely city leading autonomous driving; digital transformation requires persistence; leaders and storytelling; Australian workers get a taste of Amazon; the fastest-growing app category; Americans' relationship with Facebook is changing; Google turns 20; media leadership changes; why people aren't cutting cords; podcasting upfronts are full of opportunity; the data that GDPR affects most; Nielsen and comScore struggle to advance TV measurement; predictive analytics for marketers; what makes a good boss; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Arms Race edition of The Full Monty for the week of September 10, 2018.

The Full Monty saves you time and makes you smarter by curating the essential business intelligence 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.

Announcements

The time is nearing to change how The Full Monty is offered. If you look through the 3,500 or so words I write here each week – with scores of links and thoughtful analysis, carefully chosen images – you might gather that it's a lot of work.

That's an understatement.

In next month, I'll be moving The Full Monty to a subscription-based model to help capture that value. Don't worry, though – I won't be leaving you empty-handed.

More on exactly what that looks like in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions or feedback in the meantime, please fire away.

Top Story

Twitter and Facebook appeared before a Congressional hearing last week (Google was notably absent). Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg both made statements answered questions.

John Battelle pointed out an interesting distinction between Dorsey's and Sandberg’s positions:

"The consequences of Facebook’s platforms never occurred to Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Dorsey, or other leaders in the tech industry. But now that the damage is clear, they must be brave enough to consider new approaches."

That means reassessing the business models. Yes, the models that were built on advertising.

According to their testimony, it seems Jack Dorsey has acknowledged it. Sheryl Sandberg and the Facebook cabal haven't quite grasped that yet, instead saying that they're preparing for an "arms race" to safeguard information.

Once again, it seems like Facebook is playing defense while trying to bite off more than it can chew. Twitter seems be be taking the humbler and more practical approach.

Thanks this week to content-spotters: Tamsen Webster, Tim Hayden, Nick Westergaard, Tom Hoehn, Andy Crestodina, Ann Handley, Katie Robbert and Tom Fishburne.

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.

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.

Brandemonium in Cincinnati, October 3-4. BR18FRIEND gets you $100 off.
Pubcon in Las Vegas, October 16-18.
Now booking for 2019. Can I include your event?

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

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

Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, artificial intelligence could contribute an additional 1.2 percent to annual GDP growth for the next decade. A.I. has the potential to deliver additional global economic activity of around $13 trillion by 2030. (McKinsey, CNBC)
The Pentagon announced that it would spend $2 billion over the next five years on new programs to develop its artificial intelligence capabilities "to create more trusting, collaborative partnerships between humans and machines." (CNN Money). This comes after Google withdrew its support due to drone technology the Pentagon planned to develop.
Tailor Brands are launching an A.I.-powered platform for social media content. In addition to creating text and designing logos and web pages, the A.I. system recommends content related to the user's industry and interests and schedules social media sharing. (VentureBeat) Now, if it will only generate social media gaffes that we're all so fond of pointing out.
When machines can identify patients who are at high risk for suicide, what's the ethical way to use that information? (Quartz) In psychiatry, human diagnosis is fraught with human error. Can an algorithm lead to better outcomes?
Microsoft began testing Cortana and Alexa support for the Xbox One, letting users power the console on and off and start games and apps with their voices. (Thurrott)

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

BMW debuted the A.I.-powered BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant for its cars, available from March 2019 in 10 countries, including the U.S. and U.K., and May 2019 in China. (Techcrunch) Hard to tell if this story belongs in the A.I. or Mobility section – which should tell you all you need to know about these industries.
With three rivers, two startups and one university, it's easy to see why Pittsburgh has cars with zero drivers and commands self-driving cars. (LinkedIn) A fascinating development in a town that has always felt the severe fluctuations of the steel industry.
Lyft launched a fleet of around 350 electric scooters in Denver, its first market, available for $1+ from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily. (The Verge) Can't wait to see how these perform in the snow! Seriously, the fervor around scooters is getting out of hand. From a practical perspective, there will be regional and seasonal hot spots.
"Bike Snob NYC" spent three days scootering around Portland, Oregon, to determine, once and for all, whether the now infamous tiny wheeled contraptions are a scourge on our cities – or whether they’re damned convenient and laughably benign. (Outside)
Mercedes-Benz, the world’s largest maker of luxury vehicles, is rolling out its first in a series of battery-powered vehicles, adding to a growing array of high-end brands targeting Tesla. (Bloomberg)
Waymo is prepared to industrialize self-driving technology. It's the intersection of maps, hardware, and software. And the company has mastered all three. (Forbes)

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

There are consequences to inauthentic messaging. A little dose of humanity will go a long way to help brands show authenticity. (Convince and Convert) TL;DR: don't try to be something you're not for the sake of popularity. And when you've screwed up, please own it.
Digital Transformation: it's more than a buzzword. More involved than installing a new tool, more complex than a junior staffer can single-handledly address, more longevity than a quarter or a campaign can stand, “digital is not just a thing that you can buy and plug into the organization." (Marketoonist)
Content Marketing World happened last week, and here are 15 insightful and inspiring quotes from the conference. (LinkedIn Marketing Blog)
Great content is supported by reputable research, such as these five examples of original research in content marketing. (Orbit Media)

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

Inspiring leaders are great storytellers. Their conversations transport you to another place that goes well beyond the physical attributes of the products they sell. Few corporate leaders have elevated the art of storytelling as much as Howard Schultz. (Forbes)
According to BRANDfog and McPherson Strategies, CEOs taking a strong stand online can boost a brand's reputation and sales. (PR Daily)

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 is testing whether independent drivers could deliver its groceries as the retailer races to meet its goal of offering home delivery to more than 100 U.S. cities by the end of the year. (Reuters) Walmart is an ace at logistics; this is a race against Amazon now.
Amazon warehouse workers in a new Australian facility describe it as a "hellscape" where "you end up not being able to function because you’re so nervous and stressed out." (Sydney Morning Herald)
An exclusive interview with Jeff Bezos where he shares what he'll conquer next. (Forbes)
Amazon opened its third and largest Amazon Go convenience store last week. (Techcrunch)
Grocery apps are some of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., according to eMarketer’s latest app usage forecast. (eMarketer)

The 2018 Retail Forecast for Women's Footwear is here and moving quickly.If you want to be prepared in advance of the retail holiday season, now's the time to grab it and get all of the insights to make a measurable impact on sales.

Wanna to me a favor?

If you like this newsletter please click here to recommend it (publicly) to friends and colleauges.

SPONSOR

AMI's Virtual Owners Network

Interested in a sponsorship? As one of the leading marketing newsletters, you could be reaching thousands. Get in in touch!

Platforms

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

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Americans are changing their relationship with Facebook: 42% have taken a break from Facebook in the last year, and younger cohorts have been more likely to do so than older ones. (Pew Research Center) It's complicated.
The majority of older Facebook users don't understand how the news feed works. (Pew Research Center) Feel free to insert your own snarky retort here.
Experts say Facebook's public cleanup is pushing toxic content into private Facebook groups, WhatsApp, and Messenger, making it harder to monitor and moderate. (New York Times) So that worked out well.
Influencers cite Instagram Stories as their second-most popular social media place for sponsored content after their Instagram news feeds. Content there feels more authentic and less fake. (The Drum) And influencers need all of the authenticity they can ~~buy~~ get these days.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

In House committee hearing, CEO Jack Dorsey said Twitter intends to share an abuse transparency report this year, and agreed to have the company undergo a civil rights audit. (Techcrunch)
The great Swedish Twitter experiment is over. Since 2011, the official Sweden Twitter account handed over the keys to a random Swede every week. But the Internet has changed drastically, and after 365 curators and 119,000 tweets, the project will come to an end. (The Verge) It was a truly authentic and refreshing approach to a national account.
Twitter has a major events calendar available to brand that want to plan their content. (Social Media Today)
Twitter is experimenting with threaded posts and an online status indicator. But no one asked for those. (The Atlantic) As a reminder, here are things Twitter has released in the last 18 months: changed user avatars from square-shaped to circular; redesigned Moments; added topic tags to the Explore page; upped the character limit to 280. What it hasn’t fixed: tackling abuse of users.
Speaking of which: how Twitter enabled audio-only livestreams in just three days. (AdWeek) Still waiting on editable tweets...

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Google is turning 20. How the search giant changed the world. (The Verge) Fun fact: Google manages eight products with over one billion users each.
Snap disclosed ad reach by country, giving an interesting picture of its overall geographic breakdown. (Snap)
Former Time Warner marketing chief Kristen O'Hara has been hired by Snap as head of U.S. global business solutions, responsible for developing relationships with brands and enabling marketers to achieve better results using the platform. (MarketingLand) Snap is getting serious about its advertisers and the success they need to see from the platform.
Spredfast is merging with Lithium, a leader in digital customer care. (Spedfast Smart Social Blog) This puts Spredfast on better footing versus arch rival Sprinklr, who last year put more focus on customer care.

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

CBS CEO Les Moonves has resigned from the company after 12 women accused him of sexual harassment and two high-profile New Yorker articles about them. (AdWeek) The most feared man in media may just be Ronan Farrow.
MoviePass's chief product officer has left after six months. This follows the departure of the CMO four months ago. (Variety) This can't be good news. #MoviePassing.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon that operate in the E.U. will need to dedicate 30 percent or more of their catalogs to local content after new law comes into effect in December. (Variety)
The reason most people are keeping their cable bundles: they're lazy. Also, they need it to watch everything they like. (MarketingCharts)

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

The Podcasting Upfronts showed that podcasting is one of the fastest-growing advertising media, with the U.S. market expected to double by 2020 to $659 million. (eMarketer)
Although listeners have historically been dominated by men, new research suggests that women are catching up on podcast listening, partly thanks to smart speakers, connected cars, and better shows that interest female listeners. (AdAge)
Spotify has quietly signed direct licensing deals with some artists, a move that is worrying major record labels. (New York Times)
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Still Processing from the New York Times, a cultural conversation between Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris. 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

A Google staffer hacked the Software House smart locks of Google's Sunnyvale offices last July and says fixing this make of lock means replacing onsite hardware. (Forbes)
Some of the latest hacks include SIM card swapping and cryptocurrency theft, and technology police are upping their game. (The Mercury News)
In a Q3 2018 survey of 227 senior marketing executives worldwide, 54% of respondents said they anticipate that they’ll no longer be able to use behavioral data like web browsing data and search histories if they want to stay compliant with the GDPR. (eMarketer)

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Uber announced new safety features for drivers and riders, such as checking in on idle cars and anonymous pick up addresses, rolling out in the coming months. (Bloomberg)
You can't play Bach on Facebook, because Sony says they own the copyrights. (Boing Boing) That's quite a feat for a composer who's been dead for 300 years The well-tempered IP.
New research shines a light on how telecoms are throttling mobile video following the death of net neutrality. Netflix and YouTube are the most-throttled. (The Verge) This is where the "told you so" refrain comes in handy.

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.

Ad executives are skeptical that TV measurement will ever catch up to digital; comScore and Nielsen are on notice. (Business Insider)
Nielsen acquired SuperData Research to better track digital games and esports. (Venture Beat) That's one way to improve digital screen measurement.
Crackdowns on tracking users through browser cookies, Facebook's shutdown of situations like Cambridge Analytica, and the EU's GDPR are contributing factors to an increasing number of marketers cutting back on third-party data. (eMarketer)
The big controversy last week was Nike's new ad with Colin Kapernick. Watch nearly 2,000 consumers react to the ad in real time. (Morning Consult)
Predictive analytics for INBOUND marketers. (BrainTrust Insights)
Google launched a new search engine to help scientists find the data that they need. The new service, called Dataset Search, will identify tens of thousands of data repositories online. (The Verge)

Mental Nourishment

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

What do hangry, predictive, airplane mode, guac, and adorbs have in common? They're some of the 25 new words that Merriam-Webster is adding to the dictionary. (Mental Floss)
Surround yourself with a library's worth of books. Even if you don't read them. (Inc.)
Take a look at the Decision Matrix to help you sort the irreversible and consequential. (Farnam Street)
You love movies, but suspension of reality is required at times. As in these eight movies that got science wrong. (STAT) Tie-in: the podcast Bad Science, which I recommended in the August 13 edition.
Google spent a decade trying to figure out what makes a good boss. They came up with 10 things. (LinkedIn)
Disneyland is more than a magical place to visit. There's a clever psychology behind its design.
There's more to you than your title or company: You are not your job.

Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to get essential digital news, hand-curated, and delivered to your inbox each week. And why not share this with some colleagues?

Top image credit: The Battle of Trafalgar by J.W.M. Turner, 1822 (Wikimedia Commons public domain)

Monday, September 10, 2018